ArtPourri

Fellowships Announced – The national grant-making and advocacy organization United States Artists (USA) has selected 52 outstanding artists to receive 50 USA Fellowships for 2010, awarding them with unrestricted grants of $50,000.  The artists hail from 18 states and Puerto Rico, range in age from 32 to 71, and include the fields of architecture and design, crafts and traditional arts and visual arts, among several others.  See www.unitedstatesartists.org/news/usa/pr_fellows_2010.

Turner Prize Winner Named – Tate Britain has announced that the Turner Prize 2010 has been awarded to Susan Philipsz.  The jury admired the way in which her work provokes both intellectual and instinctive responses and reflects a series of decisions about the relationship between sound and sight.  Her work draws on the immersive properties of sound and uses her own voice to create powerful sculptural experiences.

Ground Broken in Miami – Following years of planning and anticipation, the Miami Art Museum has broken ground for its new Herzog & de Meuron-designed facility in Downtown Miami’s Museum Park and next to the future home of the Miami Science Museum.  The new site, overlooking Biscayne Bay, is scheduled to open to the public in 2013.

Auction News – Christie’s led the fall auction season in New York with auctions of Impressionist, Modern, Post-War and Contemporary Art totaling $611.6 million.  New world auction records were set for Matisse, Lichtenstein, Gris and Calder, among others.  Swann Galleries’ American Art & Contemporary Art auction sales totaled more than $1.8 million.  Top lots were from Joan Mitchell, Jim Dine and Andrew Wyeth.  The annual auction of Rare & Important Travel Posters resulted in Swann’s best sale of this subject to date.  Top lot was Montague Birrell Black’s celebrated poster for the White Star Line depicting the Olympic & Titanic ships at sea, which sold for $36,000.

Grant Recipients Announced – The Creative Capital/Warhol Foundation Arts Writers Grant Program has announced the recipients of its 2010 grant cycle.  Designed to encourage and reward writing about contemporary art that is rigorous, passionate, eloquent and precise, the program aims to strengthen the field as a whole and to ensure that critical writing remains a valued mode of engaging the visuals. A total of $600,000 has been awarded to 20 individual writers, with grants ranging from $8,000 to $45,000 in four categories. See http://creative-capital.org/news_items/view/125 for recipients.

Met Exhibitions Aid Economy – The Metropolitan Museum’s concurrent presentation of three acclaimed and widely attended special exhibitions over the summer 2010 season—Picasso in The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Doug + Mike Starn on the Roof:  Big Bambu and American Woman:  Fashioning a National Identity—generated $784 million in economic activity by regional, national and international tourists to New York, according to a visitor survey.  This translates to a direct tax benefit to the City and State of some $78.4 million.

Rob Pruitt’s 2010 Art Awards Announced – The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum has announced the winners of Rob Pruitt’s 2010 Art Awards, the second annual celebration honoring notable individuals, exhibitions and projects that made a significant contribution to the field of contemporary art during the past year.  Awards in 15 categories were presented, including to Lena Dunham for The Rob Pruitt Award.  See www.guggenheim.org/new-york/press-room/releases/3826-2010-art-awards.

NEA News – The latest round of NEA funding totaling $26.68 million has been announced, with 1,057 grants awarded to nonprofit national, regional, state and local organizations nationwide.  This also includes the NEA’s most recent class of Creative Writing Fellows.  See a complete listing at www.nea.gov/news/news10/grant-announcement-november.html.

Copyright ARTtalk Vol. 21, No. 3 — January 2011