Arts
Prize returns with focus
on new talent, public input
Carolyn Jack
Plain Dealer Arts Reporter
December 07, 2005
The
Cleveland Arts Prize took a powder and is coming back strong.
Or
so the organization hopes: After a year's hiatus in which leaders
rethought the award's mission and approach, the 45-year-old prize
will return in 2006 with an emphasis on emerging artists and public
input.
"Hopefully,
there are going to be a lot of new people brought to the table,"
said Cleveland Arts Prize executive director Terri Pontremoli.
Pontremoli
said the organization's primary goal is to become more visible in
the community. To do that, she and the prize board of directors
plan to get the public more involved in nominating candidates.
Created
in 1960 as a project of the Women's Club of Cleveland and now an
independent nonprofit organization, the prize has for decades recognized
the achievements of established, often
renowned, Northeast Ohio artists and arts leaders. Winners include
historian Bruce Catton, playwright Adrienne Kennedy, author Dan Chaon, designer Viktor Schreckengost,
architect Philip Johnson, choreographer Heinz Poll and composers
Donald Erb and Halim El-Dabh.
Established
artists will continue to be saluted with two prizes of $2,500 each.
But the organization's largest award now will be a $5,000 prize
for an emerging Northeast Ohio artist.
Prize
literature states that award will go to an artist "40 years
old or younger, who shows remarkable promise and has created a significant
work or project." But Pontremoli said she and the board will
be revisiting the age requirement, as they are aware emerging artists
can be older.
The
awards will still be limited to those who create works rather than
performances: writers, composers, visual artists, choreographers
and designers. But the categories have been broadened to include
multimedia, film and graphic design in the visual area and rock
and musical theater in composition/choreography.
The
prize also will continue to bestow honorary awards on other kinds
of arts luminaries.
Those
awards include: the Lifetime Achievement Award, for an artist of
longtime distinction; the Robert P. Bergman Prize, honoring regional,
national or international arts leaders who have served as passionate
and effective ambassadors for the arts; and the Martha Joseph Citation
for Distinguished Service to the Arts, for a person or organization
contributing exceptional vision, commitment, leadership or philanthropy
to the region's arts.
Pontremoli
said the revised prize will make the jury process of choosing winners
more accessible to the public. New guidelines call for choosing
jurors from a broad pool, rotating them off the panel every two
years and publicizing their biographies. Also, prize staff will
oversee jurors' deliberations, and finalists will have access to
records of jurors' comments.
Through
marketing and online efforts, officials hope to raise the awards'
public profile and engage the community in the selection process.
Starting Jan. 31, Pontremoli said, people can nominate candidates
by going to the Web site or picking up materials that the prize
intends to distribute throughout the city.
To
reach this Plain Dealer reporter:
cjack@plaind.com,
216-999-4739
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