Scholarships & Awards

Bainbridge Arts and Crafts has a proud history of supporting artists at all stages of their careers, beginning with kids. We award scholarships and cash prizes to student artists and showcase two student exhibitions each May. We provide grants to teachers to supplement their art supply and programming budgets. And each year, we recognize an exceptional artist under with age of 35 with the Amy Award for Emerging Artists. Learn more below!

The Amy Award for Emerging Artists

Amy Anderson was a gifted young woman involved in the visual and performing arts here on Bainbridge Island. In memory of Amy, her parents, David and Caren Anderson, funded an endowment designed to inspire and encourage talented young artists who have lived on the island—under the age of 35—to continue their work in their chosen fields including theater, dance, film, music, printmaking, jewelry making, mosaics, sculpture and photography.

Since 2001, the Amy Award has been managed by Arts & Humanities Bainbridge (AHB), and honorees are chosen in alternate years by Bainbridge Performing Arts (BPA) and Bainbridge Arts & Crafts (BAC). Each winner is honored in a ceremony in late May. This year, BAC and AHB are pleased to announce the 2021 winner, Maddie K. Rogers.   

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR 2021 RECIPIENT, photographer and book ARTIST maddie rogers

Maddie has received numerous awards and grants throughout the years, and is especially honored to receive the Amy Award this year. Her work can be found on her website, maddiekrogers.com, and via her Instagram account.

Maddie grew up on Bainbridge Island with her parents and two older brothers. “I had a pretty average Bainbridge experience,” she says. However, by her own admission, her experiences were anything but average. When she was 16, her mother passed away from cancer, and that forced Maddie to grow up quickly. In addition, she spent a great deal of time around her older brothers and their friends, making it a bit difficult to relate to her peers.

Her mother was a big believer in documenting moments, making hundreds of photo albums of family and friends. They were unique and detailed. From an early age, Maddie knew they were a powerful and important way to preserve memories. When Maddie was 15, she was given an old Polaroid land camera, and along with a 35mm camera, she began taking her own pictures. From that point, she was hooked.    

“I love how tactile film is, how much patience it requires. I don’t think there was ever a moment where I thought about studying anything else. I kind of always knew I would end up doing something art related, and when you can’t draw, you take photos!”

Maddie K. Rogers

After graduating from Bainbridge High School in 2015, Maddie headed to Columbia College Chicago (2015-2017) and continued on to the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), where she earned her BFA in 2020.

When she began taking photos in her teen years, she tended to photograph what was right in front of her; friends, family, and documentary style street photography. In her words: “In a way I didn’t really ‘create’ anything new, it was all just observing what was in front of me and documenting it.” When she began at Columbia, she was encouraged by her instructors and peers to explore her work in a more personal way, which led her to start making a self-portrait series that told the story of her mother’s passing. She continues to create self-portrait work today and has been working on a series about playing billiards for the last few years.

From a professional and personal perspective, Maddie doesn’t like to “push” things that don’t come naturally to her, and she tends to take photos of things she’s drawn to. As she explains it:      

“If I don’t feel comfortable and excited taking photos, then it’s usually an indication that it’s not something I’m really interested in. I like to push myself in the sense of work ethic, but I’m less and less interested in fitting into any kind of mold about what kind of work I should be making.”

While in college, Maddie took three bookmaking classes from instructor, Myungah Hyon. Hyon was very intentional about separating the technical aspects of assembling books and the conceptual choices you make about the contents of the book. This inspired Maddie to create books using her photos and her writings, allowing her to control and communicate the experience to the viewer from a more personal level. As she explained it, finalizing a book project, which has a beginning, middle and end, gives her photographic stories closure.  

In 2018, Maddie and her roommates hosted a show in their backyard for her birthday. It was so well received, that they decided to do it as a series of events the following year. In the summer of 2019, they created The Litterbox, an Instagram account where musicians could submit proposals to play in Maddie’s back small yard. The enthusiasm was fantastic. In that first summer, they featured 12 bands and one poetry reading. In 2020, they opened submissions again and received almost 200 requests from bands and artists who wanted to share their art. Sadly, Covid-19 would cancel that summer’s shows. She’s not sure if The Litterbox will start again in the future, but she’s incredibly thankful to all the artists that allowed her to host them.

