Anita Huffington facts for kids
Anita Huffington (December 25, 1934 – March 15, 2025) was an American artist famous for her sculptures. She created beautiful works, especially female figures, using materials like stone and bronze.
About Anita Huffington
Anita Huffington was born in Baltimore in 1934. She loved art from a young age. She studied dance, drama, and art at the University of North Carolina. Later, she moved to New York City to learn more about dance from famous teachers like Martha Graham.
Over time, Anita became more interested in visual arts, like painting and sculpture. She joined a group of artists in New York, including Willem de Kooning. She continued her art studies at Bennington College and the University of South Florida. She earned her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees from City College in New York.
Life in the Ozarks
Anita had a daughter named Lisa. In 1964, she married Hank Sutter. They lived in New York for many years. In 1977, they decided to move somewhere quieter. They found an old log cabin in the Ozark Mountains near Winslow, Arkansas. They spent a year fixing it up and building a studio for Anita's art. They called their new home "Arkady."
Lisa joined them in the Ozarks and sometimes helped her mother by posing for sculptures. Hank Sutter learned how to make molds for Anita's bronze sculptures. In 1982, Anita faced a very sad time when Lisa passed away in a car accident. This difficult event deeply influenced her art for many years. Hank Sutter passed away in 2006.
In 2015, Anita moved to Augusta, Georgia, to live with her longtime friend, Philip Morsberger, and care for him. After Philip's death in 2021, Anita returned to Northwest Arkansas. She lived there until she passed away on March 15, 2025, at the age of 90.
Recognized for Her Art
Even though some art critics felt Anita Huffington was not as well-known as she should be, she received many important awards and honors for her work.
- In 1992, she received a special fellowship from the Arkansas Arts Council.
- She had a residency at the Chateau de La Napoule Art Foundation in France in 1996. This meant she could live and create art there.
- In 1997, she won the Jimmy Ernst Award in Art from the American Academy of Arts and Letters. This award recognized her lifelong contributions to art.
- She received the Arkansas Governor's Individual Artist Award in 2005.
- In 2014, the University of Arkansas gave her an honorary doctorate in Fine Arts.
One of her sculptures, a pink alabaster piece called "Persephone," was bought by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City in 2002. This was a very special honor because it's rare for a living artist's work to be acquired by the museum. Her art can also be seen in the permanent collections of the Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art and the Arkansas Art Center.
