While Baltimore And Washington, D.C. Slip In International Arts, Philadelphia Offers New Prize To Promote Excellence In The International Art World

"Temple University will begin offering a fine arts prize worth $150,000 to the winner of a juried competition.

The annual Wolgin International Prize in the Fine Arts will be funded by a $3.7 million gift from Jack Wolgin, a Philadelphia real estate developer, arts patron and philanthropist.

The prize will be awarded to an individual whose work ''transcends traditional boundaries and exemplifies the highest level of excellence'' in painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, ceramics, metals, glass or fibers.

''The Wolgin International Prize in the Fine Arts is my opportunity to make a statement to the world about Philadelphia as a great city for the arts,'' Wolgin said." ...

Associated Press "Temple University to Offer $150K Fine Arts Prize" New York Times December 11, 2008
















First the Quakers -- shown embracing the native Indian peoples -- and later Claes Oldenburg brought their concepts of the fine arts to the Philadelphia, Pennsylvania region.

Pan Cogito wonders what Malia and Sasha Obama, who will be attending a Quaker school in the Washington, D.C. area starting in January, think of Claes Oldenburg and recent trends in American public civic sculpture.

Photo credit: Wikipedia Commons. With thanks.

Claes Oldenburg at Artsy

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Philadelphia Museum of Art

The Phillips Collection, Washington, D.C.


















Engraving of the American Indian town of Pomeiooc, published in Thomas Hariot’s 1588 book, A Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia. Illustration by Theodor de Bry.

[Click on images for enlargements.]

Image credit: National Museum of the American Indian and Smithsonian Institution.