Writers for The Oklahoman, First American Art Magazine and others win $50,000 Rabkin Prizes

"It is a level of validation that is sorely needed as we are having national conversations about cultural criticism, and how it's evolving,"

"As budgets across the country for arts reporting dwindle, I always wonder how the arts will continue to attract new audiences. By supporting writers directly, the Rabkin Foundation is tackling that problem from a unique angle, and encouraging us to keep going."

"People ask me sometimes, 'If you weren't doing this, who would do it for The Oklahoman?' I don't know, I don't have an answer for you-the answer is possibly no one."

Eight art writers received the 2025 Rabkin Prize, each awarded an unrestricted $50,000 purse. Winners include Nicole Martinez (critic, journalist, The Art Newspaper contributor and deputy director of Fountainhead Arts in Miami), America Meredith (writer, publishing editor and member of the Cherokee Nation), and Paul Chaat Smith (curator and author and member of the Comanche Nation), alongside a co-founder of Sixty Inches From Center, a former Momus editor, a features writer for The Oklahoman, a Los Angeles–based art and culture journalist, and a New York Times Magazine staff writer. The prize is awarded by the Rabkin Foundation, based in Portland, Maine. The jury included Hua Hsu, Joanne McNeil, and Jessica Bell Brown. The Rabkin Foundation commissioned portraits as it did for the first time last year, and concerns about dwindling arts reporting budgets and the importance of direct support for writers were emphasized.

Read at The Art Newspaper - International art news and events