International Tarot Award: Lifetime Achievement Award

[jmd]

International Tarot Award

Please not the newer threads for this award polls.

Background _________

In 1997, Janet Berres and the International Tarot Society (now folded) inaugurated an International Award for Outstanding Contribution to Tarot, named the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Over the course of the past year, Janet Berres and I have had some discussions about continuing these awards.

The tarot world has many individuals amongst its ranks that are shining lights, many whose many gifts to tarot have been outstanding for different types of contributions. With time, it is hoped that the most outstanding amongst them become recipient of this recognition.

Rather than the Association for Tarot Studies on its own determining who the next recipient will be, we have decided to invite and include a broad spectrum of the world's tarot community in making carefully considered recommendations and, ultimately, by myriad criteria reflecting each individual recommendation, selecting a single individual as beneficiary.

Aeclectic's TarotForum forms a vibrant public part of this world tarot community, and though I would also encourage other discussion groups (whether online or off) to discuss how each would go about making such a decision, this thread will form part of the official feedback that the ATS will take into consideration as it collects and collates recommendations.


The award itself ____

Neil Barker, an extraordinary sculptor (without exageration), has already been commissioned and created three models for the award from which one has been selected. At this stage, the model remains in clay, though the casting is intended to be in bronze, at a cost of AU$2000 (approx. US$ 1600), for which we are seeking donations which will be acknowleged on the awards page (unless you prefer anonymity). Some of Neil's previous work can be seen online here (the sculpture on the right is now in a private collection in New York).


Invitation ___________

On behalf of the Association, I’d like to invite you to be involved by both adding your vote to the above poll (which will open in May, once the list of nominees is finalised), and, in some ways more importantly as this helps each of us understand the contribution each nominee has made, discussions about why a certain individual is more likely to be the next recipient of the award (without in any manner diminishing the incredible blessings that each in the list has made!).


Final decision _______

During the July General Meeting of the Association for Tarot Studies, its Committee will make a recommendation based on the feedback and suggestions provided by each person on the international consultative group, which includes the feedback and votes on this thread.

Trusting everyone’s support of this final recommendation, and also trusting the financial support for its casting, the ATS will then organise for the casting of the award and for its presentation.

As one invited consultant mentioned in regards to this endeavour, "It's about time the tarot community recognized another one of their luminaries", and I'm personally excited about being part of this process to give back a little, even if to only one individual at a time!

 

[retrokat]

Great idea!

Would it perhaps to be possible to allow nominations by the community, and perhaps encourage people who wish to, to explain WHY they voted for a particular person. That gives the opportunity for qualitative and well as quantitative (voting) feedback, and I'm sure the people nominated would like to read why someone voted for them

 

[jmd]

Thanks, retrokat!

By all means, nominations can indeed be added to.

It's one of those difficult strivings to really think carefully about who one is likely to give the award to. If the person that you (or someone else from the community) thinks the award should go to is not as yet listed, it shows an omission that I would happily rectify.

Having said this, I do ask that careful considerations be made, rather than thinking of who else has made some wonderful contributions to the world of Tarot (in which case, as an obvious example, you have, retrokat - without a doubt in my mind!).

So the trick is to think whether or not next recipient of the award is already listed. If so, why would you suggest this person, if not, please do make the nomination, and, further, perhaps similarly explain why you would award this person as next beneficiary...

(...geez... how did I manage to make this reply sound three times as hard as I meant to?)

Oh! and as a p.s., though the poll won't be open until May, replies and discussions may take place now! (in fact, I'd like to see what others have to say... or perhaps even simply ask what are some of the contributions that have been made by a nominee that one has not come across before!)

 

[Mimers]

JMD I am honored you have asked for our opinions. By the selection you offer, I already know what an extremely difficult choice this will be, so I am grateful for the time you allow for research and thoughtful consideration.

There are some people listed above that I am not as familiar with their works as I am the others so I am planning on doing research into everyone's achievements in order to make a decision based on their worthiness rather than merely my personal favorite.

