The Tile Heritage Award for 2020, designed and fabricated by Irene de Watteville, Tile Heritage Board Member Emeritus, in honor of Ella Schaap, curator, Philadelphia Museum of Art.
In 1993 the board of directors of the Tile Heritage Foundation wished to acknowledge those individuals who embodied the Tile Heritage mission in some exemplary way: promoting an awareness and appreciation of ceramic surfaces in the United States.
Since its inception, fifteen individuals have received the Tile Heritage Award: Kenneth Trapp (’93); Donato Grosser (’94); Frank Giorgini/Lark Books (’95); Carolyna Marks (’96); Susan Tunick (’97); Norman Karlson (’98); Barbara White Morse (’99); Jane Larson (’01); Eric Astrachan (’06); Robert Winter (’09); Joe Koons (’10); Vance Koehler (’13); Kirby Brown (’15); Cleota Reed (’17) and Ella Schaap/Conservation Department, Philadelphia Museum of Art (’20) The THF board also decided that the award itself should be a tile designed by a tile maker of their choosing whose aesthetic related significantly to the award recipient. The tile makers chosen: Dale Wiley (’93); Karen Koblitz (’94); Lynda Curtis and Libby Donahoe (’95); Pat Custer Denison (’96); Anne Currier and Gretchen Krouse (’97); David Ellison (’98); Linda Ellett (’99); Kenyon Lewis (’01); Don Schreckengost (’06); Marie and Delia Tapp and Steve Moon (’09); Frank Giorgini (’10); Joan Gardiner (’13); David Wilson (’15); Mandy Baker (’17) and Irene de Watteville (’20)