Seattle Art Museum: Annual Betty Bowen Award Competition

Five finalists, including Mike Bray (Oregon); Claudia Fitch (Washington); Akihiko Miyoshi (Oregon) and Michelle Ross (Oregon)—chosen from a pool of 294 applicants from Washington, Oregon and Idaho—competed for the $15,000 award.

Bergmann will receive her award and discuss her work on Thursday, October 25 at 5:30 pm in the Nordstrom Lecture Hall at SAM Downtown. A reception in SAM’s Simons Board Room will immediately follow. Both the award ceremony and reception are free and open to the public.

Sarah Bergmann, a Seattle-based artist and ecological designer, received her BFA from Cornish College of the Arts in 1999. Trained as a painter, Bergmann shifted her artistic practice, seven years ago, from traditional landscape paintings made in her studio to ecologically-charged public installations, following her determination to “respond to [today’s] profound planetary changes.” Her most recent public project, The Pollinator Pathway, has transformed a mile-long segment of parking strips in Seattle’s Central District along Columbia Street into blooming habitats planted with native plants that encourage native pollinators to the region (such as bees, beetles, birds, butterflies, and even ants). Part renegade park and part educational platform, the Pollinator Pathway bridges science, art, systems-thinking, urban planning and landscape design. Bergmann’s project was spotlighted with a temporary exhibition, Portal to the Pollinator Pathway, outside the PACCAR Pavilion within the SAM’s Olympic Sculpture Park June 27–September 16, 2012.

Her work has been part of recent group exhibitions including All Things Equal, Hedreen Gallery, Seattle, WA (2001); A Bell Is a Cup Until It Is Struck, Punch Gallery, Seattle, WA (2007); and Bashville, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA (2005). She has been the recipient of the grants including The Northwest Horticulture Society Grant (2011); Neighborhood Matching Grant, City of Seattle (2010); Neighborhood Matching Grant, City of Seattle (2008); and a GAP Grant Recipient, Artist Trust, Seattle, WA (2004). In addition she has been nominated for the 2012 The Stranger Genius Awards.

Betty Bowen (1918–1977) was a Washington native and enthusiastic supporter of Northwest artists. Her friends established the annual Betty Bowen Award as a celebration of her life and to honor and continue her efforts to provide financial support to artists of the region. Since 1977, SAM has hosted the yearly grant application process by which the selection committee chooses one artist living and working in the Northwest (Washington, Oregon and Idaho) to receive an unrestricted cash award.

2012 Betty Bowen Committee Members

Jeffrey Bishop
Gary Glant (Chair)
Peggy Golberg
Anne Gould Hauberg
Mike Hess
Isaac Layman
Mark Levine
Catharina Manchanda (SAM’s Jon and Mary Shirley Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art)
Llewelyn Pritchard
Greg Robinson
Norie Sato
Bill True
Maggie Walker
Tom Wilson
Dan Webb
Merrill Wright

Rotating artists are past recipients of the award who are rotated onto the committee for several year periods.

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Sarah Bergmann Named 2012 Betty Bowen Award Winner

2012 Betty Bowen Committee Members