For those who have
only just begun.
An international prize for Catholic artists aged twenty-nine and under. Eight arts. One evening in 2028.
“Ingenious creators of beauty.”
John Paul II, Letter to Artists, ¶1
The Wonder Institute seeks out the youngest generation of Catholic creators: the unknowns, the first works, the promise not yet noticed by anyone else.
We honor them with the seriousness the great academies reserve for a lifetime of achievement, because a vocation is most fragile, and most precious, at its beginning.
About the Institute →Younger than the Letter itself.
The first ceremony falls in 2028, twenty-nine years after John Paul II wrote to artists on Easter Sunday 1999. So the Awards are open to artists aged twenty-nine and under: every laureate will be younger than the Letter itself.
The age limit is a span of years made into a promise: the Letter's hope, answered by those born after it.
The founding story →
The Wonder Prism
Eight gemstones, one for each art. One light passes through them all.
What it means →Ones to watch.
Ages 18 to 28. Illustrative profiles, fictional placeholders.
Fionn Kilbride, 22
The Bread We Break · Galway
Adaeze Okonkwo, 24
The Upper Room · Lagos
Matteo Ferrante, 19
Canticle at Dusk · Assisi
Seo-yeon Park, 26
Missa Brevis for Small Voices · Seoul
Emiliano Navarrete, 21
Our Lady of the Harbor · Guadalajara
- Writing“Every genuine art form in its own way is a path to the inmost reality of man and of the world.” ¶6
- Theatre“an ethic, even a “spirituality” of artistic service” ¶4
- Music“art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience” ¶10
- Sacred Music“Our only art is faith and our music Christ” ¶7
- Visual Arts“ingenious creators of beauty” ¶1
- Architecture“churches which are both places of prayer and true works of art” ¶12
- Film and Media“a renewed “epiphany” of beauty in our time” ¶10
- Dance“Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence.” ¶16
April 22, 2028
Saturday in the Octave of Easter
Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception, Washington, D.C. (concept venue)
Vespers at five. Ceremony at seven. Dinner beneath the mosaics. By invitation.
The evening Patron invitations“May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder!”John Paul II, Letter to Artists, ¶16
