Berlin Art Prize – Jubilee Endowment 1848/1948
3/18/2026, 7 PM

The Akademie der Künste honours Meredith Monk, one of the world's most important and influential contemporary artists. In addition, the Berlin Art Prizes will be awarded to Daria Chernyshova, Elias and Yousef Anastas, Sofia Jernberg, Jayne-Ann Igel, Matthias Jakisic and the FSK Kino Berlin.

The jury for the Berlin Grand Art Prize consisted of composers Carola Bauckholt and Iris ter Schiphorst (directors of the music section of the Akademie der Künste), as well as Christine Fischer, artistic director of the Stuttgart institution Musik der Jahrhunderte.

With Meredith Monk, the award honours an artist whose unique and influential 60-year body of work is marked by a distinctive interweaving of disciplines and perceptual approaches, combined with a generous and powerful creative force. As a world-renowned composer, singer, director/choreographer and filmmaker, Meredith Monk has created new operas, music theatre, films and installations that centre on an interdisciplinary approach to performance. From early on, this way of working opened up new perspectives in composition and notation, shaping generations of musicians. Her work Quarry: an opera in three movements (1976) was groundbreaking, and subsequently led to numerous major productions in Europe, the founding of ensembles and outreach work. Most recently, in 2023, she composed and directed Indra’s Net, the third part of a trilogy exploring our relationship with nature, which follows the highly acclaimed first two parts On Behalf of Nature (2013) and Cellular Songs (2018).

In addition to the Berlin Grand Art Prize, six Berlin Art Prizes will be awarded in the artistic sections. They go to Ukrainian-born artist Daria Chernyshova (visual arts), Palestinian architects Elias and Yousef Anastas from Bethlehem and Paris (architecture), Swedish singer (soprano), composer and vocalist Sofia Jernberg (music), German writer Jayne-Ann Igel (literature), Austrian artist Matthias Jakisic (performing arts) and the independent art cinema FSK Kino Berlin (film and media arts). The prizes are endowed with 5,000 euros each.

The Berlin Art Prize – Jubilee Endowment 1848/1948 was established by the Berlin Senate in 1948 in memory of the March Revolution of 1848. Since 1971, it has been awarded by the Akademie der Künste on behalf of the state. The award for artists is intended to highlight the special significance of the arts for a free society.

In recent years, the Grand Art Prize has been awarded to Gilles Clément (2025), Simone Fattal (2024) and Joachim Trier (2023).