Museum MARTA Herford Announces New Prize

Germany's Museum MARTa Herford, opened in 2005, will offer a new biannual art prize, the Marta Prize. The winner will be commissioned to create a work of art for Marta's permanent collection that connects with the museum's themes of art, design, architecture and industry in the Herford region. The award also carries a prize sum of $50,000 to be put toward producing the commissioned work.

The prize is sponsored by Herford's Wemhöner Foundation, founded in 2000. "It is actually an untenable situation that a museum has absolutely no acquisition budget of its own, but thanks to the generous support in the region we manage from year to year to consolidate the collection that in the meantime is also generating international attention," said MARTa Herford director Roland Nachtigäller in a press release.

Five international curators and directors will propose 2 candidates each, and the winner will be selected by a jury including Wemhöner Foundation board members and the previous year's winner. Nominations for the first prizewinner of 2013 will be announced during the Marta New Year reception and the jury will announce a winner in January.