Sobey Art Award gets cash boost to $100K

The Sobey Art Foundation announced on Mondaya host of changes for the annual prize, including:

• Increasing the value of the Sobey Art Award to $100,000 (from $50,000).
• Increasing the prize money for the shortlisted artists to $25,000 each (from $10,000).
• Increasing the prize money for the longlisted artists to $2,000 each (from $1,000).

The foundation also announced the creation of three residency programs to support Canadian artists.The first will see one of the 25 artists longlisted for the Sobey Art Award be selected for an artistic residency with FogoIsland Arts, in Newfoundland.

Launched to raise the profile of rising stars in the Canadian contemporary art scene, theSobeyAward is presented annually to a working artist under the age of 40. A cross-country panel selects semi-finalists from five different regions of the country, with judges eventually whittling down the list to ashortlistof five.Past recipients include AnniePootoogook, DavidAltmejd, BrianJungenand, most recently, Ursula Johnson.

Organizers attribute theboost in prize money and the new residencies programto a gift from the Donald R. Sobey Foundation, which spearheaded the prize itself in 2001.

"This support will help broaden a re-investment by our art foundation to put more money directly into the careers of Canadian artists. We hope to be able to create more significant and tangible international opportunities for our long-listed artists," Sobey Art Foundation chair Rob Sobeysaid in a statement.