Burlington City Arts is proud to announce the 2014 Barbara Smail Award winner, Vermont artist Sumru Tekin. The announcement was made during the opening reception of Kate Donnelly’s (2013 Barbara Smail Award Winner) exhibition A Period of Confinement at the BCA Center on Friday, January 24, 2014. Sumru Tekin is the recipient of the 12th annual Barbara Smail Award.
Previous Barbara Smail Award winter Kate Donnelly who nominated Sumru said, “Sumru is an engaged and vital member of the arts community. She is a passionate artist whose multi-disciplinary approach currently encompasses drawing, painting, constructions, writing, and sound.” BCA Chief Curator DJ Hellerman says, "Sumru brings an intellectual rigor to her practice and a playful sense of experimentation. I am looking forward to helping Sumru develop her work over the next 12 months.”
Born in Erzurum, Turkey, Sumru has a MFA in Visual Art from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and a BA in Art History from the University of Vermont. A recipient of an Arts Endowment Fund Grant from the Vermont Community Foundation, she recently completed an artist book titled Memory Device that will be exhibited in the US and abroad with the project, An Inventory of Al-Mutannabi Street. More at www.sumrutekin.com.
As the recipient of the 2014 Barbara Smail Award, Tekin is awarded a $1,500 cash stipend and $1,000 worth of class registration and/or usage of The BCA Center's studio facilities (this includes the Print and Clay Studio at 250 Main Street, as well as the Darkroom/Digital Lab at The BCA Center) for one year. Upon completion of the calendar year, BCA will host an exhibition of the artist’s work. Friends and family of Barbara Smail, a well-loved and highly respected artist from the Burlington area who died in the fall of 2001, established the Barbara Smail Award. The award is given to a mid-career Vermont-based artist who has a desire to expand his or her creative experience and has displayed an enthusiastic support of his or her peers. Previous award winners include Carol MacDonald, Jennifer Koch, Diane Gabriel, Catherine Hall, Lynn Rupe, Peter Gallo, Jude Bond, Anthony Sini, Kat Clear, Gregg Blasdel and Kate Donnelly.
The Barbara Smail Award is an important part of Burlington City Arts, who is dedicated to the promotion of excellence, experimentation, and education in all forms of contemporary art.
