Vilcek Prizes

The Vilcek Prizes are awarded to foreign-born individuals residing permanently in the United States, with a legacy of outstanding achievement in the arts and sciences. The Foundation awards two Vilcek Prizes annually, one in biomedical science and the other in the arts and humanities; the latter in a field designated annually by the Foundation, such as fine arts, architecture, music, filmmaking, culinary art, literature, dance, contemporary music, design, and fashion. Each prize consists of a $100,000 cash award and a commemorative sculpture designed by Austrian-born graphic designer Stefan Sagmeister.^[17]

Vilcek Prize for Excellence

The Vilcek Prize for Excellence, introduced in 2019, recognizes immigrants whose contributions profoundly impact American society and world culture, or individuals who are champions for immigrant causes. The recipients receive a $100,000 cash award and a commemorative diploma designed by Jessica Walsh.

Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise

The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are awarded to foreign-born individuals who have demonstrated outstanding achievement during the early stages of their careers. Like the Vilcek Prize, the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise are awarded each year in the field of biomedical science and a selected art field. Creative Promise applicants are required to submit essays, personal statements, and examples of their work. To be eligible for the prize, applicants must have been born abroad, reside permanently in the United States, and be within the specified age limit. As of 2013, three prizes each will be awarded in biomedical science^[18] and a designated art field.^[19] Each recipient is awarded a $50,000 cash prize and a commemorative plaque.

Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History

In 2024, the Vilcek Foundation announced a new prize, The Marica Vilcek Prize in Art History.^[20] The prize honors Vilcek Foundation co-founder Marica Vilcek's career in art history; the prize is awarded to curators and art historians whose work has had a profound impact on their institutions, and on their field or area of scholarship and curatorial work more broadly. In its inaugural presentation in 2024, three prizes of $100,000 each were awarded to Monika Bincsik,^[21] Pierre Terjanian,^[22] and Wolfram Koeppe.^[23]

Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare

In 2019, the Vilcek Foundation partnered with the Arnold P. Gold Foundation to create a joint award, the Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare. The award is bestowed to a foreign-born individual in the United States who has demonstrated an extraordinary impact on humanism in healthcare through their professional achievements.

The 2019 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare was given to Dr. Mona Hanna-Attisha for her advocacy and interventions in addressing the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.^{[24][non-primary source needed]} Dr. Vivek Murthy, 19th Surgeon General of the United States, is the recipient of the 2020 Vilcek-Gold Award for Humanism in Healthcare.^[25]

New American Perspectives

Since 2007, the Vilcek Foundation has been a sponsor of the New American Perspectives (formerly the "New American Filmmakers") program at the Hawaii International Film Festival (HIFF). Curated and presented in collaboration with HIFF, the program seeks out the most talented foreign-born filmmakers currently contributing to American cinema. The result is a diverse program that draws upon cinematic genres and traditions from around the world.

In 2019, the program was relaunched as the New American Perspectives program, to encompass sharing mixed media at the festival, including virtual reality programming.^[26]

Prize recipients

Current exhibitions

Past exhibitions

The Vilcek Foundation has hosted and supported the development of several exhibitions both on site at the Vilcek Foundation, and in partnership with museums and institutions around the globe.

Earlier events and exhibitions

The Vilcek Foundation's former headquarters, also on the Upper East Side, was the host of exhibitions and events featuring the work of immigrant artists, designers, filmmakers, and others.^[136]

Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery

Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery accompanies the exhibition of the same name curated by the Pueblo Pottery Collective, and coordinated by the Vilcek Foundation and the School for Advanced Research.^[156]

An impressive survey of more than 100 pieces of historic Pueblo pottery, Grounded in Clay: The Spirit of Pueblo Pottery is remarkable for the fact that the works have been selected by Pueblo community members – the Pueblo Pottery Collective.^[157]

The Pueblo Pottery Collective is made up of more than 60 participants from 21 Pueblo communities in the Southwest – among them potters and other artists, as well as writers, curators and community leaders – along with non-Pueblo stewards of Native American art. These community curators were invited to choose works from the collections of the Indian Arts Research Center at the School for Advanced Research in Santa Fe, New Mexico, and the Vilcek Collection in New York for the exhibition, and to write short essays or contributions on their selections for the catalog. The resulting work centers the voices and lived experiences of Native American people, artists, and community historians.

In addition to the contributions of the members of the Pueblo Pottery Collective, the catalog features essays by Dr. Joseph Aguilar, Rick Kinsel, Nora Naranjo Morse, and Elysia Poon.

Ralston Crawford: Air + Space + War

American art underwent a transformation in the period 1940–55, and nowhere is that change better exemplified than in the work of Ralston Crawford (1906–1978).

