Jack Wolgin
I got a heads-up yesterday from Temple University’s Tyler School of Art about today’s annnouncement of the astonishing new Jack Wolgin International Competition in the Fine Arts, which will award a whopping $150,000 annual prize to “a professional artist of international stature.” The winner’s work is to be shown at the art school’s new facility on Temple’s main campus in Philadelphia. (Tyler moves next month from Elkins Park, a Philadelphia suburb.)
If all goes according to plan, I’ll be opining on the radio about this improbable, munificent prize, which trumps even the Japan Art Association’s $140,000 Praemium Imperiale. Later this morning, I’ll be talking with Alex Schmidt on WHYY, Philadelphia Public Radio (91 FM). I’ll post the podcast on CultureGrrl after it becomes available on the station’s Arts & Culture website, or you can listen live here, by clicking in the upper lefthand corner.
Wolgin, a Philadelphia real estate developer, says he wants to “make a statement to the world about Philadelphia as a great city for the arts.” He’s certainly making a statement about trying to attract distinguished artists to show their work at Temple.