The Vilcek Foundation is an American

nonprofit A nonprofit organization (NPO), also known as a nonbusiness entity, nonprofit institution, not-for-profit organization, or simply a nonprofit, is a non-governmental (private) legal entity organized and operated for a collective, public, or so ...

organization. The foundation's programs include the Vilcek Foundation Prizes. The Foundation was established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek,

immigrants Immigration is the international movement of people to a destination country of which they are not usual residents or where they do not possess nationality in order to settle as permanent residents. Commuters, tourists, and other short- ...

from the former

Czechoslovakia Czechoslovakia ( ; Czech language, Czech and , ''Česko-Slovensko'') was a landlocked country in Central Europe, created in 1918, when it declared its independence from Austria-Hungary. In 1938, after the Munich Agreement, the Sudetenland beca ...

. The mission of the Foundation was inspired by the couple's respective careers in

biomedical science Biomedical sciences are a set of sciences applying portions of natural science or formal science, or both, to develop knowledge, interventions, or technology that are of use in healthcare or public health. Such disciplines as medical microbi ...

and

art history Art history is the study of Work of art, artistic works made throughout human history. Among other topics, it studies art’s formal qualities, its impact on societies and cultures, and how artistic styles have changed throughout history. Tradit ...

, as well as their appreciation for the opportunities offered to them as newcomers to the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

Prizes

Vilcek Prizes

The Vilcek Prizes are awarded to foreign-born permanent residents of the

, with significant accomplishments in the

arts The arts or creative arts are a vast range of human practices involving creativity, creative expression, storytelling, and cultural participation. The arts encompass diverse and plural modes of thought, deeds, and existence in an extensive ...

and sciences. The Foundation awards two Vilcek Prizes annually, one in

and the other in the

and

humanities Humanities are academic disciplines that study aspects of human society and culture, including Philosophy, certain fundamental questions asked by humans. During the Renaissance, the term "humanities" referred to the study of classical literature a ...

. Each prize consists of a $100,000 cash award and a commemorative sculpture designed by Austrian-born graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister.

Vilcek Prize for Excellence

The Vilcek Prize for Excellence, introduced in 2019, recognizes immigrants who have profoundly impacted American society and world culture or individuals who champion immigrant causes. The recipients receive a $100,000 cash award and a commemorative diploma designed by the &Walsh agency.

Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are awarded to foreign-born individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement during the early stages of their careers. The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are awarded each year in the field of

and a selected art field. Creative Promise applicants are required to submit essays, personal statements, and examples of their work. To be eligible for the prize, applicants must have been born abroad, reside permanently in the

, and be within the specified age limit. As of 2013, three prizes each were to be awarded in biomedical science and a designated art field. Each recipient is awarded a $50,000 cash prize and a commemorative plaque.

Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History

In 2024, the Vilcek Foundation announced a new prize, The Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History. The prize is named for the Foundation's co-founder Marica Vilcek's career in art history. The prize is awarded to foreign-born art history and museum professionals whose work has had a profound impact on their institutions, and on their field or area of scholarship and curatorial work more broadly. In its inaugural presentation in 2024, three prizes of $100,000 each were awarded to Monika Bincsik, Pierre Terjanian, and Wolfram Koeppe. The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise in Curatorial Work recognize immigrant professionals whose work has a profound impact in their field, and on arts and culture more broadly.

Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare

In 2019, the Vilcek Foundation partnered with the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to create a joint award, the Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare. The award is given to a foreign-born individual in the United States who has demonstrated an extraordinary impact on humanism in healthcare through their professional achievements. The 2019 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare was given to Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha for her advocacy and interventions in addressing the water crisis in Flint, Michigan. Dr.

Vivek Murthy Vivek Hallegere Murthy (born July 10, 1977) is an American physician and a former vice admiral in the United States Public Health Service Commissioned Corps, who served as the 19th and 21st surgeon general of the United States from 2015 to 2017 a ...

, 19th and 21st Surgeon General of the United States, was the recipient of the 2020 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare. Dr. Jirayut 'New' Latthivongskorn and Dr. Denisse Rojas Marquez were the joint recipients of the 2021 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare.

