We are honored to announce that the Wunsch Foundation has named Mira Nakashima a recipient of the Eric M Wunsch Award for Excellence in the American Arts alongside Laura Beach, editor-at-large of Antiques And The Arts Weekly, Lita Solis-Cohen, senior editor for Maine Antique Digest.
“In choosing Mira for this award, Eric Wunsch recounted a personal collecting experience. “My wife and I had a son one year ago, and we were looking for a nursery chair. There was only one target in my mind: I wanted a Nakashima rocker. I found one at Rago, and we conceived the idea that Mira would be an eventual honoree of the award. As our thought process narrowed down, there were some synergies between what Mira has taken on and accomplished in assuming this very important foundational legacy in American decorative arts and evolving it into something that pays tribute to George’s amazing legacy. Anyone would acknowledge that the practice and studio is now hers, and she has put her imprint on it. The way that she continues to evolve the fundamental aspects of George’s aesthetic with Mira’s natural influences, she has turned that incredibly important legacy into her own. Obviously, the members of our foundation can certainly understand the pressures that go along with taking on a legacy like that and hopefully imprinting it with the next generation’s ideas and priorities.” – Greg Smith, Antiques and the Arts Weekly