Blanka Zizka, a Czech émigré who co-founded the Wilma Theater in Philadelphia in the 1980s, has received this year’s Vilcek Prize for immigrant artists — an honor that comes with $100,000.

“It was kind of shocking and unexpected, and at the same time it was sort of satisfying,” Ms. Zizka said in an interview, adding that the money couldn’t have come at a better time. Her son, Krystof, is opening a follow-up restaurant to his Brooklyn hot spot Maison Premiere, and he asked her for help. “I just lent my son $100,000,” she said, “and it came back.”