In February 2014, the George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland announced the recipient of the 2014 Kahlil Gibran International Award: Tania June Sammons, Senior Curator at the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia — one of the foremost custodians of Gibran's visual art in the world.
By Glen Kalem-Habib · Kahlil Gibran Collective · 3 February 2014
Tania June Sammons — recipient of the 2014 Kahlil Gibran International Award.
The following is the original media release issued by the Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace, University of Maryland, 4 February 2014.
The George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace at the University of Maryland, and the International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran, have selected Ms. Tania Sammons to receive the 2014 Kahlil Gibran International Award for the outstanding services she has rendered in fostering the Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell heritage — superbly represented in the exclusive collection of artworks at the Telfair Museums in Savannah, Georgia.
Ms. Sammons' scholarly work on the art of Kahlil Gibran and the paintings housed at the Telfair Museums is also recognised by this award. One major contribution worthy of distinguished mention is her paper entitled "Kahlil Gibran's Visual Representation of the Feminine Divine," delivered at the Second International Conference on Kahlil Gibran in May 2012, and subsequently published in the volume The Enduring Legacy of Kahlil Gibran.
Ms. Sammons served as Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Historic Sites at Telfair Museums, overseeing the daily operations of Owens-Thomas House. Her research on Kahlil Gibran and Mary Haskell spans more than two decades and has produced some of the most important scholarship in the field. Among her major published contributions is The Art of Kahlil Gibran at Telfair Museums (Telfair Books, 2010), co-authored with Professor Suheil Bushrui — a landmark publication documenting the Telfair's substantial holdings of Gibran's visual work, distributed by the University of Georgia Press. She is also engaged in a long-term biography of Mary Haskell, Gibran's most devoted patron and collaborator.
The George and Lisa Zakhem Kahlil Gibran Chair for Values and Peace has become universally recognised as the leading academic institution in Gibran studies. Scholars from across the globe — including Germany, India, China, Lebanon, France, Italy, Australia, Canada, and Curaçao — have recognised the importance of its activities and the scholarship it has produced.
Glen Kalem-Habib
Public Information Coordinator
International Association for the Study of the Life and Works of Kahlil Gibran
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