MIAMI, FL.- The Cintas Foundation and The Frost Art Museum at FIU today announced the start of the annual competition for the Emilio Sanchez Award in Visual Arts administered by the foundation and the Cintas Fellowship Program at The Frost. The only one of its kind in the nation, the program has honored some of world’s most talented Cuban artists. Past visual arts fellows include Carlos Alfonzo, Teresita Fern�ndez, Anthony Goicolea, photographers Andres Serrano and Mar�a Mart�nez-Ca�as, sculptor Maria Elena Gonz�lez and filmmaker Mari Rodr�quez-Ichaso. The Cintas Foundation awards fellowships annually to creative artists of Cuban lineage who are currently residing outside of Cuba.

“For more than 40 years, the Cintas Foundation has helped great artists pursue their craft and share it with the world. We are proud to continue that tradition,” said Hortensia E. Sampedro, president of the Cintas Foundation’s board of directors.

Applicants must submit original images or film projects by January 14, 2008. Cintas fellows are awarded $15,000 and the opportunity to pursue an art project outlined in their applications. Since it was established in 1963, the Cintas Fellowship Program has honored more than 300 artists. FIU and the Cintas Foundation Board have been administering the awards program since 2005.

The Cintas Fellowship Program encourages creative development in architecture, literature, music composition and the visual arts, and awards annual fellowships in creative writing and visual arts as well. The foundation was established with funds from the estate of Oscar B. Cintas (1887-1957), former Cuban ambassador to the United States, a prominent industrialist and patron of the arts.

Application forms and competition requirements are available online at www.cintasfoundation.org. or by contacting Ingrid LaFleur Rogers, Cintas Fellows Collection Manager, at ingrid.rogers@fiu.edu.