The art world isn’t having an easy moment. Galleries are closing, federal arts funding has dried up, and collectors have pulled back from big-ticket purchases. Against that backdrop, The Bennett Prize — a biennial award for women painters working in figurative realism — just raised its grand prize from $50,000 to $75,000.
The timing is not lost on the artists who have previously sought The Prize.
“The Bennetts raising The Prize amount could supplement somebody who actually needs it,” says Monica Ikegwu, a Baltimore-based painter and 2023 finalist. “That’s important in this landscape, where people might be going through a financial crisis in their practice.”
The Prize, now in its fifth cycle, was founded in 2018 by collectors Steven Alan Bennett and Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt with a straightforward mission: to help women painters achieve the kind of recognition that has historically gone to their male peers. The call for entries is open now. Ten finalists will be included in a group exhibition at the Muskegon Museum of Art in Michigan in spring 2027, where a winner and runner-up will be announced. The runner-up Dr. Elaine Melotti Schmidt Prize remains at $10,000.
Aleah Chapin, It was the Sound of Their Feet, 2014, Oil on Linen, 84” x 120”
Image courtesy of The Bennett Collection
The Case for Applying, Even When You’re Not Sure You’re Ready
Ask any of the artists who’ve been through The Bennett Prize process whether emerging painters should apply, and they’ll all tell you the same thing: stop talking yourself out of it.
Aleah Chapin, a Los Angeles–based painter whose work is held in the Bennetts’ personal collection, is ineligible to apply herself — under the previous rules, she’d sold a work above the $25,000 ceiling that disqualified applicants. (That ceiling has been raised to $35,000 this cycle.) But she’s unambiguous about what she’d tell anyone on the fence.
“I don’t know if I’m going to get it, but I’m practicing an application, and I’m also practicing getting a rejection,” she says. “It shows that you actually put yourself out there — which is really the most important thing, and hard to do.”
Aleah Chapin, And Spring Unfurled Her Fingers, 2022, Oil on Canvas, 24” x 30”
Image courtesy of The Bennett Collection
Ikegwu applied in 2022, fresh out of graduate school, with a style her instructors had actively discouraged: figures outlined in black, deliberately resisting the seamless blending that traditional realism demands. She applied anyway.
“In traditional realism, you’re not supposed to do that. They would tell us the edges would have to blur into the background. But I went rigid and outlined everything, and in the end that became how people recognize my work.”
Jurors responded to exactly what her teachers had flagged as a problem. The touring exhibition brought her work to new audiences, and the Muskegon Museum of Art acquired two of her paintings. For someone just out of school, that kind of institutional validation has a long tail.
“It lets you know that the work you’re doing is of the level to be in a competition seen by thousands of people,” she says.
What the Bennetts are Actually Doing
Michelle Doll received an honorable mention in the very first Bennett Prize competition in 2019, early enough to watch The Prize develop into what it is now. She started her career in the mid-90s with, as she puts it, “very few feminine influences” — which is part of why The Prize’s mission resonated with her immediately. But what’s kept her attention is something harder to quantify than prize money.
“Most collectors are invested in the artist in a monetary sort of way,” she says. “I feel like the Bennetts are investing in our voices and using their platform to elevate us.”
Monica Ikegwu, Brea, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 48” x 36”
Image courtesy of the Muskegon Museum of Art
That’s a meaningful distinction. The Prize isn’t just a cash award — it’s an opportunity to be seen and recognized by the broader art world. Past participants have gone on to win 72 additional awards and secured representation with nearly 30 galleries. Something about being seen by that jury, and through that touring show, opens doors.
Chapin puts it plainly: “If I had something like this when I was early in my career, it would have been tremendously helpful. There’s not enough opportunities like this.”
On Applying When Your Work is in Flux
One hesitation that comes up often among prospective applicants: what if your work is in the middle of changing? All three artists have a version of the same answer — don’t wait.
Chapin knows this firsthand. During the pandemic, she started wondering whether her figurative realist practice could turn inward — whether she could paint feelings and experiences rather than things she could see. That question sent her deep into the studio and eventually toward something she hadn’t anticipated: bold, gestural marks made with her non-dominant hand, layered into her figurative work.
“I’ve had to push through a lot of fear, but the fear was more about expressing or showing the work,” she says. “I think there would have been a different kind of fear if I hadn’t changed. I would have been bowing to the fear.” A short documentary about the shift won awards at film festivals in Seattle and Venice. She describes feeling “much more free in the studio” now — though she’s the first to say the transition wasn’t easy.
Monica Ikegwu, Saheed, 2023, Oil on Canvas, 48” x 36”
Image courtesy of the Muskegon Museum of Art
For artists in a similar place, Doll offers a useful reframing: consistency doesn’t have to mean stylistic uniformity. Her own work moves between evocative and representational — but there’s always a thread.
“It could be a consistency in your approach, or it could be a consistency in your concept,” she says. “In the end, it’s always my hand and my heart. Hopefully, that comes through in the most authentic and powerful way.”
The point isn’t to have everything figured out. The point is to put the work in front of people.
The Details
The call for entries is open from April 13, 2026, until September 19, 2026, at 11:59 p.m. MST. The Prize is not open to hobbyists, students, or artists whose work has been sold for $35,000 or more, or who have received an award, prize, or other recognition for their art in that amount.
For more information and details on how to apply for The Bennett Prize, visit thebennettprize.org.
