Viola Davis has been named the 2017 Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year. The actress will be honored at the foundation’s annual award ceremony on March 4 during Harvard’s Cultural Rhythms Festival. Dr. S. Allen Counter, director of the Harvard Foundation, said students and faculty are “delighted’’ to honor Davis, who recently won Critics Choice, Golden Globe, Screen Actors Guild, and British Academy of Film and Television Arts awards, and an Academy Award nomination for her portrayal of Rose Maxson in “Fences.’’ Davis grew up in Central Falls, R.I., and graduated from Rhode Island College and the Juilliard School, and has received honorary doctorates from both. Davis stars in “How to Get Away With Murder’’ on ABC, and she and her husband, Julius Tennon, operate a Los Angeles-based production company called JuVee Productions. Despite her busy work schedule, she’s kept close ties with her hometown in the Ocean State, and has helped raise money for the public library there and her alma mater, Central Falls High School. Davis finds herself in good company as Harvard Foundation Artist of the Year. Previous honorees include Shakira, LL Cool J, Quincy Jones, Queen Latifa, Sharon Stone, Andy Garcia, Will Smith, Matt Damon, Halle Berry, Jackie Chan, Salma Hayek, Wycelf Jean, Eva Longoria, and Lucy Liu. Davis’s “Fences’’ co-star, Denzel Washington, was named Artist of the Year in 1996.