The Davis Museum at Wellesley College announces the launch of the new Prilla Smith Brackett Award. The biennial award will honor an outstanding female visual artist based in the Greater Boston area and is intended to draw attention to her exceptional contributions to the field and region. The award with be administered by the Davis Museum, and the inaugural winner will be announced in Fall 2019.
The Prilla Smith Brackett Award will be given to an artist whose work and exhibition record demonstrate extraordinary artistic vision, talent, and skill. Recipients will receive a $15,000 cash award intended to support travel, research, project development, or any other expenses related to career advancement.
Applications will be reviewed biennially by a three-person jury comprised of a curator from the Davis Museum, an outside representative from the arts community, and the most recent awardee. The Davis will strive to assemble a jury that is diverse in all regards to racial, ethnic, national, and religious identities and sexual orientations. The review process will identify three finalists for a studio visit by the jury members, a crucial step in determining the ultimate award recipient.
Eligibility and Award Application
To be eligible, applicants must: live in the Greater Boston area (all towns within Interstate 495); identify as female; work in the mediums of painting, sculpture, drawing, printmaking, mixed media, photography, film, video, and/or new media arts. Artists at any career stage beyond the first five years of professional practice and of all ages, sexual orientations, and racial, ethnic, national, and religious identities are encouraged to apply.
Application guidelines for the Prilla Smith Brackett Award will be available on February 11, 2019. The deadline for submissions is April 8, 2019. The Award will be announced in September 2019, and its recipient will be honored on the Davis Museum website and be required to present her work at a public event and reception, in October 2019. Any interested parties can email psb_award@wellesley.edu for additional information.
About Prilla Smith Brackett
Prilla Smith Brackett is an artist known for working with landscape conceptually, depicting more than a description of a place. She has exhibited throughout the eastern US including a solo show traveling to eight venues in New England and the mid-Atlantic States. Other venues include the DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, MA; National Academy of Sciences, DC; The Art Complex Museum, MA; and Hanoi Contemporary Art Center, Vietnam.
Her work is in the collections of the Harvard University Art Museums, New Britain Museum of American Art, Danforth Art Museum, Worcester Art Museum, and the National Museum of Women in the Arts. Her honors include a finalist award in painting from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts and the Ragdale Foundation, an award and residency at the Ucross Foundation, an Earthwatch Artist award in Madagascar, and a fellowship in painting at the Bunting Institute of Radcliffe College.
Born in New Orleans, Brackett has social science degrees from Sarah Lawrence College and the University of California Berkeley. She earned her MFA in drawing and painting from the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. She added printmaking to her practice in 2003. Brackett lives and works in Boston, MA.
ABOUT THE DAVIS MUSEUM
One of the oldest and most acclaimed academic fine arts museums in the United States, the Davis Museum is a vital force in the intellectual, pedagogical, and social life of Wellesley College. It seeks to create an environment that encourages visual literacy, inspires new ideas, and fosters involvement with the arts both within the College and the larger community.
ABOUT WELLESLEY COLLEGE AND THE ARTS
The Wellesley College arts curriculum and the highly acclaimed Davis Museum are integral components of the College’s liberal arts education. Departments and programs from across the campus enliven the community with world-class programming–classical and popular music, visual arts, theatre, dance, author readings, symposia, and lectures by some of today’s leading artists and creative thinkers–most of which are free and open to the public.
Since 1875, Wellesley College has been the preeminent liberal arts college for women. Known for its intellectual rigor and its remarkable track record for the cultivation of women leaders in every arena, Wellesley—only 12 miles from Boston—is home to some 2,400 undergraduates from 49 states and 58 countries.
