MIAMI.- The Patricia & Phillip Frost Art Museum at Florida International University and the Cintas Foundation today announced seven finalists for the coveted 2008 Cintas Foundation Emilio Sanchez Award in the Visual Arts. Ray Azcuy, Barbara M. Fuentes, Isaac Maiselman, Ernesto Oroza, Maria Perez Bravo, Juana Valdes and Ricardo Zulueta were chosen from a field of 54 applicants.

The award carries a $15,000 cash prize which is used by the winner to further his or her creative development. The award is generously funded by the Emilio Sanchez Foundation.In 2005, the Emilio Sanchez Foundation (www.emiliosanchezfoundation.org) endowed an award in the visual arts, through 2009, in honor of the late Cuban artist and Cintas Fellow Emilio Sanchez (1989 - 1990). This will be the fourth such award in a series of five donated by the Emilio Sanchez Foundation. It was first awarded in 2005 to Christian Curiel, in 2006 to Glexis Novoa, and in 2007 to Gean Moreno.

Members of the 2008 juryfor the fellowship award are: Anne Ellegood, Curator, Hirshorn Museum & Sculpture Garden, Washington DC, Cecilia Fajardo-Hill, Chief Curator, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, Dr. Paula Harper, Art Historian and critic, Miami, Yasmil Raymond, Assistant Curator, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis.

"Congratulations to the finalists, said Cintas Foundation president Hortensia E. Sampedro. "We had an exceptionally competitive field of applicants this year, and appreciate the skill this outstanding panel of judges brought to the task."

The Cintas Foundation Fellowship Program was established in 1963 with funds from the estate of the late Oscar B. Cintas, (1887 - 1957) a former Cuban ambassador to the United States and a prominent industrialist and patron of the arts.

Since then more than 300 artists have been honored with the Cintas Fellowship. The only one of its kind in the nation, the program has honored some of the world's most talented Cuban artists, many at the start of their careers, who have gone on to play an influential role in the development of their disciplines.

Past visual arts fellows include Carlos Alfonzo, Luis Cruz Azaceta, Jose Bedia, Elio Beltran, Mario Bencomo, Pablo Cano, Mario Carreno, Waldo Diaz Balart, Teresita Fernández, Anthony Goicolea, Juan Gonzalez, Maria Elena González, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, María Martínez-Cañas, Jose M. Mijares, Abelardo Morell, Jr., and Mari Rodríguez-Ichaso, Baruj Salinas, Andres Serrano, Cesar Trasobares and many others. A complete history and listings of the fellows may found in the Cintas Foundation web site at www.cintasfoundation.org

The Selection Program is administered by The Frost Art Museum at Florida International University and the Cintas Foundation. For more information, please visit www.cintasfoundation.org or www.frostartmuseum.org