Trawick Prize Winners Announced

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards announced the top four prize winners on Wednesday evening during the exhibition’s opening at the Fraser Gallery.

René Treviño from Baltimore, MD was awarded “Best in Show” with $10,000; Molly Springfield of Washington, D.C. was named second place and was given $2,000; Jessie Lehson of Baltimore, MD was bestowed third place and received $1,000 and the “Young Artist” award of $1,000 was given to Hannah Kim of Falls Church, VA.

Entries were juried by Dr. Doreen Bolger, Director of The Baltimore Museum of Art; Kevin Everson, Associate Professor at the University of Virginia and Joanna Marsh, The James Dicke Curator of Contemporary Art at the Smithsonian American Art Museum.

A public reception will be held on Friday, September 11, 2009 from 6-9pm in conjunction with the Bethesda Art Walk. The exhibit will be on display through October 3, 2009. The Fraser Gallery is located at 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E and gallery hours are Tuesday - Saturday from 11:30am-6pm.

The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards was established by the amazing Carol Trawick in 2003 to honor the work of local artists and has become the region's top art prize and I am a huge fan of Carol Trawick.

The Trawick Prize is one of the first regional competitions and largest prizes to annually honor visual artists. To date, The Trawick Prize has awarded over $98,000 in prize monies and has received over 2,400 artist submissions. Founder Carol Trawick has served as a community activist for more than 25 years in downtown Bethesda; including working on legislation to designate communities in Maryland as Arts & Entertainment Districts. Additionally, she is past Chair of the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, past Chair of the Bethesda Urban Partnership, current Chair of Strathmore and Founder of the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation.