Cleveland Arts Prize promotes creativity in Northeast Ohio by honoring artists for artistic excellence and recognizes community leaders who help regional arts flourish. 

The Cleveland Arts Prize (CAP) was established by the Women’s City Club in 1960, and continues today as the nation’s oldest municipal arts award and an ongoing platform for celebrating Northeast Ohio’s exceptional arts community. In its earliest years, the group commissioned the Arts Prize medal, launched a scholarship program and established an endowment that secured the annual awarding of prizes.

Discipline Awards

Five unrestricted $10,000 prizes are awarded to applicants in the disciplines of Music, Visual Arts, Literature, Theatre/Dance, and Design.

To be considered for a Cleveland Arts Prize applications must be completed in full and submitted before the noted deadline, May 1st, 2023. Specific criteria for each discipline can be found here.

Past Arts Prize winners are not eligible to win a prize in the same category more than once.

Applicants must currently or have previously lived or worked in Northeast Ohio. Only living artists can apply or be nominated for a discipline prize.

Special Prizes

Special Prize candidates are considered through nomination only. The nominator is responsible for soliciting no more than 5 letters of support in favor of the nominee.

The submission of support letters is the responsibility of the nominator. Nominations without support letters will not be considered.

The nominator for a special prize candidate may suggest the specific award they feel their candidate is best suited for, but the Cleveland Arts Prize Jury will make the final decision as to which Prize is awarded. Special Prize nominees are not notified of their nomination. 

Special Prizes are honorary. Read more about them here.

Determination of Winners

Discipline Prize winners receive an unrestricted prize of $10,000. Special Prize recipients are honorary. Winning applicants are selected by the Cleveland Arts Prize Jury, composed of artists, community leaders, and past winners. Their decision will be final and no further correspondence shall be considered.

Discipline applicants are reviewed through a two tier process. Each discipline's respective jury members put forth up to three candidates to be reviewed by what is called The Academy Jury. This is the second and final round of review of the finalists from each discipline. 

The Special Prize Jury members review all nominees and determine the winners for each of the Special Prizes. 

Jurors will be announced during the submission period.

Arts Prize Discipline and Special Prize Winners will be announced on or around August 1.

Discipline Prize funds will be distributed in December of the winning year. 

INELIGIBILITY: Incomplete or late forms, past winners will not be considered.