A mutual interest in art helped bring San Antonio collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Elaine Melotti Schmidt together. Now they are putting that shared passion to work to benefit others. The couple have endowed the Bennett Prize, a $50,000 biennial award that will be given to female artists who specialize in figurative realist imagery and have not yet received full professional recognition.
San Antonio News-Express
A San Antonio couple, art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, will begin the inaugural Bennett Prize, the largest prize offered solely to women painters (painting in the figurative realist style). The winner will receive $25,000 annually for two years.
Glasstire
The largest ever art award offered only to women painters, The Bennett Prize, was announced today by art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, who are endowing the $50,000 biennial prize at The Pittsburgh Foundation.
NEXT Pittsburgh
The largest prize ever offered solely to women painters will be endowed at the Pittsburgh Foundation. The $50,000 Bennett Prize was announced Feb. 19 by art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt of San Antonio, Texas.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
The Pittsburgh Foundation has established The Bennett Prize to recognize and encourage emerging women artists who paint in the figurative realist style. The biennial award comprises $50,000 and a solo museum exhibition. Art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Elaine Melotti Schmidt of San Antonio, Texas, endowed a $3 million fund at The Pittsburgh Foundation to ensure that The Prize will be awarded every two years in perpetuity.
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Curated by Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, co-curator of The Bennett Collection.
Poets and Artists
A variety of artwork inspired by the premise of Visions of Venus will be shown at the Zhou B Art Center, in Chicago, Illinois, from April 20 through June 8, 2018, that includes paintings, drawings, photographs and sculptures created by fifty-three artists from the United States and abroad.
Poets and Artists
The Bennett Prize, created by art collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, awards $50,000 to a woman artist in order to help her create a solo exhibition of figurative realist paintings.
booooooom.com
Podcast with Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt, curator for the Visions of Venus / Venus’ Visions exhibition, discussing the exhibition with John Dalton.
JohnDalton.me