New American Perspectives

Since 2007, the Vilcek Foundation has been a sponsor of the New American Perspectives (formerly the "New American Filmmakers") program at the

Hawaii International Film Festival Hawaii ( ; ) is an island state of the United States, in the Pacific Ocean about southwest of the U.S. mainland. One of the two non-contiguous U.S. states (along with Alaska), it is the only state not on the North American mainland, th ...

(HIFF). Curated and presented in collaboration with HIFF, the program celebrates foreign-born filmmakers' contributions to cinema in the United States.

Prize recipients

Vilcek Prizes

Vilcek Prizes for Excellence

Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

In 2013, the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise were changed from recognizing one winner and four finalists to recognizing three winners in each category. The past finalists are listed below.

Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History

Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare

Art collections

The Vilcek Foundation holds several art collections that are promised gifts from founders Jan and Marica Vilcek. These collections include the American Modernism Collection, which traces the development of artists such as Oscar Bluemner, Ralston Crawford, Stuart Davis, and

Marsden Hartley Marsden Hartley (January 4, 1877 – September 2, 1943) was an American Modernist painter, poet, and essayist. Hartley developed his painting abilities by observing Cubist artists in Paris and Berlin. Early life and education Hartley was bor ...

, as well as the movement as a whole; the Native American Pottery Collection, which consists primarily of objects by Acoma,

Hopi The Hopi are Native Americans who primarily live in northeastern Arizona. The majority are enrolled in the Hopi Tribe of Arizona and live on the Hopi Reservation in northeastern Arizona; however, some Hopi people are enrolled in the Colorado ...

, Cochiti, Kewa, Tesuque, Zia, and Zuni potters, dating from the 19th and 20th centuries; and the Pre-Columbian Collection, which features objects from across the pre-Columbian world, with an emphasis on the art of

Mesoamerica Mesoamerica is a historical region and cultural area that begins in the southern part of North America and extends to the Pacific coast of Central America, thus comprising the lands of central and southern Mexico, all of Belize, Guatemala, El S ...

, and a Collection of Art by Immigrant Artists.

Events and exhibitions

In 2019, the Vilcek Foundation opened its new headquarters on Manhattan's Upper East Side, which includes two floors of gallery space. The gallery is the site of free, public exhibitions based on the Vilcek Foundation Art Collections. The Vilcek Foundation also partners with institutions throughout the United States and around the globe to develop and share exhibitions featuring work from the Vilcek Foundation Art Collections with the wider public.

Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery (2022-2025)

In July 2022, the Vilcek Foundation supported the development and opening of the exhibition, ''Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery'' at the Museum of Indian Arts and Culture in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The exhibition features works of Pueblo Pottery from the Vilcek Foundation Collection and from the collection of the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research. The exhibition was curated by a group of more than 60 artists, historians, and stewards of Native American art, the Pueblo Pottery Collective, and is accompanied by a catalogue from Merrell Publishers. In July 2023, the exhibition opened in New York with works on view at the Vilcek Foundation and

The Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the third-largest museum in the world and the largest art museum in the Americas. With 5.36 million v ...

Nari Ward: Home of the Brave (2022-2023)

In May 2022, the Vilcek Foundation opened an exhibition,
Nari Ward: Home of the Brave
', featuring sculptures and installations by Jamaican-born artist and Vilcek Prize winner Nari Ward. The exhibition was on view by appointment in the Vilcek Foundation headquarters through March, 2023.

Ralston Crawford: Air + Space + War (2021-2022)

The Vilcek Foundation presented its second major exhibition featuring works by American Modernist Ralston Crawford, following ''Ralston Crawford: Adventurer in the Arts''. Curated by Emily Schuchardt Navratil, this landmark exhibition collected an extensive group of drawings, paintings, and photographs that document the influence of Crawford's experiences in the U.S. military on his life and work. ''Ralston Crawford: Air + Space + War'' centers on commissions Crawford undertook at the Curtiss-Wright Aircraft Plant in Buffalo, New York, and his assignment to document nuclear weapons tests conducted by the U.S. Joint Army/Navy Task Force at

Bikini Atoll Bikini Atoll ( or ; Marshallese language, Marshallese: , , ), known as Eschscholtz Atoll between the 19th century and 1946, is a coral reef in the Marshall Islands consisting of 23 islands surrounding a central lagoon. The atoll is at the no ...

