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Modern Art’s “Richest Prize” Scrapped

Published: February 6, 2007
LONDON—The Beck’s Futures award, once hailed as modern art’s richest prize, is falling by the wayside amidst “concern it has lost its cool,” The Evening Standard reports.

The seven-year-old prize, sponsored by the German beer maker and established as the Institute of Contemporary Art’s answer to the Turner Prize, won’t take place this year. In fact, it might be cancelled altogether in favor of a music prize.

“There was a general fear that the prize wasn’t very cool anymore,” an insider told the Standard. “What’s the point of hosting a modern art prize that is no longer fashionable?”

The source also told the newspaper that Beck’s has been taken over by new managers who want the prize to center on music.

Last year, artist Matt Stokes won the prize for Long After Tonight, a film recreating a soul music night at a Scottish church. However, even then there were tensions between Back’s and the art institute, stemming from new rules that allowed the public to vote for contestants, set an age limit of 35 and reduced the prize money from £65,000 to £38,000.

The Evening Standard: No Future for Beck’s Art Prize
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