Call-for-Entry for the 2010 Sondheim Prize

Application deadline – December 18, 2009

The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts, Inc. (BOPA) is proud to announce the fifth edition of the Janet & Walter Sondheim Prize.  The prize will award a $25,000 fellowship to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region. The prize is in conjunction with the annual Artscape juried exhibition and is produced with our partners, The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) and the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA). Approximately six finalists will be selected for the final review for the prize.  Their work will be exhibited in the Thalheimer Gallery of The Baltimore Museum of Art.  Additionally, an exhibition of the semi-finalists’ work will be shown in the Decker and Meyerhoff galleries of the Maryland Institute College of Art during the Artscape weekend.

The fellowship winner will be selected from The Baltimore Museum of Art exhibition after review of the installed art and an interview with each finalist by the jurors.  The remaining finalists not selected for the fellowship will each receive a $1,000 honorarium.  Artist collaborators if chosen as the winner will receive a single $25,000 prize or $1,000 honorarium that will be equally divided among the members of the group.

The Artscape prize is named in honor of Janet and Walter Sondheim who have been instrumental in creating the Baltimore City that exists today.  Walter Sondheim, Jr. had been one of Baltimore’s most important civic leaders for over 50 years. His accomplishments included oversight of the desegregation of the Baltimore City Public Schools in 1954 when he was president of the Board of School Commissioners of Baltimore City.  Later, he was deeply involved in the development of Charles Center and the Inner Harbor.  He continued to be active in civic and educational activities in the city and state and served as the senior advisor to the Greater Baltimore Committee until his death in February 2007.

Janet Sondheim danced with the pioneering Denishawn Dancers a legendary dance troupe founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn.  Later, she turned to teaching where she spent 15 years at the Children’s Guild working with severely emotionally disturbed children.  After retirement, she was a volunteer tutor at Highlandtown Elementary School.  She married Walter in 1934, and they were together until her death in 1992.

Jurors
The Jurors will be announced on December 1, 2009.

An application can be downloaded HERE.