Nakashima Foundation for peace award

Since the origins of the Nakashima Foundation for Peace, there have been three recipients of the Nakashima Foundation for Peace Award. Recipients are recognized for their ongoing support of the Foundation’s mission to pursue George Nakashima’s vision to place Altars for Peace around the world. 

The Third Peace Award Ceremony

The Third Nakashima Foundation for Peace Award was given to Steven C. Rockefeller, Sr. via his son Steven C. Rockefeller, Jr. in an afternoon ceremony on Sunday, October 20th, 2024, at the Nakashima Arts Building in New Hope, Pennsylvania.

Steven Rockefeller Jr., a woodworker himself, received the award on his father’s behalf and delivered a most gracious acceptance speech.

The Rockefeller family has had a long association with Nakashima Woodworkers.  In 1972, when Governor Nelson Rockefeller and his wife Happy called upon the Japanese architect Junzo Yoshimura to design a house on their family’s compound in Pocantico Hills, NY, Yoshimura turned to his old friend George Nakashima for the furnishings.  Nelson’s son, Steven Sr. was instrumental in supporting the first Altar to Peace placed at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in upper Manhattan in 1986.

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The Second Peace Award Ceremony

The Nakashima Foundation for Peace honored Scott and Hella McVay with the second Nakashima Foundation for Peace Award in a ceremony via Zoom on May 23, 2021. Scott and Hella were among the first of George Nakashima’s devoted friends to learn of his Dream of Peace Altars for the World in 1983 and kindred spirits in the realms of integrating art, poetry, and science.

Scott and Hella McVay are longtime supporters of George Nakashima’s vision and the work of the Peace Foundation. Scott is a poet, naturalist and philanthropist who worked tirelessly to promote the arts, education, women’s issues,
environmental stewardship and animal welfare. In this pursuit, he has directed or served on the boards of numerous institutions – the Geraldine R. Dodge, W. Alton Jones and Robert Sterling Clark foundations, the World Wildlife Fund, the Chautauqua Institution, the Earth Policy Institute, and Grounds for Sculpture. He was the creator of the Dodge Poetry Festival and he and Hella created the Poetry Trail at the D&R Greenway in Princeton.
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The Nakashima Foundation for Peace Honors The Very Reverend James Morton with the inaugural Nakashima Foundation for Peace Award

The Inaugural Nakashima Foundation for Peace Award

The Nakashima Foundation for Peace honored the Very Reverend James Parks Morton, Dean Emeritus of the Cathedral of St. John the Divine (NYC), Founder of The Interfaith Center of New York, and Honorary Chairman of the Nakashima Foundation for Peace as the inaugural receipient of the Nakashima Foundation for Peace Award on Sunday, May 4, 2014.  

The reception was held at the Foundation Arts Building, which has been named to the World Monuments Fund Watch List,and included a concert celebrating peace and spring offered by “Mostly Motets” conducted by Timothy Carpenter.

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Nakashima Foundation for Peace