2026: GEORGINA KLEEGE

Image Credit: Fayen D'Evie

The Clark Art Institute has selected Georgina Kleege as the recipient of the 2026 Clark Prize for Excellence in Arts Writing. Kleege is Professor Emerita of English at the University of California, Berkeley, where she taught courses in creative writing, literature, and disability studies.

An acclaimed essayist, cultural critic, and disability studies scholar, Kleege’s work has significantly influenced contemporary conversations about blindness and visual culture. Legally blind since childhood due to a form of macular degeneration, Kleege first gained widespread recognition with her memoir Sight Unseen (1999), a groundbreaking work that challenged conventional assumptions about blindness and reframed it as a complex, lived visual experience rather than simply an absence of sight.

Kleege is the author of several influential books, including Blind Rage: Letters to Helen Keller (2006), and More Than Meets the Eye: What Blindness Brings to Art (2018), which has been widely adopted in museum studies programs. Her essays and short fiction have appeared in major publications such as The New York Times, The Yale Review, and the Journal of Visual Culture. Kleege has contributed to exhibition texts and publications for leading museums, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, and Serpentine Gallery. She has been a prominent lecturer at educational institutions and cultural organizations, including Jacob’s Pillow Dance Festival, New York University, and The Tate Modern.

Through her writing, teaching, and public engagement, Kleege continues to advance more inclusive approaches to art, literature, and accessibility, helping to redefine how audiences understand perception and the visual world.