Amid a generally tough time for the arts, one Georgia artist could become $50,000 richer as the result of a visual arts competition announced by the Jacqueline Casey Hudgens Center for the Arts on Wednesday.

The Gwinnett County arts center is launching the Hudgens Prize, billing it as one of the largest awards for an individual visual artist in the nation. The competition is open to any full-time Georgia resident age 18 and up.

“Particularly in times of economic challenge, it is vital that we support the arts and artists, or we lose something that is literally irreplaceable in our culture and our state,” Hudgens Center interim executive director Teresa Osborn said in a prepared statement.

The winning artist, who will be announced on Nov. 30, will also be invited to have a solo exhibit at Hudgens Center in December 2011. Five to 10 finalists will be included in a separate show running from November to next February.

The juror panel includes David Kiehl, the Whitney Museum of American Art’s prints curator; Art Papers editor-in-chief Sylvie Fortin and Eungie Joo, director and curator of education and public programs at New York’s New Museum.

The private foundation that donated the award chooses to remain anonymous.

Entry deadline is June 4. Information: www.thehudgens.org.

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