Winners of the Prestigious Vilcek Awards Honored

The Vilcek Award is a yearly recognition given out by the Vilcek Foundation which aims to raise awareness of contributions by immigrants in the areas of arts, science and culture. This year the award focused on science and fashion with Andrew Bolton as the winner of the Vilcek prize for his record-breaking fashion exhibits that balance cultural relevance with intellectual rigor.

There are three winners of the Vilcek Creative Promise award, including menswear fashion designer, Siki Im, who was born of Korean parents but grew up in Germany; Bellarus born, Natallia Pilipenka, also a fashion designer and recent MFA graduate of Parsons the New school for Design; and Vietnamese Tuyen Tran, whose graduate collection was nominated for the Parson’s Designer of the Year award, were also honored. 

The foundation has reached its 10th year and was started by Marcia and Jan Vilcek who both defected from communist (former) Czechoslovakia. Marcia is an art historian and her husband Jan is a professor of Microbiology at New York University School of Medicine.   

Since its inception, the foundation has given out $2,670,000 in cash awards and $3,883,000 in grants to other nonprofits. The couple have donated 108 million to NYU.  The winners of the Vilcek Prize receives $100,000 and a specially designed Stefan Sagmeister trophy, The Vilcek Prizes for Creative Promise each receive $50,000 and a Sagmeister designed plaque. Congratulations to the winners.