2008 Wexner Prize Events with Spike Lee

Columbus—Filmmaker Spike Lee, coming to Columbus to receive the 13th Wexner Prize, will engage in a variety of events for OSU students, teens, Wexner Center members, and the general public Monday and Tuesday, February 11 and 12.

Monday, February 11

2:30–4 pm: Discussion with OSU students, Wexner Center Film/Video Theater. Lee will participate in a discussion session with a select group of Ohio State University students from film studies and other majors. By prior registration only.

5 pm (time approximate): Columbus City Council Resolution, Columbus City Hall. Lee to appear at City Council meeting to receive a resolution presented by council member Priscilla Tyson. Open to the public.

Evening: Wexner Prize Award ceremony & dinner. Donors and civic and cultural leaders attend a private dinner and ceremony, where Lee will formally receive the Wexner Prize.

Tuesday, February 12

10 am–12:15 pm: Art Involved Teen Symposium: Creative Minds Contemplate Activism, Community, & Social Change, Part 1, Mershon Auditorium. This symposium includes a screening of Lee’s Hurricane Katrina documentary When the Levees Broke for local high school students, followed by a conversation with Lee moderated by BET host/personality, public speaker, national activist, & youth organizer Jeff Johnson. By registration through area schools.

12:30–2:30 pm: Art Involved Teen Symposium, Part 2, Wexner Center Performance Space. Johnson will lead a panel of three adults and three youths in a conversation about art, artists, and social change. Afterwards, students will break out into smaller groups for further discussion. By registration only.

In addition: A teacher workshop and dine-in discussion, Hip-Hop in the Classroom (hosted in partnership with Transit Arts) and an Open Mic Performance & Youth Volunteer Involvement Fair will be held Saturday, February 16 in partnership with Transit Arts and Godman Guild T.E.E.N.

7–8:30 pm: A Conversation with Spike Lee, Mershon Auditorium. Lee will discuss his work and ideas in a conversation with award-winning writer and composer James McBride (whose book The Miracle of St. Anna is the basis of Lee’s next film). Among the guests that evening will be veterans of the U.S. Army’s all-black 92nd Division of “buffalo soldiers,” the subject of The Miracle at St. Anna. Tickets are $12 for the public and $6 for Wexner Center members; member presale continues through February 3 (public sales start February 4). A limited number of free tickets are available for Ohio State University students. Tickets are available at the Wexner Center Ticket Office or by calling (614) 292-3535

MONTH OF FEBRUARY

When The Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts will screen continuously in The Box video space throughout the month of February (lower lobby of the Wexner Center; free).

A multimedia Wexner Prize display will be on view in the lower lobby of the Wexner Center through the month of February.

Wexner Prize: Spike Lee Film Series schedule:

February 9 at 7 pm: Do the Right Thing

February 16 at 7 pm: 25th Hour

February 17 at 2 pm (free screening; note matinee time): Malcolm X

February 22 at 7 pm: She’s Gotta Have It

February 23 at 7 pm: He Got Game

February 29 at 7 pm: Crooklyn.

Tickets for all films except Malcolm X (which is free) are $7 per night general public, $5 members/students/senior citizens; all films are held in the Wexner Center Film/Video Theater.

The Wexner Prize is funded by the Wexner Center Foundation through a generous gift from Abigail and Leslie Wexner. Prize events for students, center members, and the general public are presented with support from Abercrombie & Fitch and Global Lead Management Consulting.

MORE ABOUT THE WEXNER PRIZE

The Wexner Prize is awarded annually to a major contemporary artist in any artistic field who has been consistently original, influential, and challenging to convention. The $50,000 prize is funded by the Wexner Center Foundation through a gift from Abigail and Leslie H. Wexner, chairman of the Wexner Center Foundation and chairman and founder of Limited Brands. As with past Prize recipients, Spike Lee was nominated by the Wexner Center's cross- disciplinary International Arts Advisory Council and selected to receive the Prize by the trustees of the Wexner Center Foundation. A commemorative sculpture designed by artist Jim Dine accompanies the award. In accepting the Prize, Spike Lee joins this distinguished group of past recipients: Peter Brook, theater director (1992); John Cage, composer/musician, with Merce Cunningham, choreographer (1993); Bruce Nauman, visual artist (1994); Yvonne Rainer, choreographer and filmmaker (1995); Martin Scorsese, filmmaker (1996–1997); Gerhard Richter, painter (1998); Louise Bourgeois, visual artist (1999); Robert Rauschenberg, visual artist (2000); Renzo Piano, architect (2001); William Forsythe, choreographer (2002); and Issey Miyake, designer (2004); Bill T. Jones, choreographer (2005).

INTERNATIONAL ARTS ADVISORY COUNCIL

Kutlug Ataman, video and installation artist, Istanbul

Petra Blaisse, landscape and interior designer, Amsterdam

Iwona Blazwick, director, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

Anne Bogart, artistic director and founder, The SITI Company (Saratoga International Theater Institute), New York

Ken Brecher, executive director, Sundance Institute, Los Angeles

Ian Buruma, Henry R. Luce Professor in Human Rights, Democracy, and New Media, Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York

Maria de Corral, independent curator and art critic; director, 51st Venice Biennale, Madrid

Peter Gelb, general manager, The Metropolitan Opera, New York

Susanne Ghez, director, The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, Chicago

Yuko Hasegawa, chief curator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo

Philip Kaufman, film director, San Francisco

Barbara Kruger, artist and writer specializing in media and contemporary visual culture, New York

Phillip Lopate, writer and critic; professor, Hofstra University, New York

Bruce Mau, graphic designer, Bruce Mau Design, Toronto

Josiah McElheny, visual artist, New York

Joseph Melillo, executive producer, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Brooklyn

Bebe Miller, choreographer, Bebe Miller Company, New York; professor, Ohio State Department of Dance

Michael Morris, co-director, Artangel, and director, Cultural Industry, London

Jonathan Sehring, president, IFC Entertainment, New York

Catharine R. Stimpson, dean, New York University Graduate School of Arts and Science; former director, MacArthur Fellows Program, New York

Lynne Tillman, novelist, short story writer, and critic, New York

Billie Tsien, principal, Tod Williams Billie Tsien Architects, New York

John Vinci, architect and installation designer, Chicago

John Waters, filmmaker, Baltimore and New York

Lawrence Weschler, writer; director, New York University Institute for Humanities, New York