cleveland arts prize 2024

Cleveland Arts Prize promotes creativity in Northeast Ohio by honoring artists for artistic excellence and recognizes community leaders who help regional arts flourish. Cleveland Arts Prize (CAP) was established by the Women’s City Club in 1960, and continues today as the nation’s oldest municipal arts award and an ongoing platform for celebrating Northeast Ohio’s exceptional arts community. In its earliest years, the group commissioned the Arts Prize medal, launched a scholarship program and established an endowment that secured the annual awarding of prizes.

Discipline Prize Criteria:

A body of original work that consistently exemplifies the highest level of artistic excellence as shown by but not limited to:

• Mastery of traditional skill and willingness to challenge status quo
• Awareness and/or acknowledgment of contemporary and/or changing schools of thought respective to discipline
• High level of continuity between artist statement and work
• Regional, national and/or international recognition*
• Contributions to the canon of knowledge that will endure beyond the artist's life*

*These criteria will be assessed relative to career level.

Applicants will be placed into career levels based on the following requirements:

Emerging Artist Award: Candidate is currently living in Northeast Ohio and has created significant work or projects and shows remarkable promise for further development of their artistic careers.

Mid-Career Artist Award: Candidate is currently residing or has previously resided in Northeast Ohio and whose work has received both regional and national recognition.

Lifetime Achievement Award: Candidate has worked in Northeast Ohio over a period of decades and whose artistic achievements have brought distinction to the artist individually and to the region as a whole.

Determination of Winners

Discipline Prize winners receive an unrestricted prize of $10,000 each. Special Prize recipients are honorary.

Winning applicants are selected by the Cleveland Arts Prize Jury, composed ofartists, community leaders, and past winners. Their decision will be final and no further correspondence shall be considered.

Discipline applicants are reviewed through a two tier process. Each discipline's respective juries put forth up to three finalists to be reviewed by what is called The Academy Jury. This is the second and final round of review of the finalists from each discipline. The Academy Jury determines the Emerging Prize Winners, Mid-Career Prize Winners, and Lifetime Achievement Winner.

The Special Prize Jury members review all nominees and determine the winners for each of the Special Prizes.