LOUISVILLE, KY.- The Speed Art Museum today announced that artist Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez (b. 1988) has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Adele and Leonard Leight Glass Art Award, which recognizes emerging to mid-career artists creating innovative work with glass. Ahmadizadeh, who is based in Philadelphia, combines poetry, images, glass objects, and neon signage to create layered installations that draw inspiration from her Puerto Rican and Persian heritage. As part of the award, which is bestowed every two years, the Speed will commission her to create a new work for its collection, which will go on view in August 2025. In conjunction with the installation, Ahmadizadeh will also visit the Museum to lead public programming and a workshop for University of Louisville glass students.

The Adele and Leonard Leight Glass Award was established in 2022 through a generous endowment gift of Jenna, Jonathan, and Peter Leight in memory of their parents, long-time supporters and board members of the Speed who donated their internationally recognized collections of contemporary glass and ceramics and 20th-century design to the Museum. Building on the Leights’ collecting and educational legacy, the award aims to celebrate emerging and mid-career artistic talent; to continue to grow the Speed’s collection with a diverse range of national and international artists; and to foster community engagement and education through artist-led programming.

“Adele and Leonard Leight were passionate advocates for art, and we’re honored to present this inaugural award to Victoria in their name,” said Raphaela Platow, director of the Speed Art Museum. “The Leight family’s generous gift will allow the Speed to advance contemporary practice in the medium of glass, enrich our collection with boundary-pushing new works, and spark insightful conversations with the Louisville community for years to come.”

“We are so pleased that Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez has been selected as the inaugural recipient of the Adele and Leonard Leight Glass Award,” said Peter, Jonathan, and Jenna Leight. “Her work reflects the dedication, innovation, and technical mastery our parents admired and supported during their lifetimes, and her commitment to arts education was something they also deeply believed in. We look forward to the unveiling of Victoria's commission next August.”

Ahmadizadeh has been awarded artist residencies at Pilchuck Glass School, MASS MoCA, Blue Mountain Center, and the Corning Museum of Glass, among others. Her work is currently on view at the Museum of Craft and Design in San Francisco, CA in the exhibition Neon as Soulcraft, curated by Kelsey Issel and Meryl Pataky of She Bends, an organization dedicated to pushing the medium of neon beyond the confines of commercial signage and into the realm of fine art. Additionally, Ahmadizadeh’s work has been shown at dozens of galleries and museums in the United States and abroad, including Glasmuseet Ebeltoft, S12, Heller Gallery, Traver Gallery, and the Tacoma Museum of Glass. Her sculptures are included in New Glass Review #33, #38, and #42, annual journals published by the Corning Museum of Glass documenting innovative artworks in glass. A passionate educator as well as an artist, Ahmadizadeh previously served as director of The Bead Project at UrbanGlass, a program geared towards diversifying glass and supporting femmes as they learn how to work with the material. She has been an Adjunct Associate Professor at the Tyler School of Art and Architecture at Temple University, from which she received her BFA, for the past several years. She holds an MFA in Craft/Material Studies from Virginia Commonwealth University.

“Victoria’s work is distinctive in its technique, process, and highly personal dimension, bringing together language, concept, and object-making in poetic synthesis,” said Scott Erbes, Speed Art Museum curator of decorative arts and design. “Her innovative multidisciplinary approach, combined with her leadership in the field as a sought-after educator and advocate, made her a standout choice as our inaugural Adele and Leonard Leight Glass Art Award recipient, and we look forward to collaborating with her on a new commission and programming.”

“I am honored to be the first recipient of this award and to be part of the Leights’ incredible collection, amongst many artists working in glass that I admire,” said Victoria Ahmadizadeh Melendez. “I am also delighted to work with the Speed Art Museum, whose collection of contemporary art I found deeply moving, timely, and inspiring. Merging the worlds of glass, poetics, and contemporary art is at the center of my work, and I’m grateful that this award will support me in continuing to do so at the Speed.”

For each award cycle, artists are nominated by a three-person panel composed of artists and curators, and a winner is selected by the Speed’s director, curator of decorative arts and design, and curator of contemporary art. The 2024 advisory panel was composed of artists Professor Ché Rhodes (University of Louisville) and Professor Helen Lee (University of Wisconsin-Madison) as well as independent curator Susie Silbert (former curator of modern and contemporary glass at the Corning Museum of Glass). The second iteration of the award will be presented in 2026.