The Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts recently announced that the $25,000 Janet and Walter Sondheim Prize would be awarded again at Artscape 2007. The award, given to an artist living in Maryland, Washington, Northern Virginia, or Southeastern Pennsylvania, debuted last year to commemorate Artscape's 25th anniversary and was awarded to Baltimore artist Laure Drogoul (Art, July 19, 2006). This second year is the next step in making the award an annual gift.
"It was definitely in the plan," to make the award a recurring gift, says Baltimore Office of Promotion executive director Bill Gilmore over the phone. "We didn't have any dedicated source of funds to be able to say that we were doing it multiple years, but we're very fortunate that the France-Merrick Foundation has stepped up to the plate to guarantee funding for '07.
"Now, we have in place at least a plan where we're going to be seeking additional funds to build an endowment account to kick out some income that we'll use on an annual basis," he continues. "So we're guaranteed this year through the generosity of France-Merrick, and now we have at least a plan in place, which we'll be announcing later this spring, on how we're going to build this endowment so that it will continue in perpetuity."
The award is named after Baltimore public servant and civic leader Walter Sondheim and his late wife, Janet. As president of the Baltimore school board, Sondheim oversaw desegregation of the city schools in 1954, and as chairman of Charles Center-Inner Harbor Management Inc. from 1970 to '87 he championed the push to renew downtown Baltimore, which led to the redevelopment of the Inner Harbor.
"We've known Walter Sondheim for years, and my board was discussing the possibility of this $25,000 annual prize and the importance of the city having something like that to offer artists," Gilmore says. "And we were just kicking around ideas, and the thought of approaching Walter and naming that for his late wife, Janet, and he would be a fitting tribute because he has been so much a part of Baltimore that we see today. It was a no-brainer."
Jurors for the 2007 prize are Becky Smith, owner/director of Brooklyn, N.Y.'s Bellwether Gallery; critic, artist, curator, and professor Robert Storr, the commissioner of the 2007 Venice Biennale; and New York artist Derrick Adams. The six finalists will be exhibited in the Baltimore Museum of Art's Thalheimer Gallery.
Application requirements have been tweaked somewhat from last year. The 2007 Sondheim prize includes language that permits cooperatives and collectives to enter, and the application also includes a component asking finalists to describe briefly how they intend to spend the funding. Full application and entry requirements can be found www. artscape.org (application under the "Visual Arts Exhibits" heading) or by contacting Baltimore Office of Promotion visual arts coordinator Gary Kachadourian. The deadline is Feb. 23.
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