Cultural Freedom Prize
The Prize for Cultural Freedom was established to recognize people whose extraordinary and courageous work celebrates the human right to freedom of imagination, inquiry, and expression. As defined by the foundation, cultural freedom is the right of individuals and communities to define and protect valued and diverse ways of life currently threatened by globalization. The foundation established the Prize for Cultural Freedom in 1999.
We invite you to learn more about each of the extraordinary individuals who have been awarded the Prize for Cultural Freedom.
Applications and nominations for the cultural freedom prize will not be accepted.
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2017 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz is known for her lifelong commitment to national and international social justice issues. She has been active in the international Indigenous movement for more than four decades, working with Indigenous communities on sovereignty and... -
2014 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Bryan Stevenson
Bryan Stevenson, Executive Director of Equal Justice Initiative and faculty at New York University School of Law, has won national acclaim for his work challenging bias against the poor and people of color in the criminal... -
2006 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Robert Fisk
Robert Fisk is a British Journalist, based in Beirut, who currently serves as a Middle East correspondent for The Independent newspaper in London. His recent articles bear titles such as “The US forces, like the Crusaders... -
2005 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Dr. Cornel West
Dr. Cornel West has been described as one of America’s most vital and eloquent public intellectuals. Dr. West was recently appointed Class of 1943 University Professor of Religion at Princeton University. In ground-breaking books such as... -
2003 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Dr. Helen Caldicott
Widely regarded as one of the most articulate and passionate advocates of citizen action to remedy the nuclear and environmental crises, Dr. Helen Caldicott has devoted the last 30 years to an international campaign to educate... -
2002 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy is an Indian author, actor, and political activist. She is well-known for her book The God of Small Things, for which she received the 1997 Booker Prize, and for her outspoken advocacy of environmental... -
2001 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Mahmoud Darwish
Mahmoud Darwish is one of the most acclaimed poets in the Arab world. His twenty books of poetry include The Adam of Two Edens, Mural, A Bed of Stranger, Why Have You Left the Horse Alone... -
2000 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Claudia Andujar
Claudia Andujar was born in Neuchâtel, Switzerland in 1931, and spent her childhood in Romania and Hungary. In 1956 she immigrated to Brazil. A photography project documenting the way of life of the Carajá Indians in... -
1999 Lannan Cultural Freedom Prize awarded to Eduardo Galeano
Eduardo Galeano (1940-2015), born in Montevideo, Uruguay, was an essayist, journalist, historian, and activist, as well as one of Latin America’s most beloved literary figures. Galeano’s books include the trilogy Memory of Fire; The Book of...