Renderings of the new Tyler School of Art
You can hear me now, in a brief soundbite about the new Wolgin Prize in the Arts, to be awarded by Temple University’s Tyler School of Art, which is moving next month to new digs (above) designed by Houston architect Carlos Jimenez:
This is a prize with lots of money, but (as of today) no director, nominators or jurors. We are promised that the nominators will be “an international panel of fine arts leaders.”
Will an artist of international stature be interested in a $150,000 award that carries with it a show at this country’s 14th-ranked art school (according to U.S. News & World Reports)?
The Hugo Boss at the Guggenheim, the Turner at the Tate…and now the Wolgin at the Tyler?
This could be one of those prizes that confer more benefits on the giver than the recipient. The university’s press materials quote real estate developer Jack Wolgin saying that a prize like his “attract[s] a lot of attention” and is “an economic engine…There are some great economic benefits for the city….My goal is for the prize to be an incentive for good work.”
As I’ve stated previously, the kind of artist’s award I’d like to see, which could offer a more powerful “incentive for good work,” is the restoration of National Endowment for the Arts’ fellowships, which used to provide validation and financial benefits to artists at a time in their careers when they really needed this kind of support.