We congratulate Shiqing Deng,  winner of the third Bennett Prize and Ruth Dealy, winner of the inaugural Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt Prize for Achievement in Figurative Realism presented at the Muskegon Museum of Art in Muskegon, Michigan. And we salute Steven Alan Bennett and Elaine Melotti Schmidt for their commitment to promoting women figurative painters and their work. Themselves collectors of figurative paintings of women by women, they established the Bennett Prize for Women Figurative Realist Painters. Beginning in 2014, the couple worked with artists, The Pittsburgh Foundation, and the Muskegon Museum of Art in Michigan to launch these prizes that select 10 finalists in a juried competition, gives one of them a $50,000 cash award, and creates a traveling exhibition of the finalists' work that travels the United States. The winner of the newly established Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt Prize for Achievement in Figurative Realism receives an award of $10,000. By propelling the careers of talented women figurative painters who have not yet realized full professional recognition, both new artists and those who have painted for many years, the Prize will encourage women painters to take their place among the most celebrated painters, often men, in the art world today.

By Published On: January 22nd, 2024Categories: American ArtComments Off on Congratulating Shiqing Deng and Ruth Dealy!