Submission Deadline for 2009 Cintas Fellowship Applications is Jan. 30

For Immediate Release
Contact: Kitty Dumas
Frost Art Museum
305-348-2890
kdumas@fiu.edu

Miami, (Jan. 16, 2009) Artists and musicians have until Jan. 30 to submit applications for the coveted annual Cintas fellowships in the visual arts and music administered by the Cintas Foundation and the Cintas Fellowship Program at FIU’s Frost Art Museum. The fellowship competitions for the 2009 Emilio SÃ¡nchez Award in the Visual Arts and the 2009 Brandon Fradd Fellowship in Music Composition began Dec. 9, 2008. Finalists will be announced in May 2009. Cintas fellows are awarded $15,000 and the opportunity to pursue an art project outlined in their applications.
The visual arts award is funded through the generous support of the Emilio SÃ¡nchez Foundation to recognize the achievements of the winner of the Cintas Fellowship in the visual arts. Based in New York City, the foundation is a nonprofit organization that preserves and promotes the legacy of the Cuban-born American artist Emilio SÃ¡nchez (1921-1999) through research, exhibitions and publications. Applicants must submit original images or film projects. Past visual arts fellows include Ernesto Oroza, Carlos Alfonzo, Teresita FernÃ¡ndez, Anthony Goicolea, Ernesto Oroza, photographers Andres Serrano and MarÃa MartÃnez-CaÃÃ±as, sculptor Maria Elena GonzÃ¡lez and filmmaker Mari RodrÃguez-Ichaso.
Established in 2006, the Brandon Fradd Fellowship is generously endowed by Brandon Fradd of NewYork City. Managing director of Apollo Medical Partners, Fradd, a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Medical School, grew up in Miami among Cuban friends from whom he learned Spanish and developed an interest in Cuban music. Applicants for the music fellowship must submit original musical compositions and recordings of their work. Past music fellows include Armando Bayolo, Sergio Barroso, Mario Bauza (known as the father of Afro-Cuban jazz), JosÃ© Bernardo Aldo Rafael Forte, JuliÃ¡n Orbon, Tania LeÃ³n and Orlando Jacinto Garcia. Last year, the first William B. Warren Lifetime Achievement Award was presented to Bebo Valdes.
The only one of its kind in the nation, the program has honored some of the world’s most talented Cuban artists and musicians. The Cintas Foundation awards fellowships annually to creative artists of Cuban lineage who are currently residing outside of Cuba.
Since it was established in 1963, the Cintas Fellowship Program has honored more than 300 artists. FIU and the Cintas Foundation Board have been administering the awards program since 2005. The Cintas Fellowship Program encourages creative development in architecture, literature, music composition and the visual arts, and awards annual fellowships in creative writing and visual arts as well. The foundation was established with funds from the estate of Oscar B. Cintas (1887-1957), former Cuban ambassador to the United States, a prominent industrialist and patron of the arts.
Application forms and competition requirements are available online at www.cintasfoundation.org or by contacting Stephanie Guasp at the Frost Art Museum at sguasp@gmail.com.

About the Frost Art Museum- Florida International University

The Frost is an AAM accredited museum and Smithsonian affiliate. The museum is located at 10975 SW 17th St. across from the Blue garage and adjacent to the Wertheim Performing Arts Center on the University Park campus. Its hours of operation are Tuesday through Saturday 10-5 and Sunday noon-5. The Frost is closed on all legal holidays. For more information, please visit www.frostartmuseum.org or call 305.348.2890.