Richmond magazine's annual Theresa Pollak Prizes for Excellence in the Arts recognize the region's makers and creators through reader nominations and panel selection. This year's awards are in the categories of Applied Arts, Emerging Artist, Photography, Film, Dance and Lifetime Achievement. (Note that in 2014, the categories began alternating from one year to the next, so the categories from last year will appear again in 2016.)
The awards are named for Theresa Pollak (1899-2002), a native Richmonder, who is the only known Virginia artist to have lived in three centuries. Her greatest contributions to the region are founding the art schools at both Virginia Commonwealth University and the University of Richmond. Among her generations of students at VCU, a number of them became artists and educators who’ve gone on to influence countless others. She nudged our city’s history toward the pursuit of the artistic, and over time, that endeavor has become one of the Richmond region’s major components.
Pollak Award Honorees from recent years:
Applied Arts
Brian Korte (sculpture)
Karl Green (fashion)
Danny Finney (rattles, masks, puppets)
Coloratura (painting)
Susan Iverson (textile)
Andrea Donnelly (weaving)
Tom Chenoweth (sculpture)
Michael-Birch Pierce (textile)
Arts Innovator
Michael Gooding, (Richmond Triangle Players)
Ashley Kistler (curator)
Bernard Martin(painter)
1708 Gallery (gallery)
WRIR Radio (public arts and news medium)
Amanda Robinson and Gallery5 (curator, supporter)
Art 180 & Marlene Paul
Ram Bhagat
Morgan Yacoe (sculptor)
Dance
Rob Petres
Brett Bonda
Chris Burnside
Starr Foster
City Dance Troupe
Steve's House Dance Collective
Frances Wessells
Janine Bell
Ezibu Muntu Dance and Cultural foundation
Starr Foster/Dance Project
Pam Turner
Scott Putman and Amaranth Contemporary Dance
RVA Dance Collective
Ana Ines King and the Latin Ballet of Virginia
Pam England
Arnott Mader
Martha Curtis
Emerging Artist
Morgan Herrin (sculpter)
Chrisopher Conway (screen writing)
FEAST (mixed media/performance)
James Kurtis Fink (sculpture)
Sandra Luckett (mixed media)
Elizabeth Esther Motz (drawing, painting) (posthumous)
Heide Trepanier (painter)
Colleen Curran (writer, essayist)
Virginia Samsel (curator, works on paper)
Michele Young-Stone (writer)
Eric Knight (pen and ink drawing)
Jason Keith
Eva Rocha
Ensemble
The Taters (Rock)
Ban Caribe (Caribbean, worldbeat)
Bio Ritmo (Latin)
Devil’s Workshop (jazz, rock)
Hotel X (rock, jazz)
Lynn Ediger-Korzaia and the American Youth Harp Ensemble
Jazz Poets Society (hiphop, spoken word, rock)
Doug Richards and the Great American Music Ensemble
Richmond Boys Choir
Ululating Mummies (worldbeat, jazz, etc.)
Modern Groove Syndicate (jazz, funk)
No BS Brass (jazz, funk)
GWAR (heavy metal)
Samson Trinh & the Upper East Side Big Band (jazz, rock)
The DJ Williams Project (jazz, fusion, funk, soul)
Fine Art/Visual Arts
Pam Anderson (painter)
Sally Bowring (painter)
Richard Carlyon (multimedia)
Don Crow (painter)
David Freed (printmaker)
Myron Helfgott (multimedia)
Eleanor Rufty (painter)
Diego Sanchez (painter)
Elizabeth King (sculptor)
Richard Roth (mixed media)
Jack Wax (mixed media)
Susie Ganch (metalsmith, sculpture)
Javier Tapia (painting)
Tanja Softic (printmaker)
Matt Lively (painting)
Andras Bality (painting)
Sonya Clark
Photography
(split from Film category in 2008)
Gordon Stettinius
George Nan (photographer, educator)
Willie Ann Wright (pinhole photography)
Megan Holley (screenwriter, director)
James Parrish (co-founder, Richmond Moving Image Co-op)
Alyssa Salomon (daguerreotype)
Georgianne Stinnett (photographer)
Pam Fox (photographer, educator)
Travis Fullerton
Michael Lease
Susan Worsham
Regula Franz
Terry Brown
Film
Robert Griffith (documentarian)
Mike Jones (co-founder, Richmond Moving Image Co-op)
Megan Holley (screenwriter, director)
David Williams (filmmaker)
James Parrish (founder of Richmond Flicker, co-founder RMIC)
Sonali Gulati (filmmaker)
Ann Swanson (documentary filmmaker)
Rita McClenny
Todd Raviotta (filmmaker)
Patrick Gregory (filmmaker)
Rick Alverson (director)
Anne Chapman (casting director)
Music-Individual
Page Wilson (Amercian mongrel)
Cora Harvey Armstrong (gospel)
J. "Plunky" Branch (jazz)
Lisa Edwards-Burrs (classic, opera)
Roger Carroll (jazz, Americana)
James Erb (director, musicologist)
Terry Garland (blues)
René Marie (jazz)
Russell Wilson (jazz)
Desiree Roots-Centeio (jazz singer)
Johnny Hott (eclectic)
Terri Murphy Simpson (jazz, soul)
Jeanine Drost-Guidry & Offering
Rex Richardson (trumpet)
Susan Greenbaum
Maggie Ingram (contemporary gospel)
Brian Jones (drummer) - 2014
Theater
Ginnie Willard (stage manager)
Mary Sue Carroll (actor)
Joe Inscoe (actor)
Phil Whiteway, Bruce Miller (founders, TheatreIV)
Ernie McClintock (director)
Randy Strawderman (director)
Firehouse Theatre Project (group)
Debra Wagoner (actor)
Tom Width (director)
Paul Deiss (actor, director)
Robyn O’Neill (actor)
Grant Mudge, Cynde Liffick (Richmond Shakespeare)
David Bridgewater (actor)
Derome Scott Smith & the African-American Repertory Theatre (artistic director)
Scott Wichmann (actor)
Jason Marks (actor, musical theatre)
Debra Clinton (teacher, production director)
Melissa Johnston Price (actor)
Words
Dean King (history)
Dennis Danvers (novelist)
Tom De Haven (novelist)
Gregory Donovan (poet)
James River Writers (writing group)
Mary Flinn (writer, editor)
Elizabeth Seydel Morgan (poet, educator)
Howard Owen (novelist)
David L. Robbins (novelist)
Laura Browder (cultural historian, essayist)
Susann Cokal (novelist)
Irene Ziegler
Joshua Poteat (poet)
Gigi Amateau (novelist)
Cheryl Pallant (author, poet)
Valley Haggard (author, founder Richmond Young Writers)
Lifetime Achievement
Jennie and Larry Brown (SPARC, theater leaders)
Joe Kennedy, Jr. (jazz violin, educator)
Jeff MacNelly (editorial cartoonist) (posthumous)
Eric E. Stanley (music broadcaster, supporter) (posthumous)
Bernard Martin (painter)
Milo Russell (painter)
Richard Toscan (writer, arts administrator)
Gerald Donato and Joan Gaustad
Cindy Neuschwander (mixed media) and Jay Barrows (curator, supporter)
Richard Carlyon (multimedia)
Robert Watkins and deVeaux Riddick (production, dance, stage, supporters)
Myra Daleng (dance)
Joe Seipel (suppporter, arts administrator)
Beverly Reynolds (gallery owner)
