Announcing the Winner of the 2025 Schulman and Bullard Article Prize

Justin Willson, Curator at The Icon Museum and Study Center in Clinton, Massachusetts, has been awarded the 2025 Schulman and Bullard Article Prize. Now in its eleventh year, this award is given by the Association of Print Scholars (APS) to an article published by an early-career scholar that features compelling and innovative research on prints or printmaking. 

In his article, “Icon Printing and Pimen Sofronov’s Collection,” published in Print Quarterly in September 2024 (Vol.XLI, No.3), Willson examines a previously unstudied collection of Russian icon prints that lie on the spectrum between fine art prints and drawings. 

One juror noted, “Willson’s article brings to light a fascinating archive of icon prints and compellingly traces their production, circulation, provenance, and reception. Willson succinctly lays out the methods for producing these works and their socio-religious context, while also detailing their later receptions. It represents, for me, the most exciting and satisfying kind of scholarship: there is plenty of detail about the specifics and language of their original production that will be crucial for future specialists working on the topic, while clearly articulating the stakes and significance for an audience with related but largely unconnected interests. ”

Another juror described Willson’s contribution as an “interesting exploration of a less-examined technique for icon production particular to the Old Believer sect of Russian orthodox church….[that was] trying to avoid modern reproductive methods because it had led to a loss of craft knowledge.” 

APS would like to acknowledge and thank this year’s jurors for their diligence and generosity in reading the submissions: Rebecca Capua (Conservator in the Paper Conservation Department at the Metropolitan Museum of Art); Erin Maynes (Associate Curator, Prints & Drawings and Rifkind Center for German Expressionist Studies, Los Angeles County Museum of Art); and Sarah C. Schaefer (Associate Professor of Art History, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee).

Justin Willson is Curator at The Icon Museum and Study Center in Clinton, Massachusetts. His research focuses on the status of the image in the premodern Greek and early Slavic worlds. His recent show at the Icon Museum, “Printing Icons: Modern Process, Medieval Image,” October 17, 2024-March 30, 2025, examined the impact of printing on workshops in the Balkans, Russia, and Eastern Europe over the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. 

The Schulman and Bullard Article Prize, which carries a $2,000 award, is generously sponsored by Susan Schulman and Carolyn Bullard and celebrates innovative contributions by early-career scholars to the field. Following the mission of APS, articles submitted for the prize can focus on printmaking across any geographic region and all chronological periods. Please visit the APS website for more details about submitting an article for consideration: https://printscholars.org/awards/ 

APS is a non-profit organization for print enthusiasts that brings together a diverse community of curators, collectors, academics, graduate students, artists, conservators, critics, independent scholars, and art dealers. APS aims to encourage innovative and interdisciplinary print scholarship and to facilitate dialogue among its members. Over 550 people from all over the world have joined APS since it was founded in 2014.