The Nancy Regan Arts Prize
In 2021, on the occasion of her retirement from the Board and to honor CAF co-founder Nancy Regan for her many decades of service, CAF established the Nancy Regan Arts Prize, an annual award of $2000 given to an individual or team who applied that year for a grant from the organization, or who had produced an outstanding body of work in support of animal rights.
Awardees
In 2025, CAF awarded curator Katerina Gregos for her curation of the exhibition “Why Look at Animals?” at the National Museum of Contemporary Art, Athens. In 2024, on the occasion of the 25th anniversary of the publication of The Lives of Animals and Disgrace, CAF gave the Arts Prize to the novelist J. M. Coetzee, recipient of the 2003 Nobel Prize for Literature. See a video here. In 2023, photographer Isa Leshko, a 2016 grantee, was awarded the Prize for Allowed to Grow Old: Portraits of Elderly Animals from Farm Sanctuaries. Watch a video essay about Isa Leshko here. In 2022, British-born satirist and political artist Sue Coe received the Arts Prize. Watch her interview here. And in 2021, the inaugural Nancy Regan Arts Prize was given to Hong Kong–based graphic artist Joan Chan Wing Yan.
From the Awardees
“I am profoundly grateful that the Foundation has, through this recognition, highlighted the important role that artists and cultural workers play in advancing the cause of animal rights.”—Katerina Gregos
“I am really struggling to get recognition and support for the work. And then I discover the Culture & Animals Foundation. It was just remarkable to see a foundation that is actually encouraging you to make this work.”—Isa Leshko
“When I received the Outstanding National Activist Award from CAF in 1994, it was shocking. It was stunning, and such a beautiful gift. And now this gift: it’s a bookend to forty years of work. It means a lot to me.”—Sue Coe
“I am grateful and honored to receive this award. It’s a difficult time for many people. I’m hoping with the difficulty comes a higher understanding of suffering, and we can be kinder to all sentient beings.”—Joan Chan Wing Yan
