The art works from the West Collection are on long-term loan to SEI, the financial services firm Al West founded 40 years ago. Al West and his daughter Paige have built the collection in a 15 year period with SEI's audience in mind, but also with the sole mission of finding the most compelling contemporary works available by leading international artists. The foremost goal of the West Collection
is to meet young artists who are creating challenging and inventive work and to present an experience of this new art to the public. Additional loans are made back to artists for exhibitions as well as to various museums and universities internationally as well as in the Philadelphia area. Loans have been made in recent years to the Whitney Museum of American Art, The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, The Corcoran Gallery of Art, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, The Tate Modern, the Institute of Contemporary Art in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art, just to name a few. (Annual West Prize)
In order to keep in the spirit of collecting from artists on the cusp of setting new trends, and to expand the collecting pool to the entire globe, the West Acquisition Prize was started in 2008. By allowing artists to apply directly to be part of the West Collection with a simple and quick online application, 6,075 artists from 73 countries have applied to the collection in two years. Any visual artist, 18 years or older, working in video, sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, and installation can submit an application to have their works reviewed by Curator Paige West for possible acquisition into the West Collection. Ten finalists per year receive $10,000 in acquisition funds per artist. One of the "10" artists per year will additionally be awarded the Grand Prize for their ambitious work and receive a $25,000 artist stipend to focus on their work for the coming year. Every spring the "10" exhibition finalists will be exhibited at SEI and their works become part of the West Collection and West Lending Library.
