Brooklyn Museum Announces Annual Emerging Artist Prize

NEW YORK, April 4, 2019 /PRNewswire/ -- The Brooklyn Museum announces a new annual award for an emerging artist living or working in Brooklyn. The UOVO Prize at the Brooklyn Museum is supported by UOVO, a New York City-based fine art storage and services company. The selected artist will receive a solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum, a public installation on the façade of UOVO's forthcoming facility in Brooklyn's Bushwick neighborhood, and a cash award of $25,000. The winner will be announced in June 2019, and chosen by a jury of curators from the Brooklyn Museum. The public installation will open in fall 2019, concurrent with the opening of UOVO:BROOKLYN, and the exhibition will follow at the Museum in 2020. 

"The Brooklyn Museum is excited to join UOVO in this effort to highlight and nurture the vibrant cultural producers of Brooklyn," says Anne Pasternak, Shelby White and Leon Levy Director, Brooklyn Museum. "We're proud to share this borough with countless emerging artists, and are always looking for opportunities to support their work in a multitude of ways. We're grateful to be partnering with UOVO to give yet another artist the opportunity to display their work both in our institution and as part of a public installation, while providing them with the funds to continue working and making Brooklyn an unparalleled artistic hub."

The award is for emerging artists, defined for purposes of the Prize as an artist whose career could benefit greatly from a public installation and solo exhibition at the Brooklyn Museum. To qualify for the UOVO Prize at the Brooklyn Museum, the artist must live or maintain a studio in Brooklyn. Brooklyn Museum jury members will nominate local artists in a closed selection process. At the museum's invitation, three candidates will submit proposals for an exhibition as well as a design for the UOVO:BROOKLYN façade. The selected artist's design will be printed at approximately 50 x 50 feet and positioned adjacent to the facility's entrance on Evergreen Avenue. The installation will remain in place for one year.

The Brooklyn Museum has long been dedicated to fostering the vibrant arts community in Brooklyn. It has been an early supporter of local artists ranging from Kehinde Wiley and Wangechi Mutu, to Jean-Michel Basquiat, through education initiatives and exhibition surveys. The UOVO Prize is in perfect alignment with the Museum's core values, allowing for the continued financial and institutional support of an emerging artist, while also providing greater public access to art with the public mural adorning UOVO's new Brooklyn facility.

"As we prepare to open UOVO:BROOKLYN, we want to celebrate the artists and institutions in this dynamic borough," said Steven Guttman, UOVO chairman and founder. "We hope the opportunity for a solo museum exhibition, combined with a public installation and direct cash award, will have significant impact on the winning artist's career. We are proud to partner with the Brooklyn Museum to identify the borough's most exciting emerging artists, and it is an honor to see the UOVO Prize at the Brooklyn Museum among the museum's excellent curatorial programming. By supporting both a public installation and a museum exhibition, we hope the Prize will engage the community at multiple levels."

About the Brooklyn Museum: Founded in 1823 as the Brooklyn Apprentices' Library Association, the Brooklyn Museum contains one of the nation's most comprehensive and wide-ranging collections enhanced by a distinguished record of exhibitions, scholarship, and service to the public. The Museum's vast holdings span 5,000 years of human creativity from cultures in every corner of the globe. Collection highlights include the ancient Egyptian holdings, renowned for objects of the highest world-class quality, and the arts of the Americas collection, which is unrivaled in its diverse range from Native American art and artifacts and Spanish colonial painting, to 19th- and early 20th-century American painting, sculpture, and decorative objects. The Museum is also home to the Elizabeth A. Sackler Center for Feminist Art, which is dedicated to the study and exhibition of feminist art and is the only curatorial center of its kind. The Brooklyn Museum is both a leading cultural institution and a community museum dedicated to serving a wide-ranging audience. Located in the heart of Brooklyn, the Museum welcomes and celebrates the diversity of its home borough and city. Few, if any, museums in the country attract an audience as varied with respect to race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, educational background, and age as the audience of the Brooklyn Museum.  

About UOVO: UOVO is New York's #1 provider of art, fashion and collections storage and services. From climate-controlled storage and private viewing rooms, to transportation, packing, crating, and installation services, UOVO provides an array of storage options and innovative service and management solutions tailored to meet the specialized needs of any collection. Each UOVO facility is purpose-designed and managed by a team of industry-leading experts dedicated to ensuring that works are safeguarded with the highest caliber of security, discretion, professionalism, and care.

CONTACT: Anne Maso, 646-747-4306, [email protected]

SOURCE UOVO