for

Fortune Magazine ''Fortune'' (stylized in all caps) is an American global business magazine headquartered in New York City. It is published by Fortune Media Group Holdings, a global business media company. The publication was founded by Henry Luce in 1929. T ...

in 1946. ''Ralston Crawford: Air + Space + War'' opened at the Brandywine River Museum of Art in June 2021, where it was on view through September 2021. The exhibition subsequently opened at the

Dayton Art Institute The Dayton Art Institute (DAI) is a museum of fine arts in Dayton, Ohio, Dayton, Ohio, United States. The Dayton Art Institute has been rated one of the top 10 best art museums in the United States for children. The museum also ranks in the top 3% ...

in October 2021, where it was on view through January 2022.

Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs (2019)

''Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs'' was the first exhibition shown in the Vilcek Foundation's headquarters at 21 East 70th Street, New York, New York. The exhibition features works by American Modernist Ralston Crawford. ''Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs'' opened in April 2019, and was on view through November, 2019. A digital exhibition featuring selected works from the exhibition was shared on the Vilcek Foundation website from 2020 – 2021. Curated by Emily Schuchardt Navratil, ''Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs'' explores the national and international influences on the multifaceted Canadian-born artist. Although he earned acclaim early in his career for his Precisionist paintings of an industrialized America, Crawford devoted the latter part of his career to abstract painting with a remarkable emotional dimension. ''Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs'' focuses on two series—"Torn Signs" and "Semana Santa"—that the artist developed over the last two decades of his life.

The Synchromists and Oscar Bluemner's Sonnet Series (2020-2022)

In early 2020, the Vilcek Foundation launched two concurrent exhibitions in the Vilcek Foundation's headquarters, ''The Synchromists'', and ''Oscar Bluemner's Sonnet Series''. ''The Synchromists'' includes works by Morgan Russell and Stanton Macdonald-Wright, the founders of Synchromism. ''Oscar Bluemner's Sonnet Series'' comprises a series of sketches for paintings by Oscar Bluemner based on 12 sonnets by poet Eirene Mungo-Park. The exhibitions were displayed at the Vilcek Foundation in the spring of 2020; as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, the foundation pivoted to launch these exhibitions online on the foundation's website. Both exhibitions are now part of the Vilcek Foundation's traveling exhibition initiative. In Summer of 2022 ''The Synchromists'' opened at the

Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum The Thyssen-Bornemisza National Museum (, ; named after its founder, Baron Heinrich Thyssen, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza), or simply the Thyssen, is an art museum in Madrid, Spain, located near the Museo del Prado, Prado Museum on one of the city ...

in Madrid.

Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts (2021)

''Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts'' debuted at the Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston, Maine in September, 2021. Curated by Emily Schuchardt Navratil, ''Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts'' brings together over 35 paintings and drawings spanning four decades of artwork by American Modernist

. To organize this unique exhibition, the Vilcek Foundation partnered with the Bates College Museum of Art, home to the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection. The exhibition is accompanied by a full-colour catalogue from Merrell Publishers.

Earlier events and exhibitions

The Vilcek Foundation's former headquarters, also on the Upper East Side, was the host of exhibitions and events featuring the work of immigrant artists, designers, filmmakers, and others.

Publications

* Kinsel, Rick, et al. Grounded in Clay : The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery. Merrell Publishers, 2022. * Kinsel, Rick, et al. Ralston Crawford, Air + Space + War. Merrell Publishers Limited; in association with Vilcek Foundation, 2021. * Kinsel, Rick, et al. Marsden Hartley : Adventurer in the Arts. Merrell Publishers Limited; in association with Vilcek Foundation, 2020. * Agee, William C., et al. Masterpieces of American Modernism : From the Vilcek Collection. Merrell Publishers Limited, 2013. * Langholtz, Gabrielle, and Rick Kinsel. A Place at the Table : New American Recipes from the Nation's Top Foreign-Born Chefs. Prestel, 2019. * Agee, William C., et al. Ralston Crawford : Torn Signs. Merrell Publishers Ltd., in association with Vilcek Foundation, 2019. * Vilcek Foundation. American Odysseys : Writings by New Americans. First Dalkey Archive edition, Dalkey Archive Press, 2013.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vilcek Arts foundations based in the United States Organizations established in 2000 2000 establishments in the United States