Visual Arts Center of Richmond Unveils Emerging Artist Award, Plans to Grant $5,000 Unrestricted Cash Prize and One Year Worth of Studio Access

The Visual Arts Center of Richmond is thrilled to announce that its junior board, the Visual Arts Creative Ambassadors (VACA), will launch an unrestricted cash award for emerging artists at the center’s annual Young + Artful fundraiser in March 2020.

VisArts’ new Emerging Artist Award was established to promote, support and encourage visual artists who show creative promise. The organization will grant one winner with a $5,000 unrestricted cash prize as well as free access to one of VisArts’ professional studio spaces for one year.

On Dec. 13, VisArts will begin accepting nominations for the award through its website. The deadline to nominate artists is January 15, 2020. Artists who have been nominated will be contacted in mid-January and offered the opportunity to officially apply for the award. The Emerging Artist Award application deadline is Feb. 1, 2020.

Applicants will be evaluated based on innovative use of media, unique perspectives and overall creativity. The recipient of the award will be selected by a a member of VisArts’ junior board and a panel of rotating judges who are influential in Richmond’s art and culture community. VisArts will notify the award winner in late February and the center’s junior board president will present the the award at Young + Artful on Friday, March 6, 2020.

To be eligible for the award, artists must have lived in the greater Richmond area for at least one year at the time of nomination. Artists must be at least 21 years old at the time of nomination and must not be enrolled in an undergraduate, post-baccalaureate or graduate degree program. The artist must not have a solo exhibition organized by a professional art gallery on their CV and they cannot be formally represented by a gallery in Richmond or another city. Solo shows associated with an undergraduate or graduate degree program do not disqualify artists from eligibility.

More information about the award is available on the VisArts Emerging Artist Award page.