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Awards & Honors

Adam D. Kamil Media Awards

The Adam Douglas Kamil Media Awards were developed to help UC San Diego undergraduates polish their skills in film production and to help them realize their creative potential in this field. Adam was a UC San Diego, Visual Arts Media major with a passion for the power of media to connect people. To honor the memory of their son, who passed away in December 2009, the Kamil family has established the Adam Douglas Kamil Media Awards. The award consists of a grand prize of $2000 and two finalist prizes of $1000 each.

“We hope that through this award, Adam’s creative spirit will inspire others to develop their talents and to grow as sympathetic and sensitive individuals,” stated Elaine Kamil.

Undergraduate students from all majors submit their films to be evaluated by a committee of visual arts faculty and graduate students. In January 2014, the Kamil Family endowed the award and in recognition of this contribution, the department has named the Mandeville Annex Gallery as the Adam D. Kamil Gallery. This gallery is a site for undergraduate art shows and hosts the annual reception and exhibition for students that participate in the Adam Douglas Kamil Media Award.

Applications for the 2023 Kamil Media Awards are due April 28, 2023.

2023 Application Form PDF
2023 Application Form DOCX


13th Annual Adam D. Kamil Media Awards

5th Annual Adam D. Kamil Guest Lecture: Ian Cooper


12th Annual Adam D. Kamil Media Awards

4th Annual Adam D. Kamil Guest Lecture: Alex Rivera


11th Annual Adam D. Kamil Media Awards

3rd Annual Adam D. Kamil Guest Lecture: Garrett Bradley


10th Annual Adam D. Kamil  Media Awards


9th Annual Adam D. Kamil Media Awards

2nd Annual Adam D. Kamil Guest Lecture: Michael Shawver


8th Annual Adam D. Kamil Media Awards

1st Annual Adam D. Kamil Guest Lecture: Bradford Young

David Antin Prize

This annual prize was started to support a third-year MFA Visual Arts student who reflects David Antin’s focus on interdisciplinary work and the use of multiple mediums. The awardee has shown originality and creativity in work as an artist or writer in the field of art criticism. The prize comes with a $1,000 award.

David Antin, a poet, critic and performance artist of lasting importance, passed away on October 11, 2016. He was 84. His background included undergraduate work in science and languages with graduate work in linguistics at New York University (his special project was the language structure of Gertrude Stein). He edited and translated several science and math books and pursued a career as a poet since 1955 and that of an art critic since 1964. He also served as the Educational Curator for the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston before joining the Visual Arts Department in 1968.

For four years he was Director of the UCSD Mandeville Art Gallery, assembling exhibitions of post-Pop representation (Katz, Morley, Estes, Wesselman), an exhibition of Nancy Spero’s Artaud Drawings, a video piece by Keith Sonnier, an installation piece by Richard Serra, and a performance by Joan Jonas, as well as a large group show of artists from the Fluxus group. He also started the poetry readings at UCSD, the recordings from which became part of the UCSD Library’s Special Collections’ Poetry Archive, which he helped inaugurate.

Antin began full-time teaching in 1972 and his courses covered such areas as the Structure of Art, History of Criticism, Tactics and Strategies, Theories of Modernism and Postmodernism, and Narrative Theory.

David Antin In Memoriam

2023, Wren Gardiner was awarded the 6th annual David Antin Prize.

2022, Isidro Pérez-García was awarded the 5th annual David Antin Prize.

2021, Işık Kaya was awarded the 4th annual David Antin Prize.

2020, Zara Kuredjian was awarded the 3rd annual David Antin Prize.

2019, Eddy Miramontes (JEM) was awarded the 2nd annual David Antin Prize.

2018, Heejung Shin was awarded the inaugural David Antin Prize.