Award Winning Individual Artist Exhibition
The Arts Fund Gallery will host its annual 2011 Individual Artist Awards Group Exhibition featuring work by Santa Barbara County artists James Petrucci, Henry Rasmussen, Mary Carol Kenney, James Hapke, Alejandro Casazi and Stephanie Dotson from September 10 – November 5, 2011. Geoffrey Hahn and Kristen Reed, 2011 IAA winner and honorable mention in the Solo Vocal category, will also be acknowledged in the gallery.
The exhibition will open with a public reception, award ceremony and silent auction to benefit the IAA on Saturday, September 10, 2011 from 5 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. at The Arts Fund Gallery, 205C Santa Barbara Street (at Yanonali), Santa Barbara, CA 93101. The public reception and gallery exhibition are free and open to the public. The Arts Fund Gallery is open from Tuesday – Saturday, 1 – 5 p.m. and by appointment.
The Arts Fund's Individual Artist Award (IAA) program identifies and rewards creative excellence in Santa Barbara County. Now in its 22nd year, the IAA has awarded over $160,000 in cash prizes and showcased the work of 132 of the county’s best artists in the visual, performing and literary arts. Funded entirely through private donations, the IAA supports The Arts Fund’s mission of championing the arts through helping artists produce and promote their work locally. This year artists throughout the county competed for Individual Artist Awards in the following categories: Two- imensional Figurative Works, Printmaking and Music: Solo Vocal. Winners in each category will receive a $2,000 cash prize. In addition to participating in this group show, visual arts winners are given a solo-exhibition in The Arts Fund Gallery in 2012. The solo vocal winner will be given a performance opportunity in a public venue in Santa Barbara at a later date. Arts Fund Executive Director Nina Dunbar complemented the jurors for this year’s competition—―Every year I am amazed by the remarkable talent that emerges from our jurors’ decisions. Just when I thought I knew the artists working in our community, new names win this award and The Art Fund has the pleasure of showing them off in this group exhibition.
2011 Individual Artist Award winners and honorable mentions include:
Two-Dimensional Figurative Works: James Petrucci, Winner.
Honorable Mentions: Henry Rasmussen and Mary Carol Kenney.
Printmaking: James Hapke, Winner.
Honorable Mentions: Alejandro Casazi and Stephanie Dotson.
Music:
Solo Vocal: Geoffrey Hahn, Winner.
Honorable Mention: Kristen Reed.
Jurors for this year’s awards included John Nava, Pamela Kendall Schiffer, Nicholas Price, Molly Concannon, Melanie Lancon, and Justyna Kelley. IAA Award Sponsors were Suzanne Bock, Robert and Christine Emmons, Chris Lancashire and Mary Beth Larkin, and Jon and Lillian Lovelace.
Figurative Works Winner James Petrucci is a self-taught artist born and raised in Santa Barbara. He has worked and exhibited extensively in Phoenix Arizona. In 2005 he attended a private residency with artists Elias Rivera and Susan Contreras in Santa Fe and in 2009 was a William Colville grant recipient.
Printmaking Winner James Hapke was born in 1986 in Newport Beach, California and studied in Santa Barbara at Westmont College earning an M.A. in English with a minor in Studio Art focusing on printmaking. After graduating in 2009 he co-founded the Santa Barbara based writing group and journal, FRAME, and curated a timeline and visual expression of the development of the poetry journal for the exhibit and poetry reading, "Monitored" at the Faulkner Gallery. He also co-wrote an ocean/ballad-based concept album, Water Will Rise, released in 2010 under the name Patience. His work as a printmaker is driven and influenced by his interdisciplinary background.
Solo Vocal Winner Geoffrey Hahn is a Santa Barbara High School graduate and recent grand finalist in the LA Music Center’s Spotlight Competition. He will be attending Columbia University and Julliard School this fall. He performed on NPR’s ―From The Top‖ in Chicago and provided a beautiful tone for ―The Education Of A Young Singer‖ for The Arts Fund Salon Series this June. His talent has taken him to New York, Edinburgh, England and France with casting in Hair and winning Merit Finalist in Young Arts National Competition.