Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize
Applications Are Open for the 2025 Sondheim Art Prize
The Baltimore Office of Promotion & The Arts (BOPA) is proud to announce the 20th edition of the Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize. The prize will award $30,000 to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region. The application deadline is Friday, November 15, 2024.
See Application
2025 Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize
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2025 Sondheim Art Prize
The 20th edition of the Sondheim Art Prize will award $30,000 to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region. Five finalists will be selected for the final review for the prizes; their work will be exhibited in the Walters Art Museum April to July 2025.
The application deadline is November 15, 2024.
Apply Now -
Estimated Timeline
- Application open: Mid-October 2024
- Application deadline: November 15, 2024
- Announcement of semifinalists: Early December 2024
- Announcement of finalists: Mid-January 2025
- Finalist studio visits with Walters exhibition team: February 2025
- Finalist exhibition installation: April 7–11 2025 (Wed–Fri, 9am-4pm)
- Finalist exhibition Press Preview: Tuesday, April 15, 6pm (tentatively)
- Finalist exhibition duration: April 19–July 20, 2025
- Finalist interviews: June 7, 2025
- Finalist exhibition deinstallation: July 21–22, 2025
- Award announcement: TBD in late June, at 7pm, galleries open at 6pm
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Information Sessions
BOPA will host two information sessions:
- Tuesday, November 5, at 6:00 p.m. – REGISTER HERE
- Thursday, November 7 at 3:00 p.m. – REGISTER HERE
to help artists plan their applications and answer questions. Both sessions will take place over Zoom.
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Application Process
Image Submission Guidelines
- Artists may submit five (5) images of artwork for the first round of jury review.
- Images should be in jpeg format and be not larger than approximately 3MB.
Video Submission Guidelines
- Artists submitting time-based works may submit up to ten (10) minutes of work. The 10 minutes may include excerpts from up to five (5) works as long as the combined time totals no more than 10 minutes.
- Artists wishing to submit still and time-based works, subtract two (2) minutes from the allowed 10-minute time-based total for every still image submitted.
- Videos should be in .mov or .mp4 format.
Please contact Lou Joseph at 443-263-4339 or ljoseph@promotionandarts.org with questions regarding the submission of sound-based works.
See Full Guidelines -
2025 Sondheim Jurors
Jaqueline Cedar was born in Los Angeles and currently lives and works in Brooklyn. Recent exhibitions include Serious Topics, Los Angeles (2024), Shelter Gallery, New York (2023), TV Projects, Brooklyn (2023), Long Story Short, New York (2023), Shin Haus, New York (2022), and Smoke the Moon, Santa Fe (2022). Press includes Artnet, Hyperallergic, Huffington Post, Two Coats of Paint, New American Paintings, Gorky’s Granddaughter, Painters’ Table, and The Boston Globe.
Mike Cloud is a Chicago-based artist who earned his MFA from Yale in 2003. He has been awarded the inaugural Chiaro Award from the Headlands Center for the Arts in California; a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, and residencies at the Meulensteen Art Centre in the Netherlands as well as the Sharpe-Walentas Studio Program in New York. Cloud is currently an Assistant Professor at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
Jennie Goldstein has worked in various positions at the Whitney Museum of Art, beginning as a Curatorial Assistant before pursuing a graduate degree. Goldstein has curated several prominent exhibitions, including the currently on-view In the Balance: Between Painting and Sculpture, 1965–1985. She also curated or co-curated Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019; Christine Sun Kim: Too Much Future; and An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2019. Goldstein recently served as a member of the Museum’s Equity and Inclusion Steering Group, which centered staff voices in the institution’s Equity and Inclusion Plan.
Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize
Since 2006, the Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize, which is supported in part by the generosity of the Maryland State Arts Council, annually awards $30,000 to a visual artist or visual artist collaborators living and working in the Baltimore region. This year, five finalists will be selected for the final review for the prize and their work exhibited in the Walters Art Museum.
The purpose of the Sondheim Art Prize, and the finalists’ exhibition, is to assist in furthering the careers of visual artists or visual artist collaborators living and working in the greater Baltimore region. The prize is named in honor of Janet & Walter Sondheim, both of whom were instrumental in furthering arts & culture in Baltimore City. Janet Sondheim danced with the pioneering Denishawn Dancers, a legendary dance troupe founded by Ruth St. Denis and Ted Shawn. Walter Sondheim, Jr. was one of Baltimore’s most important civic leaders for over 50 years. He was deeply involved in the development of Charles Center and the Inner Harbor and continued to be civically active until his death in 2007.
BOPA Announces the Recipient of the 2024 Sondheim Art Prize
BOPA proudly announces the winner of the 19th annual Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize. The 2024 Sondheim Art Prize was presented by M&T Bank and supported by the generosity of the Maryland State Arts Council.
The jurors selected ceramicist Sam Mack as the recipient of the $30,000 prize. The 2024 Sondheim finalists also include weaver Helen Ascoli and mixed-media artist Amy Boone-McCreesh, recipient of the studio residency at the Bromo Seltzer Arts Tower.
Each finalist also received a $2,500 M&T Bank Finalist Award to assist them in preparing for the Sondheim Finalists Exhibition curated by Christine Sciacca, Curator of European Art at the Walters.
2023 Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize Recipient: Abigail Lucien
The 2023 Sondheim Finalists also include mixed-media installation artist Nekish Durrett and Baltimore-based painter Kyrae Dawaun.
Questions About the Sondheim Art Prize?
If you have questions about the Janet & Walter Sondheim Art Prize, contact BOPA's Prizes & Competitions Manager Lou Joseph at 443-263-4339 or ljoseph@promotionandarts.org.
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Explore available resources for artists in Baltimore City, including grants, art prizes, mural projects, and more.
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