York, PA – The Cultural Alliance of York County is pleased to announce the winners of the 2022 Artist Innovator Awards, Rob Evans and Josh Santiago, each of whom will receive a $10,000 cash prize. The award was presented publicly on Thursday, October 20th at a reception at The Parliament Arts Organization.
Rob Evans is an artist and independent curator who lives and works near Wrightsville, PA. Evans’ enigmatic paintings and drawings can be found in more than two dozen prominent public collections across the nation including the Metropolitan Museum of Art; National Gallery of Art; Corcoran Museum of Art; Library of Congress; San Francisco Art Museums; Baltimore Museum of Art; and the Portland (OR) Art Museum among others. Over the course of his long career, he has been awarded numerous grants including two fellowships from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, and a prestigious fellowship from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation.
Writer/Director Joshua J Santiago was born and raised in York, Pennsylvania. He gained a love for the arts while joining the Performing Arts Group while at William Penn Senior High School. Before graduating from York College of Pennsylvania, Joshua started filmmaking with 4 Hip Hop DVDs in which all 4 were nominated for Best Hip Hop Documentary at the Central PA Hip Hop Awards. “Anything4U;” is Joshua’s directorial short film debut and has been selected for 11 film festivals internationally, and has won multiple awards. Joshua recently partnered with Anthony Collier to start a non-profit organization, Phoenix Media Arts to teach the youth of York County the art of filmmaking.
The Artist Innovator Award was created to highlight and reward the exceptional level of artistic talent that exists in York County. The winners were chosen after a panel of peer reviewers and jurors from outside of York County, and in fact, across the nation, narrowed down the search to 9 finalists, and then to two winners from those 9.
The additional award finalists were:
- Troy Engle – Music
- Paul Wykowski – Music
- Doug Henderson – Film/Video
- Christina Myers – Performing Arts
- Justine Ekstrom – Visual Art
- Jay Rock – Visual Art
- Carla Christopher – Literary
The winner and finalists’ profiles and contact information, as well as many other talented artists from York County can all be found at www.york365.com.
Artists working in any medium and whom live in York County are invited to create a profile of their work on the arts and culture website, York365.com in order to be considered for next year’s award. For additional information on the award including how to be considered in 2023, visit www.culturalyork.org/artistinnovatoraward. Please contact Rita@culturalyork.org or call 717-812-9255 with any questions.
Founded as a United Arts Fund in 1999, the Cultural Alliance’s annual campaign currently supports arts organizations and artists that are essential to arts and culture in our community and Over the past 22 years invested $12 million in cash and $2.5 million in in-kind support for the arts. Through critical operational grants, the Cultural Alliance is the lifeline for arts and culture in York County.
For more information, call the Cultural Alliance at 717-812-9255, visit our website at www.culturalyork.org, visit the Cultural Alliance of York on Facebook, and follow @CulturalYork on Instagram.
