The Vilcek Foundation has announced an open call for the 2025 Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise. Awarded annually since 2009 as part of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program, the Creative Promise Prizes are awarded to young immigrant professionals in biomedical science and in the arts and humanities whose work has had a profound impact on their field.

Since the beginning of the Vilcek Foundation Prizes program, prizes have been awarded each year in Biomedical Science, and in a single rotating category in the Arts and Humanities. In 2025, the Vilcek Foundation has announced that prizes will be awarded in two separate categories in the arts and humanities: Visual Arts and Curatorial Work. 

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This expansion coincides with the 25th anniversary of the Vilcek Foundation’s establishment in 2000. “As we come to this important milestone, it is important to us that we expand our work in a meaningful way,” says Vilcek Foundation President Rick Kinsel. “We are increasing our overall prizemaking in the Vilcek Foundation Prize program by 50%, doubling the number of prizes we award to immigrant artists and arts professionals.”

“We will continue to award prizes in the categories we have established to date, and will add a few new categories over the next several years—including the Vilcek Foundation Prizes in Curatorial Work, which we launch for the first time in 2025,” says Kinsel. “With these new prizes, we will increase the financial impact of our work on the lives of foreign-born cultural workers, and increase recognition of diverse immigrant professionals in the United States.”  

The shift in the prize program also coincides with the foundation’s appointment of Zahra Banyamerian as program officer. An independent curator and fine-arts professional, Banyamerian previously served as the contemporary curatorial fellow with the Vilcek Foundation. In this capacity, Banyamerian worked to develop exhibition programs and arts initiatives for the foundation centering immigrant and foreign-born artists, including the foundation’s 2022–23 exhibition “Nari Ward: Home of the Brave.” As program officer, Banyamerian will bring her experience and expertise in arts administration to bear on the expansion of the foundation’s prize program in the arts and humanities.

In 2025, one main Vilcek Prize of $100,000 will be awarded to an established immigrant professional in each of these categories: the Vilcek Prize in Visual Arts and the Vilcek Prize in Curatorial Work. In addition, three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise will be awarded in each category: Three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise of $50,000 each will be awarded in Visual Arts, and three Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise of $50,000 each will be awarded in recognition of Curatorial Work.

Please direct any questions about the Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise or the application process to Program Officer Zahra Banyamerian at creativepromise@vilcek.org.