In honor of one of Vermont’s most celebrated artists and educators, Burlington City Arts announces the opening of the Diane Gabriel Visual Artist Award application period on Friday, January 10. The award, which provides a total of $6,000 to an emerging Vermont artists' creative development, is in its fifth and final year.
The family of Vermont artist Diane Gabriel (1947-2017) established the Diane Gabriel Visual Artist Award in 2021 to support emerging artists that are living and working in the state of Vermont. Artists working in any visual medium are welcome to apply. There is no application fee. This year’s application deadline is Monday, March 10, 2025 at midnight.
The Diane Gabriel Visual Artist Award supports an artist’s creative development by encouraging experimental approaches to art making, with a special focus on artists interested in catalyzing innovative ideas, exploring new media, and better establishing their artistic practice.
In 2024, multi-media artist Lydia Kern became the fourth annual winner of this emerging artist prize. Actively engaged with Burlington’s artist community, Kern focuses on themes of care, preservation, and connection using reclaimed natural materials and found objects such as dried flowers, found animal bones and eggshells to create her mixed media sculptures.
“I'm extremely grateful to receive the multifaceted support of the Diane Gabriel Award at this moment in my career," says Kern. "This support will assist me in building a new body of work that explores grief as a transformative force: an illuminator for what we wish to preserve and carry into the future. Access to the BCA clay and photo studios will allow me to experiment and integrate new mediums into these sculptural works. I’m deeply inspired by Diane’s legacy of making work that is ‘both intensely intimate and universal,’ and honored to be supported by the ripples of her life and practice.”
An awards panel will be convened and comprised of 5 members including artists/arts professionals, BCA Exhibitions Advisory Committee/Board members, and the BCA Curator and Director of Exhibitions to review artist submissions via Awards Platform and to select the recipient of the award.
The winner will be selected based on status as an emerging artist, artistic skill, willingness to experiment, and commitment to innovation. In addition to a $5,000 award, the recipient also receives $1,000 in class credit to be used at BCA Studios. The award will be announced at the end of April of 2025.
Visit burlingtoncityarts.org for more information or to apply.
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