The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Hudgens Prize returns offering $50K, exhibit
The Hudgens Prize, a visual arts competition with an award of $50,000, is returning.
The Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for the Arts launched the competition open only to Georgia artists in 2010, and both the Duluth arts center and ultimate winner Gyun Hur benefited from the positive publicity and good will that it generated.
But the cash award, one of the largest for an individual artist in the country, was funded by an anonymous donor for just that year. Until the recent announcement, it had remained an open question if the Hudgens would be able to again present the competition, whose reward included a solo exhibition at the arts center.
“We are extremely excited,” Hudgens executive director Teresa Osborn said in a statement. “Besides bringing the work of all the entered artists to the attention of worldclass jurists, the competition awards a large cash stipend to the winning artist that should allow them to concentrate fully on their art for the following year, without financial strain and distractions, which is truly an invaluable opportunity.”
To guide the second competition, the Hudgens appointed an advisory committee of Georgia arts leaders: Susan Bridges, Tina Cox, Jerry Cullum, Susannah Darrow, Julia Fenton, Marianne Lambert, Tina Lilly and Michael Rooks.
Hur — a South Korean-born artist still in her 20s, who has gone on to be selected for an Artadia Award and exhibits in Chicago and Hong Kong, and who created a major Flux Projects installation at Lenox Square Mall — also is a committee member.
The Hudgens Prize competition is open to individual artists, age 18 and older, and a full-time Georgia resident. public art commission.
The artwork will have a high-profile site in a new roundabout at West Lawrenceville Street and McClure Bridge and Irvindale roads.
In January, Duluth Mayor Nancy Harris formed the Gateway Art Project Committee to plan and implement the process of choosing a piece, or pieces.
The location is considered a “gateway” into downtown Duluth, and the selected artwork is expected to become a city icon and a symbol of welcome into the city’s most historic area.
Duluth also projects that it will be the first of many public art pieces it will commission or purchase.
The city expects to form a public art commission to chart future selections.
A Fortune 500 company, AGCO is a manufacturer of agricultural equipment, sold in more than 140 countries worldwide, whose corporate headquarters is located in Duluth.
“AGCO understands the importance of providing citizens with public art that not only enhances the aesthetic value of Duluth, but becomes a lasting statement that AGCO is a business that supports economic vitality in our community,” Harris said in a statement.
To view the call to artists and additional project information: www.duluthga.net/ community/publicart.
● In another show of community support, AGCO has partnered with Gwinnett Environmental and Heritage Center (GEHC) on a program that will educate about the food chain, past and present farming technology and how it works within the agricultural profession.
Through this gift valued at $50,000, GEHC’s six heritage sites and AGCO will develop educational programming and gardens and exhibits that provide an interpretive, hands-on experience of a working farm for students, seniors and visitors with disabilities.
The gift includes a Massey Ferguson 2670HD tractor, which will be used as a resource in programming and as a tool to create the gardens and plant crops at the GEHC sites, including the ChesserWilliams House and McDaniel Farm.
GEHC executive director Steve Cannon said the partnership “will allow students to experience the planting of a seed, the nurturing of a plant, and the commodity that is produced and how this simple, biological process has a profound impact on the world economy.”
More on GEHC: www.gwinnettehc.org. More on AGCO: www.agcocorp.com.