NEW YORK.- The Cintas Foundation invites applications for fellowships in the visual arts, including painting, sculpture, installation art, design, video art and photography, and in Filmmaking. Fellowships in the amount of $10,000 are awarded annually. Eligibility is limited to artists of Cuban citizenship or direct descent (having a Cuban parent or grandparent,) who do not live in Cuba. Fellowships are not awarded toward the furtherance of academic writing, study, or research, nor to performing artists.

The work of the artists selected as finalists will be shown at a public space in Miami in late May, 2005. Cintas Fellows are free to pursue their artistic activities as they wish, in the United States or in other countries approved by the Cintas Foundation, Inc.

The Cintas Fellowships have honored over 300 artists including Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Oscar Hijuelos, playwright Maria Irene Fornes, painter Carlos Alfonzo, photographer Andres Serrano, architect Andres Martin Duany, sculptor Maria Elena Gonzales, filmmaker Mari Rodriquez-Ichaso, and composer Tania Leon.

The Cintas Foundation was established with funds from the estate of Oscar B. Cintas (1887-1957), a former Cuban ambassador to the United States and a prominent industrialist and patron of the arts. Cintas Fellowships acknowledge creative accomplishments and encourage creative development in architecture, literature, music composition, and the visual arts. The Cintas Fellowships program is administered by the Cintas Foundation Board and by the Institute of International Education, the nation's oldest and most active organization in the field of international education and cultural exchange. The application deadline is February 18, 2005. For more information and application forms visit the website .