Hendrix, Students Receive Society of Illustrators Honors

John Hendrix, the Kenneth E. Hudson Professor of Art, has received the Society of Illustrators’ 2024 Distinguished Educator in the Arts Award. Chair of the MFA in Illustration & Visual Culture program, Hendrix is a celebrated author-illustrator whose work has appeared in publications including The New York Times, Rolling Stone, Sports Illustrated, and more.

SOI stated in a press release that “the award honors an educator who has attained the highest standards of academic achievement and impacted the illustration field as both a teacher and artist.”

Hendrix’s books have won numerous awards, including a Gold Medal from The Society of Illustrators for “The Faithful Spy,” which was also a YALSA Nonfiction medal finalist from American Library Association. His drawings have also appeared in the annual award publications, 3x3, American Illustration, Society of Illustrators, Society for Publication Design, Communication Arts, AIGA 50 Books/50 Covers Show, and Print’s Regional Design Annual.

Hendrix shared that he was grateful to receive the award, and moreso “amazed to be on a list of previous winners that include some of the true heroes of the field, including my late graduate school chair from New York’s School of Visual Art, Marshall Arisman.”

In addition to Hendrix’s award, two students were named to SOI’s list of featured artists. Ryan Davis, BFA ’24, received the $4,000 Nancy Lee Rhodes Roberts Scholarship for his work, “The Oval Lady,” while “The Lore of Big Thief” by Tuesday Hadden, BFA ’24, was included in SOI’s in-show category. The student works were selected by a jury of professional peers to be featured among 200 chosen entries from across the country.