ST. CATHERINE DE BOLOGNA PHILANTHROPY PRIZE

The Catholic Art Institute established the St. Catherine de Bologna Philanthropy Prize 

to recognize individuals who are distinguished for their outstanding support of the Christian arts. 

The Prize was named after St. Catherine de Bologna, Patron Saint of Artists.

 

The 2024 St. Catherine de Bologna Philanthropy Prize was awarded to Roberta Green Ahmanson, writer and philanthropist whose public activities are focused on deepening awareness and
understanding of the role of religion in public life, the importance of knowing history to understand the present, and the vital role the arts play in shaping human experience.

Since 1986, Ahmanson has worked with her husband, Howard, in shaping the granting priorities of his private philanthropy, Fieldstead and Company. In that time, the Ahmansons 

have sponsored a number of art exhibitions at museums in the U.K. and the United States, including several at their gallery in Irvine, California.
 

A frequent lecturer, Ahmanson is also the co-author of Islam at the Crossroads, 2002, and a contributor and co-editor of Blind Spot: When Journalists Don’t Get Religion.
 

Ahmanson worked as a sixth grade teacher in Toronto, Canada, then as a religion reporter and editor for the San Bernardino Sun and the Orange County Register. Ahmanson was
born in 1949, grew up in Iowa, and was educated in Michigan and Missouri.