COLUMBUS, OH.-The Wexner Center for the Arts announced today that the 13th Wexner Prize will be awarded to groundbreaking filmmaker Spike Lee, who will come to Columbus in February to accept the award. The $50,000 Prize is given to a contemporary artist in any field who has been consistently original, influential, and challenging to convention, with artists nominated by the Wexner Center’s International Arts Advisory Council. This marks the first award in Lee’s career from a multidisciplinary arts center. He will be at the Wexner Center February 11 and 12, 2008 for the ceremony, and to participate in a variety of events for Wexner Center members, Ohio State students, area teens, and the general public.

Notes Wexner Center Director Sherri Geldin, “Since bursting on the scene in 1986 with his quirky and irreverent movie She’s Gotta Have It, Spike Lee has been among the most significant voices in American film. With a fierce commitment to capturing and conveying the lived experiences of African Americans, he brings to all his projects a unique and independent vision combined with an unerring ‘street savvy.’ With this Prize—his first from a multidisciplinary arts center—we honor Lee’s work in feature film, documentaries, television movies, music video, and even commercials.”

Leslie H. Wexner, chair of the Wexner Center Foundation Board of Trustees, commented, “Spike Lee exemplifies what the Wexner Prize was created to celebrate: a bold creative spirit who is unafraid to provoke and challenge us. He tests the American mind, and its attitudes, assumptions and values, and in doing so has advanced American cinema in remarkable ways. We are thrilled to award the 13th Wexner Prize to Spike Lee.”

In the past two decades, Lee has worked in a variety of film genres, from coming-of-age (1994’s Crooklyn) to biopics (1992’s Malcolm X) to documentaries (2006’s When the Levees Broke, a devastating look at the effects of Hurricane Katrina) to musicals (1988’s School Daze), and infused each with his inimitable style and vibrant, electric filmmaking technique. In 1989 Lee was nominated for a Best Screenplay Academy Award for his landmark Do the Right Thing. Currently, he is working on a film based on James McBride’s novel Miracle of St. Anna about black soldiers who fought in World War II. Lee will also be making his Broadway directorial debut in the spring with an adaptation of Billy Wilder’s Stalag 17.

The Wexner Prize is awarded annually to a major contemporary artist in any artistic field who has been consistently original, influential, and challenging to convention. The $50,000 prize is funded by the Wexner Center Foundation through a gift from Abigail and Leslie H. Wexner, chairman of the Wexner Center Foundation and chairman and founder of Limited Brands. As with past Prize recipients, Spike Lee was nominated by the Wexner Center's cross-disciplinary International Arts Advisory Council and selected to receive the Prize by the trustees of the Wexner Center Foundation. A commemorative sculpture designed by artist Jim Dine accompanies the award.