A new scholarship recognizing exceptional work by teenage writers and artists has been established to honor the legacy of a world-renowned artist and writer who was born in Galesburg.
The Alliance for Young Artists & Writers, the non-profit that presents the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, received an endowment gift of $500,000 from the Destina Foundation to establish the Dorothea Tanning Gold Medal Portfolio Award.
Tanning was born on Galesburg in 1910, and lived on Hawkinson Avenue while attending Galesburg schools. She graduated from Knox College in 1932, and established herself in the New York art scene during the 1940s.
Early in her career, Tanning was affiliated with surrealism. But she is known for developing a unique mode of expression that explored the contours of the human form. Her paintings, sculptures, and collages were known internationally and represented in major museum collections.
Tanning was also a writer, publishing two collections of poetry, two memoirs, and a novel.
Tanning died in 2012 in her Manhattan home at the age of 101. She was married to artist Max Ernst for 30 years.
The $500,000 from the Destina Foundation in Tanning’s honor creates the largest endowment in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards' history and is the program's first endowed award to be fully funded and named in honor of an artist.
“An award that recognizes both the accomplishments and the potential of teenaged artists and writers is a perfect way to celebrate Dorothea Tanning's lifetime of creativity, experimentation, and generosity. I know she would join us in congratulating each recipient of the Tanning Award just beginning to explore what she once described as the 'limitless expanse of POSSIBILITY' that she had discovered in the arts as a young person,” said Pamela Johnson, president of the Destina Foundation.
The recipient of the Tanning Award will be selected annually through the national competition process of the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, which provide significant recognition and scholarship opportunities to teenagers whose work excels in originality, skill, and the emergence of a personal voice or vision. It will include a scholarship prize, currently valued at $12,500, as well as related program support.
The inaugural award will be presented this week.
For more information about Tanning, visit: www.dorotheatanning.org.
For more information about the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards, visit artandwriting.org.
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