Vineyard Icon Awards
An invitational ceremony of approximately three hundred guests at Farm Neck Golf Club. Five award categories. Each honoree invited personally; each confirmed by community connection.
Inaugurated August 9, 2025
Five generations of legacy.
Five generations of legacy.
One night. The next generation begins here.
An institution — not a gala — convened each summer to name who carries Black cultural legacy on the Vineyard, and to pass that recognition forward.
As reported in
Forbes
CNBC
Ebony
Martha’s Vineyard Times
Vineyard Gazette
The Institution, in a Sentence
Vineyard Icon is the institution of record for Black cultural legacy on Martha’s Vineyard — it names who belongs to that legacy, it creates the scholarship pathway for the next generation to earn a place in it, and it is held together by five generations of Goldson family roots and the Method that turns a room of three hundred into an experience everyone remembers as iconic.Founding Charter · v3, April 2026
2025 Inaugural Honorees
Five careers. Five award names that name what they do.
Every honoree is invited personally by Founding Host Erin Goldson, vetted by the Vineyard Icon Method, and confirmed by community connection — not by press relationship.
Business Impact
Shelley Stewart III
Senior Partner, McKinsey & Company
Trailblazer Couple
Floyd & Stephanie
Tavares-Rance
Founders, MVAAFF
Cultural Innovation
Troy Carter
Founder & CEO, Venice Music
Excellence in Public Leadership
Keisha Lance Bottoms
Former Mayor of Atlanta
Legacy Through Storytelling
Dawn Porter
Founder, Trilogy Films
2026 Slate
Announced on a rolling basis
Nominations open by invitation through the Honoree Curation Method.
Photograph by Patrick Camilien for Forbes
The Founding Story
An institution built from five generations of belonging.
My family has been on this island since my great-great-grandmother. We had to include hydrangeas. From the time I was sixteen working at Black Dog and Giordano’s.
Vineyard Icon was founded by Erin Goldson — Spelman, the University of Virginia, Columbia Business School — whose career at Ogilvy, American Express, and Unilever placed her at the center of the cultural campaigns that introduced the CROWN Act and Amplified Textures. She built Vineyard Icon as a private act of legacy stewardship; the inaugural ceremony was self-funded, hosted by CNBC’s Frank Holland, and attended by three hundred guests at Farm Neck Golf Club.
Programs & Pathways
Vineyard-Originated. Community-Extended.
Vineyard Icon is anchored to Martha’s Vineyard. Programs that travel travel as the community traveling together — never as franchise expansion.
Vineyard Icon Scholarship
Eight micro-grants of $2,500 each, awarded to high-achieving students with demonstrated community connection. Disbursed via Color Vision Creates Foundation while the Vineyard Icon Foundation IRS application is pending.
Holiday Takeover
A community gathering of the Vineyard diaspora, hosted off-island in winter. The 2025 Takeover hosted 150+ in Somerville, Massachusetts. The Holiday Takeover is the community traveling together, not a franchise.
Next Gen Summit
An intergenerational programming day for emerging leaders connected to Vineyard Icon scholars and the Founders Circle. Built to extend the Method to the next generation. Hypothesis-stage in 2026.
The Founders Circle
Anchor the institution that will outlast us.
The Founders Circle is the inner ring of Vineyard Icon — members who underwrite the Method, the scholarship pathway, and the institutional governance that lets this work continue beyond any single host.
Become a Founding Member