Since 1988, the Fresno Art Museum’s Council of 100 has each year honored a woman artist over the age of 60 who has spent thirty years or more in the studio, has created a unique and prestigious body of work, and lives 100 miles outside of Fresno with a solo exhibition.

For the first time in the 37-year history of the Council of 100, their Selection Committee has chosen a Modern dancer/choreographer, Donna Sternberg from Santa Monica, California, as the 2026 honoree. A performance-based artist could be challenging for an art museum where exhibitions of two- and three-dimensional art are the norm. The solution to this potential predicament was to create a photographic retrospective of Sternberg’s career, featuring static images of herself and her company’s performances between 1970 and 2025. In addition to the photographic images, videos of her performances will be looped on a monitor for continuous viewing in the Contemporary Gallery. Her exhibition, titled Dancing Through Time: Donna Sternberg, A Retrospective, runs from August 1, 2026 through January 10, 2027.

Sternberg is the 37th recipient of this important award, given to established women artists. She frequently collaborates with artists from other disciplines. She works with scientists, composers, visual artists, and poets, as well as theater and digital media
creators. She has premiered over 90 works since 1975 in Canada, the United States, Mexico, and Europe. In 1985, she founded Donna Sternberg and Dancers, a contemporary dance company based in Santa Monica. As a choreographer, she creates
a language of movement: “Through movement, I can speak directly to the core of another, my connective tissue and cellular matter transmit a language of energy that weaves a web between us.”

Enrichment programming related to her exhibition will be scheduled later in the year and will include an off-site performance, master classes conducted with local college departments and a film premiere and panel discussion in FAM’s Bonner Auditorium.