Presented by Palm Springs Art Museum. May 8 – July 26, 2015
For 25 years, Palm Springs Art Museum has presented the annual Fine Arts Creativity Awards program honoring two students with purchase awards. For the first time in its history, all 49 award winners are included in the exhibition Our History: Celebrating 25 Years of the Fine Arts Creativity Awards Program on view at Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert, The Galen and the Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden, from May 8 through July 26, 2015.
This unique program was created to recognize talented youth and to celebrate and promote the visual arts in the Coachella Valley. Students this year addressed the exhibition theme “Making History: Past, Present, Future.” Past themes have been “Identity,” “Power,” and “Expectations.” The themes are meant to be challenging, inspiring, and relevant to young artists.
“Not only is this an outstanding presentation of fine art, this exhibition is also a historical record of the talented youth and dedicated art educators in the Coachella Valley,” said Emily Culhan, Education Programs Manager for the museum. “Many award winners have gone into careers in the arts, and the museum is proud to be an early source of inspiration for their artistic endeavors.”
The program is open to all public and private high schools and College of the Desert. The exhibition is juried each year so that the most talented and thoughtful artworks are selected. Jurors are both practicing artists and museum professionals. When making their selections, they consider the creative interpretation of the theme, technical ability, originality, and the imaginative communication of ideas and emotions. Each year over 200 works are entered for consideration, 55 are selected, and two receive the highest award, the Fine Arts Creativity Purchase Award. One work from a high school student and one work from a college student are purchased by the museum and accessioned into the Education Department Collection.
The recipients of the 2015 Fine Arts Creativity Purchase Award are:
Crystal Pasztor
Art Transcending
Glazed ceramic
2015 Purchase Award
Cathedral City High School
Instructor: Nan Burlingame
Wilma P. Rueda
Birds Kept Falling
Pastel, India ink, cotton thread, and paper on paper
2015 Purchase Award
College of the Desert
Instructor: Scott Klinger
The exhibition is presented in English and Spanish. Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert is located at 72-567 Highway 111. For more information about Palm Springs Art Museum visit www.psmuseum.org or call (760) 346-5600.
About Palm Springs Art Museum
Palm Springs Art Museum is the largest cultural institution in the Coachella Valley and includes three locations in Palm Springs and Palm Desert. The flagship building is located in downtown Palm Springs and features compelling art exhibitions, a vast permanent collection, and the 433-seat Annenberg Theater, all in a 150,000 square foot, architecturally-significant building. Palm Springs Art Museum Architecture and Design Center, Edwards Harris Pavilion features exhibitions and programming that explore the rich topics of architecture and design. Palm Springs Art Museum in Palm Desert is an 8,400 square foot, Silver LEED-certified building named The Galen that presents rotating exhibitions and special collections. It is surrounded by the four-acre Faye Sarkowsky Sculpture Garden featuring important sculpture works. Admission to the Palm Desert location is now free to the public, generously underwritten by Helene V. Galen. For more information, call 760-322-4800, visit www.psmuseum.org, and follow the museum on Facebook, Twitter and InstaGram.
David Eppelheimer, Silence, 2006, Mixed Media
College of the Desert Instructor: Judith Cook
Fine Arts Creativity Purchase Award 2007
