COLUMBUS, OHIO Underscoring the Wexner Center抯 sizable impact on the contemporary art field, several artists who have created and presented work at the center (often under the auspices of our expansive artist residency program) have been prominently recognized by national and international cultural media over the last several months. The media has also generously acknowledged the expertise and contributions of the Wexner Center抯 curatorial team.

To wit: Bill Horrigan, the Wexner Center抯 Director of Media Arts, is one of the three advisers for the next Whitney Biennial contemporary art exhibition, opening in March at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. The New York Times wrote in November that 搕he influence of each adviser is evident�.There is a significant documentary component, reflecting Mr. Horrigan抯 interests, that includes [2008 Wexner Prize recipient] Spike Lee抯 When the Levees Broke: A Requiem in Four Acts, a documentary about the devastation of Hurricane Katrina.� If you miss that film there, come see it here in The Box video space in February.

Horrigan抯 touring exhibition Chris Marker: Staring Back, featuring about 200 of the legendary French filmmaker抯 photographs, received numerous glowing reviews in New York-based publications and online outlets when it traveled to New York in the fall following its premiere here in the summer. Holland Cotter of The New York Times called it a 搈editative, deep-fall show,� and Art in America noted in its December issue that 搃f [Marker抯] newfound popularity in North America has a single source, it would have to be Bill Horrigan�.who for over a decade worked closely with Marker to ensure his visibility on this side of the Atlantic.� The show is on its way to Zurich in the spring.

Our winter 2007 exhibition Sadie Benning: Suspended Animation梖eaturing portrait paintings and her dual-projection video piece Play Pause (created at the Wexner Center during Benning抯 extensive artist residency here)梬as just named one of the top 10 exhibitions of the year by Artforum; in her writeup in the December issue, Lynne Cooke (curator of the Dia Art Foundation in New York) called Play Pause 搕he smart and sassy centerpiece of Benning抯 first museum show, organized by Jennifer Lange� (who is associate curator of media arts at the Wexner Center), noting that Benning 揷reates a singular visual form for a journey into a subculture.� Also making Cooke抯 top 10 list was our show Zoe Leonard: Analogue (another of the center抯 artist residency projects) which premiered at the Wexner Center last spring before being seen at Documenta this summer in Germany.

Our upcoming Mary Heilmann show, making its only Midwest stop here in summer 2008 on its highly acclaimed national tour, is 搇ike spending a day at the beach,� wrote Hammer Museum (L.A.) curator Ali Subotnick, who put the exhibition into her top 10 in Artforum, as did MOCA L.A. curator Ann Goldstein. (The show made it onto the cover of both Art in America and Artforum in November, with Peter Plagens writing in the latter that Heilmann's vibrantly colorful abstract paintings are "often joy-inducing and sometimes breathtaking.�)

Films shown at the Wexner Center in 2007 also showed up on the Artforum lists, including Brand Upon the Brain! (directed by Wex fave Guy Maddin), named one of the best films of the year by John Waters (who in turn is on the Wexner Center抯 International Arts Advisory Council). In related news, Maddin will be producing a new feature film under the auspices of a Wexner Center artist抯 residency in 2008�09. And Charles Burnett抯 belatedly released 1977 film Killer of Sheep, which screened here this fall, was named a top 10 by film critic Amy Taubin.

In performing arts, The Blow, which played here this fall as part of our Next@Wex indie music series, was noted by David Byrne on his top 10 list for Artforum; Andrew Bird, who opened here for Wilco and has played here in his own right, was given a top 10 tip o� the hat by musician Marissa Nadler; and Parisian choreographer-philosopher J閞鬽e Bel, who performed here for the second time in November, was given a top 10 nod by art history professor and author Claire Bishop, who called the Bel experience 搕otal exhilaration.�

Wexner Center Residency Award artist Kerry James Marshall梬ho will be featured in an exhibition opening in February that marks the culmination of an extended residency in which he抯 been working with local teens梜eeps garnering raves from the international media. In a July review of his latest series of drawings, The New York Times wrote, 揔erry James Marshall抯 brilliant print series, 慠hythm Master,� with its black-on-white cartoon drawings of a self-lacerating African-American street culture, suggests that the time for sweeping change has arrived.� This series of drawings (now spelled Rythm Mastr) is the basis of the Wexner Center exhibition, in which the characters have been transformed by Marshall into puppet/sculptures and will be brought to life in the galleries in the mode of a Japanese Bunraku puppet performance, manipulated by about 20 local teens. The exhibition (titled Every Beat of My Heart, on view February 2朅pril 13) will feature puppets, the set, drawings, and video documentation of the project. The exhibition and community project is being organized by the Wexner Center抯 Director of Education, Shelly Casto, in her inaugural gallery show.

Several artists who have both created and presented new work at the Wexner Center were named USA Fellows by United States Artists foundation this fall梐ccompanied by an unrestricted $50,000 grant梚ncluding Ann Hamilton (OSU professor, internationally known artist, and former Wexner Center Residency Award recipient); choreographer Bill T. Jones, the 2005 Wexner Prize recipient and also a former Wexner Center Residency Award artist (he also won a Tony earlier this year for his choreography for the Broadway hit Spring Awakening); Elizabeth LeCompte, director of The Wooster Group, a vanguard theater company that has performed at the Wexner Center several times (and which received a Wexner Center Residency Award in the late �90s to create its show House/Lights); filmmaker Julie Dash, who was a Wexner Center Residency Award artist in the mid-�90s; and others who have the Wex in their history, including artist Paul Chan and composers/musicians Don Byron and Jason Moran.

1997 Wexner Prize recipient Martin Scorsese received his first Academy Award in 2007 as best director for The Departed, which was also named best motion picture of the year. He also received a Kennedy Center Honors Award December 2.

Filmmaker Todd Haynes梐 Wexner Center Residency Award artist more than a decade ago條anded on the cover of the New York Times Magazine on October 7 for I抦 Not There, his widely acclaimed, unconventional Bob Dylan biopic. The film screened here to a sold-out house in early December, featuring an introduction and Q&A session with Christine Vachon, the film抯 producer梙erself a Wex Residency Award artist with Haynes. The Wexner Center has also paid tribute to both Haynes and Vachon with their own film retrospectives.

Singer/songwriter Feist, who made her Ohio debut at the Wexner Center in November (to a nearly full house in Mershon Auditorium), has been nominated for 2008 Grammys for Best New Artist, Best Female Pop Vocal Performance (for 1234), and Best Pop Vocal Album (The Reminder). Rock band Wilco, which sold out Mershon Auditorium in October (in a return visit to the Wex), picked up a nomination for Best Rock Album (for Sky Blue Sky). Jazz composer and musician Terence Blanchard, who has performed here and who has worked with 2008 Wexner Prize recipient Spike Lee on soundtracks for various films, was nominated for two Grammys for A Tale of God抯 Will (A Requiem for Katrina)梞usic that was also used for and inspired by Lee抯 When the Levees Broke, the aforementioned documentary about Hurrica