VCU artists prevalent among Pollak prize winners

By Tom Gresham

Artists with ties to Virginia Commonwealth University dominated the eighth annual Theresa Pollak Prizes for Excellence in the Arts, which honor elite artists in the Richmond metropolitan area.

Five individuals and two groups with close connections to VCU were among those to earn the Pollak accolades, which were announced in the September edition of Richmond magazine. The Pollak Prizes are presented to artists in 10 categories. A panel of eight selectors weighed nominees this year and voted on the winners.

Richard E. Toscan, dean of the VCU School of the Arts, headlined this year’s honorees, accepting the Pollak Lifetime Achievement award. Other VCU-connected award winners were Elizabeth King, a professor of sculpture; John Winn, vocalist, a VCU graduate who also is a faculty member at VCU; alumna Elizabeth Seydel Morgan, selected in the words category; and alumnus R. Nicholas Kuszyk, who was selected in the emerging artist category.

In addition, Hotel X, a musical ensemble conceived by two former VCU students, and Ezibu Muntu African Dance and Cultural Foundation, a dance troupe started at VCU, received prizes.

During his nine-year tenure at VCU, Toscan has helped elevate the School of the Arts to international prominence. The school’s visual arts graduate programs were ranked No. 6 in the country by U.S. News and World Report in 2004, and the sculpture program was ranked No. 1 again this year. Toscan also has been critical in the development of the VCU School of Arts in Qatar, an arts and design school located in Doha, Qatar.

King, a former Guggenheim fellow, has work in the permanent collections at the Hirshorn Museum, the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Museum of Fine Arts in Houston and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. King’s innovative pieces often combine sculpture with film and installation.

In addition to his versatile vocal talents, Winn plays the saxophone and clarinet. Winn often performs with the jazz quartet, Neighborliness, which includes three other VCU graduates. The group participated in the U.S. Department of State jazz ambassadors program in 2004 and toured South Korea, Cambodia, Russia and Mexico.

Morgan has published four books of poetry, including her most recent compilation, On Long Mountain, which was a finalist for the Library of Virginia Poetry Prize in 1998. She has also produced short stories, essays, a screenplay and a translation.

Kuszyk’s paintings, drawings and murals of robots have attracted significant attention in the Richmond area. Kuszyk, who lives in New York, also has had two well-attended shows at the McCaig-Welles Gallery in Brooklyn.

Hotel X is a 10-member world jazz collective with six albums to its credit. The band has featured a revolving roster of musicians since its birth in 1992. Hotel X co-founders Ron Curry and Tim Harding each attended VCU.

The Ezibu Muntu African Dance and Cultural Foundation was started in 1973 by Tanya Dennis, at the time a dance instructor at VCU, at the Franklin Street Gymnasium. Since that time, approximately 500 people have performed with the group. The troupe, which dances in more than 100 shows each year, has appeared in two films and at Dance Africa shows in New York and Washington, D.C.

The Pollak Prizes are named after Theresa Pollak, a highly regarded painter who lived in Richmond for much of her life. Pollak helped found the VCU School of the Arts, which now resides in a building that bears her name.