This exciting book presents a remarkable selection of Crawford’s paintings, drawings, photographs and prints from this pivotal era in the artist’s career. The catalogue, published by Merrell, accompanies the titular exhibition curated by Emily Schuchardt Navratil and organized by the Vilcek Foundation in collaboration with the Brandywine River Museum of Art and the Dayton Art Institute.^[158]

Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts

Marsden Hartley (1877–1943) was proud to call himself an American artist, but he dreamed of travel to Europe, believing that he would learn more there than in his home state of Maine or even in New York. His rise to prominence as a specifically American modernist was based largely on the visual influences that he encountered in 1912–15 in the vibrant cities of Paris, Berlin, and Munich, which he then synthesized through a New England perspective. Solitary by nature, Hartley never lost his wanderlust, and throughout his life found inspiration in many other landscapes and cultures, including in southern France, Italy, Bermuda, New Mexico, Mexico, and Canada.

Marsden Hartley: Adventurer in the Arts offers a fresh appraisal of this pioneering modernist, whose work continues to be celebrated for its spirituality and experimentation. Rick Kinsel’s introduction provides an overview of the ways Hartley’s peripatetic life shaped his artistic vision. Essays by William Low, Emily Schuchardt Navratil, and Kinsel explore works and artifacts in the Marsden Hartley Memorial Collection of Bates College Museum of Art in Lewiston, Maine.

A Place at the Table: New American Recipes from the Nation's Top Foreign-Born Chefs

A Place at the Table: New American Recipes from the Nation’s Top Foreign-Born Chefs introduces the immigrants who are transforming America’s culinary landscape — chefs who infuse their menus with the flavors of their heritage. It features recipes from 40 of the top foreign-born chefs working in the United States, including Dominique Crenn (France), Michael Solomonov (Israel), Marcus Samuelsson (Ethiopia/Sweden), Corey Lee (South Korea), and Daniela Soto-Innes (Mexico). Stories about the chefs tackling economic injustice and redefining restaurant culture are also told. Food writers included Padma Lakshmi contributed to the cookbook. A Place at the Table was released by Prestel Publishing on September 24, 2019.^[159] The cookbook was reviewed in several major media outlets, including Vogue Magazine, BuzzFeed, and New York Magazine. A Place at the Table: New American Recipes from the Nation's Top Foreign-Born Chefs is the recipient of a 2020 Gourmand Award in the category of United States Cuisine.^[160]

Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs

Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs explores the national and international influences on the multifaceted Canadian-born artist. Although he earned acclaim early in his career for his Precisionist paintings of an industrialized America, Crawford devoted the latter part of his career to abstract painting with a remarkable emotional dimension. Torn Signs focuses on two series—“Torn Signs” and “Semana Santa”—that the artist developed over the last two decades of his life. The catalogue includes essays from Rick Kinsel on the influence of Crawford’s travels to Europe, especially to Andalusia; William C. Agee on the artist’s life and reaction to historical events of the 20th century; John Crawford on the relationship between the two series and the role of photography in their development; and Emily Schuchardt Navratil on the genesis and context of individual works in each series. "Ralston Crawford: Torn Signs" was released by Merrell Publishers in April 2019.^[161]

American Odysseys: Writings by New Americans

American Odysseys is an anthology of twenty-two novelists, poets, and short story writers. Among the featured writers are Ethiopian-born Dinaw Mengestu, the recipient of the 2011 Vilcek Prize for Creative Promise in Literature; Yugoslavian-born Téa Obreht, the youngest author to receive the Orange Prize in Fiction; and Chinese-born Yiyun Li, a MacArthur Genius grantee. The foreword is by U.S. Poet Laureate Charles Simic, the winner of the 2011 Vilcek Prize for Literature. A private, hard copy edition was first published in January 2012, and a trade paperback edition was released by Dalkey Archive Press on May 2, 2013.^[162][163]

Masterpieces of American Modernism: From the Vilcek Collection

Masterpieces of American Modernism: From the Vilcek Collection, features ninety-eight paintings, works on paper and sculptures by twenty artists - including Stuart Davis, Arthur Dove, Marsden Hartley, Georgia O'Keeffe and Max Weber. William C. Agee contributed the book's introduction and Lewis Kachur wrote individual entries on each work. In addition to tracing the evolution of individual artists and the movement as a whole, the book explores developments within American Modernism, such as Synchromism and Color Abstraction, American Cubism, and the influence of the landscape and culture of the Southwest (an issue that is explored in depth in the book's Illustrated Timeline). The Collection also highlights the contributions of immigrant artists – eight of the twenty artists were born outside the United States. The book is prefaced by a collector's statement from Ján Vilček and Marica Vilcek and has contributions by The Vilcek Foundation's President, Rick Kinsel, and Associate Curator, Emily Schuchardt Navratil.