Alex, Thanks for your comments and concerns. Another way to look at the process of the grand prize drawing this year is that ALL of the artists were, in fact, worthy of winning the grand prize. It was truly impossible for me to further narrow the field this year and select one grand prize winner. The quality of work in this year's 10 was outstanding. I wrestled with the decision for almost two months and was unable to name just one work that stood out over all of the others. Each and every one of them could have won the grand prize - they were all winners. But the prize was set up so that one artist received the grand prize. Dividing the grand prize equally among the artists was considered, but we felt that it went against the definition and purpose of a grand prize. One artist had to be selected. A random selection took place to exhibit publicly that all of the artists in this year's 10 deserved to win. I also want to highlight that all of the artists in this years group of ten were winners for having been selected from thousands of applicants. These artists are now part of a growing public collection. We look forward to growing our relationship with these artists and their work, both the work we have collected through the prize and future works we hope to collect. Please let me know if you have any more questions or concerns either here or by writing to me directly at [email protected] Paige

Thanks Onajide! Changing the link now.

Just a note...the photo was taken by Coke O'Neal for his upcoming show.