Bill Goldston has been made the very first Honorary Member of the Queen Sonja Print Award in a private ceremony on the 2 September in Oslo. Bill Goldston joined Universal Limited Art Editions in 1969, and has been the director and master printer of the ULAE studio from 1982 onwards. He is the main patron to the Queen Sonja Print Award Inspirational Award, alongside the Foundation itself.
Queen Sonja said of the appointment that Goldston had been an invaluable ally to the Queen Sonja Print Award for many years, always generous with his knowledge, time and master printmaking skills in support of the Foundation and its cause. “A great companion on the QSPA journey”, Her Majesty said.
In response, Bill Goldston replied that: “Sometimes in one’s life, things happen that seems imperative to participate in. It has been my pleasure to contribute to the Queen Sonja Print Award, and the important advocacy for printmaking and printmaking artists of Her Majesty and the Foundation'”.
The Queen Sonja Print Award is one of the world’s leading awards for graphic arts and is distributed every other year. Originally, it was a part of the Nordic Prize, and the first winner was the Finnish artist Tiina Kivinen in 2012, followed by Danish Svend-Allan Sørensen in 2014. Then, the prize became an international award, and Tauba Auerbach from the United States received the award in 2016. The prize consists of a grant of NOK 400,000. In addition, the winner gets a study stay at Ole Larsen’s workshop in Helsingborg. The purpose of the prize is to inspire interest in – and the development of – graphic art.
Queen Sonja is, and always has been, very interested in art. In 2016, the Queen opened a brand new art centre in the Norwegian town of Trondheim. The Queen is a recgonsied artist herself. She has created a large number of art objects and cooperated with numerous artists, including Kjell Nupen. Her Majesty has, for many years, handed out “The Queen Sonja Print Award” which is awarded every two years. Until 2014, this prize was exclusively intended for artists from the Nordic nations, but in 2014, it was made into an international award. That same year the Queen established a brand new award “The Kjell Nupen Memorial Grant” in memory of her good friend, Kjell Nupen.
