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Captions (top to bottom): John Bankston, Hmm, Something's Fishy, 2007, oil on linen, 20" x 16", courtesy the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery; Houston Awards Cycle announcement card; Allison Smith, Victory Hall, 2005, ceramic, textiles, wood, installation variable

December 3, 2009

LEADING CURATORS SELECT TEN-YEAR ANNIVERSARY ARTADIA AWARDEES 2009 SAN FRANCISCO

New York, NY — Artadia: The Fund for Art and Dialogue is delighted to announce the Artadia Awardees 2009 San Francisco. For three consecutive days (November 19-21, 2009), three internationally prominent jurors—Glen Helfand (San Francisco-based critic, curator, and educator), Diane Barber (Co- Director/Visual Arts Curator, DiverseWorks Artspace, Houston), and Raechell Smith (Director, H&R Block Artspace at the Kansas City Art Institute)—conducted studio visits with 15 short-listed artists drawn from a record-breaking 680 applicants in the Bay Area.

The two Artadia Awardees 2009 San Francisco at the $15,000 level are: James Gobel and Allison Smith. The five recipients of the $3,000 awards are: Moses Nornberg, Brion Nuda Rosch, Leslie Shows, Weston Teruya, and Richard T. Walker.

Local juror Glen Helfand said of the process: “In the current economic climate, financial support for artists is so important, and the Artadia Awards generate a sense of excitement and reassurance that there are indeed resources, unrestricted ones, out there. The fact that Artadia started in San Francisco a decade ago makes it clear that the awards are an enduring part of the local art economy. The studio visits were extremely gratifying—it was wonderful to see the quality of work and the range of themes that emerged.”

“San Francisco is home to so many gifted visual artists,” said Luis R. Cancel, San Francisco’s Director of Cultural Affairs. “I wish to congratulate all the awardees on their achievement, and thank Artadia for highlighting our vibrant visual arts community since 1999.”

This is Artadia’s ten-year anniversary awards cycle in San Francisco, where Artadia was founded as the ArtCouncil, Inc. in 1997 by collector and investment banker Christopher E. Vroom. From its roots in the Bay Area, Artadia has expanded its programming in the last decade to serve five cities around the country—Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Houston, and San Francisco—and has distributed more than $2.0 million to over 200 artists living and working in these communities.

Looking back, founder and president Christopher Vroom noted: “Artadia started in the Bay Area ten years ago with a premise and a question. The premise was that at the center of the arts and cultural ecosystem, at the very foundation, sits the artist. Their creative production powers the whole cultural economy. The question arises is that if the artist is so important to sustain creative culture, why weren’t there any support structures to help them succeed.”

“So Artadia was born with a mission to provide artists with financial support, exhibition opportunities, and a lifetime of introductions to curators, collectors, other artists, foundations, museums, and nonprofits, and access to professional development,” Vroom continued. “We have helped sustain artistic practice in a manner that has positively affected the art world and civic society. Artists aren’t just —more— 1 important to support because of the objects they create; they serve importantly as educators, civic leaders, and mentors. They are advocates of the imagination. I consider it a great privilege to be able to enter the lives of so many creative people. I am constantly amazed at what they are doing. I am so grateful to all our friends in the Bay Area and around the country who have made Artadia possible.”

Applications for the Artadia Awards were open to visual artists in all media and at any stage of their career working and living in the 5-county San Francisco Bay Area. The application was available online for three months from July 15 – October 15, 2009. The three first round jurors—Glen Helfand; Doryun Chong, Associate Curator, Department of Painting and Sculpture, Museum of Modern Art, New York; and Lauren Ross, Donald R. Mullen, Jr. Curator & Director of Arts Programs, Friends of the High Line—named the 15 Finalists in October.

Visionary support for Artadia in San Francisco is provided by The San Francisco Foundation and many generous individuals committed to the arts in the Bay Area. Special thanks to Queens Nails Projects.

Captions (top to bottom): James Gobel, I've Stuck Around, Through Thick and Through Thin, 2008, felt, yarn, rhinestones, acryl, 50" x 36"; Allison Smith, Victory Hall, 2005, ceramic, textiles, wood, installation variable; Moses Nornberg, White Noise: Six Beats Deep, 2007, cast speakers, wood, paint, 36" x 96" x 36"; Brion Nuda Rosch, Falling is Falling Down on Me (Waterfalls on Waterfalls), 2009, book page on found book page; 10" x 7"; Leslie Shows, Display of Properties, detail, 2009, flags, acrylic, paper on wall, 50' x 30'; Weston Teruya, Scratched into the crumbling face (he carried it with a bit of swagger), 2009, mixed paper media, 28.5" x 22" x 10"; Richard T. Walker, be as i imagine, 2008, archive inkjet print, 14" x 11".