Alumnus Matthew Akers (BFA 1998 Fine Arts) and MFA Social Documentary Film faculty member Donna Shepherd, guest lecturer Jeff Dupre, and Department Chair Maro Chermayeff are among the winners of the 72nd Annual Peabody Awards. They won for their collaboration on Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present, an HBO documentary that follows the renowned performance artist through the process of preparing for her first major museum retrospective at New York’s Museum of Modern Art. Akers and Dupre co-directed the film, Chermayeff served as a producer, and Shepherd served as an editor.
“Our list of Peabody recipients for 2012 demonstrates the range of superb work,” Horace Newcomb, Peabody Awards director, says. “From local to national to international, from radio to television, broadcast to cable to web, the Peabody sets the goals for every type of media production.”
First presented in 1941 and administered by the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications at the University of Georgia, the George Foster Peabody Awards recognize distinguished achievement and estimable service by broadcasters, cable and webcasters, producing organizations, and individuals. The recipients are chosen each spring by a 16-member panel of distinguished academics, television critics, industry practitioners, and experts in culture and the arts. This year’s winners will be honored with a presentation at the Waldorf Astoria hotel in New York City on May 20.