It’s that time of year again, when The San Francisco Foundation puts a call out to Bay Area art students to apply to Murphy & Cadogan Contemporary Art Awards. Every year the Foundation invites emerging artists from a select pool of art schools to compete for this prestigious award, selecting 10 to 20 students, which includes a scholarship of $4,000.

So what are these awards really about? Why do we bother giving them away? Unlike many other awards in the entertainment and arts industry that are based on large-scale achievements, this award is unique because it celebrates new artists. We don’t accept resumes and we don’t expect applicants to give us long lists of galleries they have shown in or other accolades they have received. We only ask to see a recent body of work and a brief statement. A panel of jurors selects winning artists based solely on their work samples. This is an exceptional opportunity for students that have just arrived to the art world and are eager to get out there.

Our jurors have historically had quite an eye for rising stars. Many past awardees have gone on to build successful careers as professional artists. Our website features an impressive list of past winners.

I was able to catch up with Toyin Odutola, a recipient of one of the 2011 awards. She credits the scholarship with giving her confidence in what she was creating. “Up until that point, I was still a little unsure about how people were interpreting my work. Yes, it’s an award, but there was some validation in it. In short, I felt more and more like a legitimate artist.” After being recognized by our panel, others have also noticed Odutola’s work, featuring her drawings in galleries around the US. She was also named in the Top 30 under 30: Arts & Style by Forbes Magazine and made the list of notable 30 Black Artists Under 40 by Huffington Post.

In addition to the scholarship, the second component to the award is participation in a group exhibition at the SOMArts Cultural Center, where students from all over the Bay Area come together to display their work. Since the award is given to artists working in digital art, film/video, hybrid practice, installation, mixed media, painting, photography, and sculpture, this show is an invaluable opportunity for students to build community across disciplines. Odutola shared that this aspect of the award truly sets it apart. “In graduate school, everyone sort of has their blinders on. It was a pleasure to interact with other artists… it felt less isolated, more collective. It just felt really great to be amongst peers and I felt proud to be a part of it all. I really did.”

The deadline for submissions is May 6, so check out Arts & Culture page for guidelines and how to apply.