Sonia Boyce awarded Damehood in New Years Honours List
Sonia Boyce has been awarded the honour of Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in King Charles III’s New Years Honours list for 2024, in recognition of her contribution to art and art education. Boyce was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of the British Empire) for her services to art in 2019 and a MBE (Member of the British Empire), awarded in 2007 as part of the Queen’s Birthday Honours List.
Over the course of four decades, Sonia Boyce DBE RA has developed a powerfully original practice that transcends boundaries as an interdisciplinary artist and academic working across film, photography, print, sound and installation. Boyce creates immersive and experiential spaces that explore themes of play, disruption and revelation in which the audience become active participants.
In 2022, Boyce was awarded the Golden Lion for Best National Participation for Feeling Her Way, commissioned for the British Pavilion at the 59th International Art Exhibition—La Biennale di Venezia. Feeling Her Way will tour Canada, to PHI Foundation in Montreal in May 2024 and Toronto Biennial in September 2024.
The award recognises Boyce’s impact as both an artist and educator. She has consistently worked within the art school context where she has made invaluable contributions to reshape the discourse of art through her work as an academic. Since 2014 she has been a Professor at University of the Arts London, where she holds the inaugural Chair in Black Art & Design. A three-year research project into Black Artists and Modernism culminated with the 2018 BBC Four documentary ‘Whoever Heard of a Black Artist? Britain’s Hidden Art History,’ exploring the contribution of overlooked artists of African and Asian descent to the story of Modern British art.
Boyce holds three honorary doctorates from the Royal College of Art (2019), the Courtauld Institute of Art and Birmingham City University (2023), and an honorary fellowship from Norwich University of Arts (2022). In 2023, Boyce was awarded the International Honorary Member of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences.
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