“It’s an incredible thing to have happen in your life,’’ said Chapa Mendoza, 92. She is the 16th recipient since 2008 of the award recognizing a lifetime’s contribution to an artist’s chosen forms of expression and the cultural community of metro Detroit.The honor includes an unrestricted prize of $100,000 (new this year – it previously had been $50,000) as well as production of a short film, a monograph, and other efforts to elevate the year’s artist by Kresge and Kresge Arts in Detroit, an office of the College for Creative Studies (CCS), which administers the effort.

“Her work conveys a rare combination of grace and perseverance in the face of the innumerable societal obstacles placed in the path of an artist with Chicano and Indigenous roots,’’ said Kresge President and CEO Rip Rapson. “She has inspired multiple generations with her full and powerful embrace of the overlapping causes of women, migrant workers and civil rights.