Dora Akunyili’s Daughter Njideka Crosby Makes 2020 Carnegie Corporation’s Great Immigrants List

Dora Akunyili’s Daughter Njideka Crosby Makes 2020 Carnegie Corporation’s Great Immigrants List

“I think the point I make in my work is that my home is Nigeria and the United States at the same time,” Akunyili Crosby stated. “That really is what it means, for me, to be an immigrant, is this navigation of two worlds at the same time.” – Njideka.

Nigerian born U.S based visual artist Njideka Akunyili-Crosby, has been listed as one of the 2020 Great Immigrants Honorees by the Carnegie Corporation.

The Carnegie Corporation of New York is one of America’s oldest grantmaking foundations. The philanthropic foundation was established in 1911 by Andrew Carnegie to promote the advancement and diffusion of knowledge and understanding. In keeping with this mandate, the Corporation’s work focuses on the issues that Andrew Carnegie considered of paramount importance: international peace, the advancement of education and knowledge, and the strength of our democracy. While Carnegie’s primary aim was to benefit the people of the United States, he later determined to use a portion of the funds for members of the British overseas Commonwealth. Currently, this area of the organization’s grantmaking focuses on selected countries in sub-Saharan Africa.

The New York based organization made this known in its 2020 news release, Social Tool kit Democracy Week published every July 4th since 2006, naming Akunyili-Crosby, as one of its honorees.

She was named alongside 37 others from different countries for their exemplary contributions as immigrants to American life. The foundation said,” In 2020, the corporation honors 38 naturalized citizens who have enriched and strengthened our nation and our democracy through their contributions and actions.”

Akunyili Njideka Crosby’s work has been exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Hammer Museum, amongst others.

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In 2017, Akunyili Njideka Crosby’s painting The Beautyful Ones, portraying her older sister as a girl, set an unprecedented record when it sold at Christie’s for $3.1 million.  She is also the winner of the Smithsonian American Art Museum’s James Dicke Contemporary Artist Prize, the New Museum’s Next Generation Prize and The Studio Museum in Harlem’s Wein Prize, as well as the Prix Canson. In 2017, she was invited to Nigeria by Art X to discuss Artworks as a way of inspiring budding artists during its large annual fair held in Lagos.

In 2017 she was also named a MacArthur Foundation Fellow in 2017. In 2019, Akunyili Crosby made the “Time 100 Next” list of rising stars who are shaping the future of the world. Just recently, Forbes named her as one of The World’s 100 Most Powerful Women.

Akunyili-Crosby is the daughter of Late Prof. Dora Akunyili, a former Director General, National Agency for Food and Drug Administration and Control, NAFDAC in Nigeria.

Njideka Akunyili-Crosby is an inspiration and worthy of emulation. Visit her website at http://www.njidekaakunyilicrosby.com/ to learn more.