The Factor Prize for Southern Art was established in 2007 by Elizabeth and Mallory Factor

Mallory Factor

Mallory Factor is an American businessman and political activist. He is president of Mallory Factor, Inc., an independent merchant bank and financial relations consultancy that he founded in 1976. Mr...

 and The Gibbes Museum of Art

Gibbes Museum of Art

The Gibbes Museum of Art is an art museum in Charleston, South Carolina. Established as the Carolina Art Association in 1858, the museum moved into a new Beaux Arts building at 135 Meeting Street in 1905...

. It is given annually with a cash prize of $10,000, to "acknowledge an artist

Artist

An artist is a person engaged in one or more of any of a broad spectrum of activities related to creating art, practicing the arts and/or demonstrating an art. The common usage in both everyday speech and academic discourse is a practitioner in the visual arts only...

 whose work contributes to a new understanding of the South" and is the most generous prize of its type in the region.

The prize may be awarded to an artist who has already produced a body of significant work or whose work shows considerable promise. Eligible artists are those who reside, work or are from Alabama

Alabama

Alabama is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. It is bordered by Tennessee to the north, Georgia to the east, Florida and the Gulf of Mexico to the south, and Mississippi to the west. Alabama ranks 30th in total land area and ranks second in the size of its inland...

, Arkansas

Arkansas

Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...

, Florida

Florida

Florida is a state in the southeastern United States, located on the nation's Atlantic and Gulf coasts. It is bordered to the west by the Gulf of Mexico, to the north by Alabama and Georgia and to the east by the Atlantic Ocean. With a population of 18,801,310 as measured by the 2010 census, it...

, Georgia

Georgia (U.S. state)

Georgia is a state located in the southeastern United States. It was established in 1732, the last of the original Thirteen Colonies. The state is named after King George II of Great Britain. Georgia was the fourth state to ratify the United States Constitution, on January 2, 1788...

, Louisiana

Louisiana

Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...

, Mississippi

Mississippi

Mississippi is a U.S. state located in the Southern United States. Jackson is the state capital and largest city. The name of the state derives from the Mississippi River, which flows along its western boundary, whose name comes from the Ojibwe word misi-ziibi...

, North Carolina

North Carolina

North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...

, South Carolina

South Carolina

South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...

, Tennessee

Tennessee

Tennessee is a U.S. state located in the Southeastern United States. It has a population of 6,346,105, making it the nation's 17th-largest state by population, and covers , making it the 36th-largest by total land area...

, or Virginia

Virginia

The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...

.

Unlike any other award of its type, the design of the Factor Prize creates an archive of information about Southern artists that can be used by curators, collectors, academicians and the public. Nominations will form the basis of this searchable online archive of Southern artists commencing in early 2008.

The shortlist for the prize for 2008 are Jose Alvarez, Radcliff Bailey, William Christenberry, Henri Schindler, Philip Simmons, Stacy-Lynn Waddell and Jeff Whetstone.

On May 19, 2008, the first annual Factor Prize for Southern Art was awarded to Jeff Whetstone, a North Carolina photographer.

Sources

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/mar/20/four_notable_artists_will_compete_wet_pa34343/

http://www.charleston.net/news/2008/may/19/inaugural_factor_prize_funded_by_local_c41417/?print

Gibbes Museum Announces 2008 Winner is Jeff Whetstone, http://www.gibbesmuseum.org/visit/press_releases_detail.php?id=38

External links

• Gibbes Museum of Art
• Factor Prize for Southern Art