Land Institute’s coveted National Award for Excellence, and in 1996, she received the prestigious Gold Meir Award from Israel Bonds. In addition to Honorary Doctorates from McDaniel College, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, Stevenson University, and Maryland Institute College of Art, Hoffberger was awarded the title of “Dame” for her work on behalf of establishing medical field hospitals in Nigeria. She has been the recipient of numerous mental health advocacy and equal opportunity awards and has served as a Director of Jewish Education and on the Board of The Elisabeth Kubler-Ross Center, and has also been a featured speaker at many events, including 2009‘s TEDxMidAtlantic. Awards Honorary Doctorate, McDaniel College, 2011 Katherine Coffey Award, Mid-Atlantic Association of Museums, 2011 Honorary Doctorate, Pennsylvania College of Art and Design, 2007 President’s Award of the Maryland YWCA, 2006 Inducted into the Maryland Women’s Hall of Fame, 2006 Commencement Speaker and Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters, Stevenson University, 2004 Visionary Award, On Our Own of Maryland, Inc., 2002 Conrad Nelson Lecturer, Franklin & Marshall College, 2001 Elected to Baltimore City Chamber of Commerce, 1998-2002 Named one of Maryland’s “Top 100 Women” by The Daily Record, 1998 Maryland State Women in the Arts Award, 1998 National Award for Excellence, Urban Land Institute, 1998 Open Your Mind Humanitarian Award, Alliance for the Mentally Ill, 1997 Honorary Doctorate, Maryland Institute College of Art, 1996 Distinguished Volunteer, Maryland Association of Psychosocial Programs, 1996 Israel Bonds Golda Meir Award Honoree, 1996 Sarah’s Circle Award, College of Notre Dame of Maryland, 1996 Baltimore Urban League’s Award for Outstanding Community Involvement and Support for Equal Opportunity, 1995 Criticism At the time of the museum’s 1995 opening, it was reported that Hoffberger’s rejection of academic scholarship and her refusal to follow tradition had upset prominent members of the art world. Hoffberger is known as a renegade in the art world, assuming a posture of self-conscious eccentricity. But she has been criticized for her lack of interest in conventional art history and conventional museum practices. (For example, she refuses to hire a professional art curator.) A 2000 article in The New York Times quoted an art authority who referred to her as “a self-aggrandizing dilettante rather than a serious champion of the works her museum exhibits”. Despite all this, the museum has won the support of collectors, critics, and the public through its exhibitions that examine the relationship of art to the