Descripción del Premio
The Vilcek Foundation announced the winners of its 2018 prizes in the arts and humanities, which celebrates the breadth of immigrant contributions to the American arts and sciences. Focusing on the field of architecture, this year’s $100,000 award went to Teddy Cruz, a professor at University of California in San Diego and the director of design at Estudio Teddy Cruz + Fonna Forman, a research-based political and architectural practice.
Born in Guatemala, Cruz immigrated to California when he was twenty years old. The architect recalls being struck by the similarities and differences between the cities of San Diego and Tijuana, sparking his lifelong interest in using the tools and framework of architecture and urban planning to redefine the concepts of borders, citizenship, and community. Among his most recent projects completed with his partner Fonna Forman, are cross-border community spaces that host a variety of arts and educational programming on both sides of the US-Mexico border.
The Vilcek foundation also revealed that Mona Ghandi, James Leng, and Jing Liu are the recipients of its prizes for creative promise, which are given to younger immigrants who have demonstrated exceptional promise early in their careers. Each prize includes a &50,000 cash award.
Established in 2000 by Jan and Marica Vilcek, immigrants from the former Czechoslovakia, the Vilcek Foundation aims to honor the contributions of immigrants to the United States and to foster appreciation of the arts and sciences. The foundation awards annual prizes to prominent immigrant biomedical scientists and artists working in the disciplines of music, film, culinary arts, literature, dance, contemporary music, design, fashion, theatre, and fine arts.