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Columbus Arts Festival Award Winners
Each year, the Columbus Arts Festival presents $21,000 in prizes to exhibiting artists on Saturday morning of Festival weekend. Award winners receive cash prizes, glass sculpture awards created by Columbus artist Lawrence Tuber and exemption from the following year’s Arts Festival jury. Artist awards are funded by ticket sales from the Patron Party, enabling them to serve as a sustainable and competitive incentive for drawing the world’s best artists. Funding artist awards with Patron Party proceeds began in 2018 and allowed the Arts Festival to double cash prize amounts.
Award winners are chosen by on-site representatives of the jurors who select all exhibiting artists earlier in the year.
Twelve awards are available:
- Best in Show ($4,000)
- Jurors’ Choice, 3-Dimensional (three available for $2,000 each)
- Jurors’ Choice, 2-Dimensional (three available for $2,000 each)
- Merit Award (three available for $1,000 each)
- Best Presentation ($1,000)
- Best Emerging Artist ($1,000)
2019 Winners
Best in Show ($4,000)
- Diane Binder, 2D mixed media (Rockbridge, OH, T213)
Jurors’ Choice, 3-Dimensional ($2,000 each)
- Larry Allen, ceramics (Leeds, AL, C407)
- Jennifer Ivory, 3D mixed media (Corvallis, OR, M535)
- Harry Welsch/Kimberley Wellman-Welsch/Adrienne Welsch, ceramics (Lutz, FL, T206)
Jurors’ Choice, 2-Dimensional ($2,000 each)
- Craig Brabson, photography/digital photography (Nashville, TN, R345)
- James Carter, painting (Southbury, CT, B108)
- Kendra Runnels, 2D mixed media (Augusta, GA, C405)
Merit Award ($1,000 each)
- Sang Kim, painting (Baldwinville, MA, C408)
- Robin Lauersdorf, drawing (Monona, WI, M565)
- Clinton Wood, painting (Cincinnati, OH, P158)
Best Presentation ($1,000)
- Teresa Merriman, 3D mixed media (Westcliffe, CO, M557)
Best Emerging Artist ($1,000)
- Tatiana Melnikova (Columbus, OH, R377)