People, papers and presentations

Kim Davenport, director of the Rice University Art Gallery, received the California-based Apple Valley Foundation’s 2013 “Curatorial Excellence Award” for her curation of artist Soo Sunny Park’s 2013 “Unwoven Light” installation at Rice Gallery. The selection was made after two of the foundation’s directors visited “numerous prestigious United States museums and art galleries” and critiqued more than “30 of the finest displays and presentation,” the foundation said in its award announcement. The award included a $10,000 prize.

OwlSpark, a student-founded organization to ignite entrepreneurship at Rice, was awarded a $50,000 grant from Blackstone Charitable Foundation Feb. 7. The grant will allow OwlSpark to launch the National University Accelerator Network, which will “connect university-based accelerators, share best practices, link university-based startups and mentor and investor networks across the country,” according to the foundation’s announcement about the awardees. OwlSpark was one of 17 organizations selected from a pool of 502 applications in an effort by Blackstone to support entrepreneurship and innovation across the United States.