Like most people, when the pandemic hit she struggled with the aimless feeling of losing her job, no longer having her school ties and simply being locked up at home. However, it also helped her gain a new perspective. She learned to embrace her aimlessness and channel her creativity into new projects.

At the beginning of the quarantine, her friend Anna started a website/Instagram called The Nearness Project to bring people together during the pandemic. Anna encouraged Maddie to participate. Not being able to get outside to take her photographs, Maddie concentrated on writing about her cat, Byron, accountability in the music scene and her recent battles with sobriety. She also began Primaries Vintage, which plays to her love of thrifting. Now she goes to thrift stores several times a week, bringing her finds home to document and clean, then resell online or in in-person markets. She’s found this to be a fun and rewarding adventure, especially because she loves interacting with people who enjoy vintage clothing and accessories as much as she does.

Going forward, Maddie will continue to shoot photos for her series, The Boys Club, which documents her experiences as a woman in pool halls. She’s been an aficionado since she was young, but has been seriously playing for more than four years and is a member of the Chicago Chapter of the American Pool players Association. She hopes to someday turn The Boys Club into a book.

Maddie also began working in her own studio space, housed at a local gallery in Chicago called Happy Gallery, and hopes to someday open her own vintage clothing store. In the meantime, she’ll continue to shower her beloved, tailless cat Byron with affection, and perhaps acquire a few more tattoos (she’s gotten four in the last month alone).

Special thanks to Margaret Millmore and the Island Wanderings article on Currents online:

Article
 

Recent Recipients:

2019: Natalie Godfrey: www.nqgodfrey.com/
2018: Keiko Green: www.keikogreen.com  
2017: Adam Bentz: www.adambentzfurniture.com

Student Scholarships

Each year Bainbridge Arts and Crafts awards scholarships to graduating high school seniors who plan to continue their study of art. Submissions are judged by volunteer professional artists who are represented by Bainbridge Arts and Crafts. Their decisions are made on the basis of mastery of medium, creativity, presentation, and a compelling written application.

Pauli Family Scholarship

Longtime Bainbridge Islanders Jani and Bill Pauli are passionate supporters of education and the arts. Their own children attended school on the island, and they strongly believe in the power of art to enrich and improve young lives. In this spirit, they established the Pauli Family Scholarship in 2007. This $2,000 scholarship is given each year to a student who demonstrates excellence in one or more mediums.

Recent Recipients:

2019: Nina Schneider

2018: Adda Amelang

2017: Matthew Derry: www.matthewjderry.wixsite.com

Pauli & George Dennis Scholarship

In 2015, Bainbridge Arts & Crafts had the great honor of presenting work by the late George W. Dennis, whose wife, Pauli Dennis, was one of our founding members. Thanks to the generosity of the Dennis family, the gallery used proceeds from the sales of George’s work to establish the Pauli and George Dennis Scholarship fund. This $1,000 scholarship is given to a student who demonstrates excellence in one or more mediums.

Recent Recipients:

2021: Erik Hammer

2020: Emma Lahtinen

2019: Corey Clarke

2018: Iris Dahl

2017: Lily Forsher: www.facebook.com/LilyForsherArt/

Rosalyn Gale Powell Scholarship

In 1971, well-known artist and longtime gallery supporter Rosalyn Gale Powell established a college scholarship fund to give young artists a leg up in their art studies. She maintained the fund for many years by donating a portion of the proceeds from the sales of her work. Today, Bainbridge Arts and Crafts maintains Rosalyn’s legacy through the continuation of her scholarship, awarded each year in the amount of $1,000 to a student who demonstrates excellence in one artistic medium.

Recent Recipients:

2021: Chloe Alvarez

2020: Helen Gu

2019: Sawyer Blair

2018: Acacia Fowler

2017: Maya Nathan

BAC Board of Trustees Scholarship, new in 2021!

2021: Grace Hattrup

High School Art Fair Awards

The annual Spring Art Fair offers a chance for High School students to showcase their talent. Bainbridge Arts and Crafts provides approximately $1,200 in awards each year in a variety of categories to encourage, motivate, and inspire continued interest and achievement in artistic endeavors.