Celebrating Local Arts in Santa Cruz County: Four Artists Receive Rydell Visual Arts Fellowships
Four local visual artists were selected by Community Foundation Santa Cruz County to receive Rydell Visual Arts Fellowship awards for 2012 and 2013.
At an exhibition reception Friday (January 13) for the four current Rydell fellows (Andrea Borsuk, Victoria May, Tim Craighead and Andy Ruble) at the Museum of Art & History @ the McPherson Center, the next two years of awardees, who will each receive $20,000, were announced.
They are (for 2012) Isabelle Jenniches and Encyclopedia Pictura, the artist collective of Isaiah Saxon, Daren Rabinovitch and Sean Hellfritsch.
For 2013, the awardees are Ian Everard and Rocky Lewycky.
Isabelle Jenniches creates images captured from live cameras on the Intranet. Having exhibited around the world, she lives in the Santa Cruz Mountains and divides her time between her studio practice and farming.
Encyclopedia Pictura, the artist collective of Isaiah Saxon, Daren Rabinovitch and Sean Hellfritsch, has teamed up to direct film and art projects that explore science, nature, and adventure. Esquire magazine called them “The Directors of the Future”. The trio was born and raised in Santa Cruz County. For the last two years, they have led an effort to build a unique hillside neighborhood in the redwood forests of Aptos.
Ian Everard is a painter whose work is in the collections of the Oakland Museum and Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento. He has been written about in ArtScene, Art Week, San Jose Mercury News and New York Magazine among others.
Rocky Lewycky is a ceramic and installation artist. Recognized as a top emerging talent, he currently teaches art at Foothill College and Monterey Peninsula College.
“Roy and Frances Rydell believed in the arts and in Santa Cruz County’s as a place to live and work,” said Lance Linares, executive director of the Community Foundation.
“The support provided by the permanent endowed fund the Rydells created ensures that artists living in our county will receive recognition and support in perpetuity,” Linares said.
Forty-two artists applied for this round of fellowships from a candidate pool nominated by 29 local and regional visual arts organizations. Nominees were limited to working artists, 25 years or older, who reside in Santa Cruz County and are not enrolled in a degree granting program.
Nominating organizations were asked to consider the broad disciplines the Rydells thought of as part of the visual arts: painting, drawing, printmaking, ceramics, sculpture, installation, mixed media, stage set design, photography, costume design, textiles, glass, film and video.
In November 2011, a panel of three nationally-recognized arts professionals met at the Foundation to judge the artists’ works and select the fellowship recipients. The panel members were Elizabeth Armstrong, (Curator of Contemporary Art at the Minneapolis Institute of Arts), Elyse Gonzales, (Curator of Exhibitions at the Museum of Art, Design, and Architecture, UC Santa Barbara), and Gilbert Vicario (Senior Curator at the Des Moines Art Center).
Since 1982, the Foundation has worked to help donors and their advisors invest wisely in causes they care about, to provide grants and resources to community organizations and to offer leadership around key local issues. Visit online at www.cfscc.org or (831) 662-2000 for more information.
Photo images of the artists’ work are available on request and can be viewed online at www.cfscc.org/RydellFellowshipProgram