I would find it very important to consider many things when choosing

1. Their passion for finding the truths about Tarot and sharing that information with the public.

2. Their creative outlook on Tarot. Do they open doors to see Tarot in whole new ways?

3. What did they go through via work and time to produce the works they did. In other words what did they go through to do what they did?

4. Did they make an effort to make it usable by all.

5. Is there variety in the type of tarot work they did. In other words, did they just create a deck or just study the history? or have they created decks, written books, started websites, researched history, etc...


I would love to know what criteria others would consider it important to consider when making a decision here. Please do add.

Mimi

 

[Teheuti]

I know I'm on the list so I'm not going to say anything to sway anyone, but I am curious if anybody has theories as to why, in a field dominated by women (most classes and clientel are only 15-20% male, while book authors are over 60% women), are only 3 out of 16 candidates women?

Can anyone recommend other female candidates - or aren't there any?

Mary K. Greer

 

[jmd]

Mimi, thankyou indeed for those thoughts.

It's what ultimately makes certain decisions like this not only so difficult, but also so... well, in some ways, unfair!

Also, possibly, there are many whose shining light may not be seen for its true worth due to our own proximity (as would have been the case, for example, with Pamela Colman Smith even in 1920 - eclipsed at the time by the relatively bombastic radiance of others close to her, only to continue shining long after the initial radiance of these others diminished a little).

Still, sometimes even a single small essay of a mere four pages can shift a deadlock and open not just doors, but whole avenues to worlds un-imagined before. If such is recognised for what it is, it may be more significant than 400 000 words and deck designs (problem would be, of course, that such would be very difficult to recognise).

Perhaps most of us involved in the broad world of tarot are more of the four-page variety... even if, for a minute number amongst this group, the consequences and impact is as great as the best recognised lights.

I also agree with you, Mary, and trust that you saw the earlier more succinct list that had a somewhat better gender equity (though it was still not balanced). I should also point out, lest it be thought that the list reflects my own gender bias, that most names were suggestions for addition by various individuals, and that most additions were suggested by women.

There's a fine line between adding to the list to better this balance, and to add to the list those (both women and men) who should not have been omitted! ...but the list has increased its gender inequity in a world indeed predominant with women participants, authors, and artists.

 

[firemaiden]

Wow, that is an exciting group of people. I recognise most of the names, and have enjoyed reading articles from many of them. It sure will be difficult choosing from among these

 

[caridwen]

I know I'm on the list so I'm not going to say anything to sway anyone, but I am curious if anybody has theories as to why, in a field dominated by women (most classes and clientel are only 15-20% male, while book authors are over 60% women), are only 3 out of 16 candidates women?

Can anyone recommend other female candidates - or aren't there any?

Mary K. Greer

This is a very good question and one also asked by the founders of the Orange Prize for women only authors. They couldn't work out why, with over 50% female authors, the Booker nearly always had all male shortlists so they came up with the Orange Prize which is a female only shortlist chosen by women.

I have noticed that men seem to see themselves as some kind of authority on any subject, never mind tarot and are taken more seriously. I assume this is because of social conditioning as it can't be for any other reason, especially in Tarot which is very much female dominated.

The only solution I can think of for this is to have an all female list and all male list eg Five women and five men or something similar.

 

[Little Hare]

The only solution I can think of for this is to have an all female list and all male list eg Five women and five men or something similar.

i think that's a really great idea!

 

[le pendu]

I think people should be nominated based on contributions.

I'd hate to see us getting into men/women, European/American, Historians/Writers, or any other us versus them. Let's list the people who have made significant contributions to "the world of tarot", regardless of a secondary attribute.

If you have recomendations, I think this is the place to bring them forward and explain why.

I'm impressed with the people on the list, I'm familiar with the work of most of them. Many are historians, and I have that bias, so would agree with the list as I see it. For instance I consider the Historical contributions of Mary Greer and her work on the history of Divination with tarot important, and am glad to see her on the list.

Missing from the list I might consider Robert Place for instance, but there are already some on the list that I personally believe have made stronger contributions (so far!).