And the winners are ... The Seattle Arts Commission reviewed a record 360 public nominations and recommended five recipients to the mayor. The recipients of the 2009 Mayor's Arts Award are:

Mayor Greg Nickels will honor the recipients at the Mayor's Arts Awards ceremony, noon, Friday, Sept. 4 at Seattle Center's Northwest Court. Nancy Guppy, host of Seattle Channel's Art Zone In Studio, will serve as emcee for the outdoor ceremony, which is free and open to the public and will feature award presentations and the official opening of Bumbershoot's Visual Arts Exhibits. The festival's visual arts exhibits will open to the public one day early, with a free public preview from noon to 7 p.m. in celebration of the Mayor's Arts Awards.

The Mayor's Arts Awards, which are nonmonetary, recognize the contributions made by artists, arts and cultural organizations and community members who make a difference through arts and cultural activities. To reflect the diversity of artistic achievement throughout the city, the awards do not have set categories.

The Mayor's Arts Awards are presented in partnership with Bumbershoot®: Seattle's Music & Arts Festival and are sponsored by City Arts Seattle, a free monthly magazine discovering creativity throughout Seattle.


2009 Recipients

Artist Trust

Artist Trust is a Seattle-based nonprofit dedicated to supporting Washington state artists working in all disciplines. Founded in 1987 by a group of arts patrons and artists who were concerned about the lack of support for individual artists, Artist Trust has distributed more than $5 million through grants and professional development resources to thousands of the state's most promising and respected musicians, visual artists, writers, dancers, craft artists, filmmakers, cross-disciplinary artists and more.

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Jesse Higman

Jesse Higman launched his career as an artist during the Northwest's grunge-music heyday of the early nineties. He started out painting leather jackets and guitars and graduated to illustrating album art and posters for local bands including Heart, Alice in Chains and Pearl Jam. Several of his early pieces are in the collections of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Experience Music Project.

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Speight Jenkins

Photo by Rozarii Lynch
Speight Jenkins, celebrating his 25th season as general director of Seattle Opera, is recognized nationally as a politically active arts advocate, a leading authority on opera and one of the nation's most influential and accomplished general directors.

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Northwest Tap Connection

A South Seattle urban dance studio which trains and inspires young dancers, Northwest Tap Connection is committed to enriching the lives of its students (ages 5 to 19) through dance, while developing self-discipline, instilling self-confidence and encouraging achievement and goal setting.

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Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestra

Seattle Youth Symphony Orchestras (SYSO) is the largest youth symphony organization in the United States. Founded in 1942, it serves more than 1,100 diverse students a year through four orchestras, three summer programs and partnerships with local public schools. Through its financial aid programs, SYSO makes sure every talented child can receive excellent music education, regardless of their financial resources.

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