Cintas Foundation Program at FIU’s Frost Art Museum Opens 2009 Competition for Coveted Visual Arts

PRLog (Press Release) - Dec 13, 2008 -
Miami  – The Cintas Foundation and the Frost Art Museum at Florida International University today announced the start of the annual competition for the Emilio Sánchez Award [http://cintasfoundation.org/capital1.htm] in the  Visual Arts administered by the foundation and the Cintas Fellowship Program at The Frost.  This award is funded through the generous support of the Emilio Sánchez Foundation to recognize the achievements of the winner of the Cintas Fellowship in the Visual Arts. Based in New York City, the foundation is a nonprofit organization that preserves and promotes the legacy of the Cuban-born American artist Emilio Sánchez (1921–1999) through research, exhibitions and publications.

The only one of its kind in the nation, the program has honored some of the world’s most talented Cuban artists. Past visual arts fellows include Ernesto Oroza, Carlos Alfonzo, Teresita Fernández, Anthony Goicolea, Ernesto Oroza, photographers Andres Serrano and María Martínez-Caíñas, sculptor Maria Elena González and filmmaker Mari Rodríguez-Ichaso. The Cintas Foundation awards fellowships annually to creative artists of Cuban lineage who are currently residing outside of Cuba. Winners will be announced in May at the annual exhibition of work by the finalists.

“This is the fifth year in which the Emilio Sánchez Foundation has generously funded this prestigious award, enabling us to support emerging Cuban talent in a very competitive field,” said Hortensia E. Sampedro, president of the Cintas Foundation.

Applicants must submit original images or film projects by Jan. 30, 2009. Cintas fellows are awarded $15,000 and the opportunity to pursue an art project outlined in their applications. Since it was established in 1963, the Cintas Fellowship Program has honored more than 300 artists. FIU and the Cintas Foundation Board have been administering the awards program since 2005.

The Cintas Fellowship Program encourages creative development in architecture, literature, music composition and the visual arts, and awards annual fellowships in creative writing and visual arts as well. The foundation was established with funds from the estate of Oscar B. Cintas (1887-1957), former Cuban ambassador to the United States, a prominent industrialist and patron of the arts.

Application forms and competition requirements are available online at www.cintasfoundation.org or by contacting Stephanie Guasp at the Frost Art Museum at (305) 348-2890.