2011 Edith Baker Art Scholarship
Awarded to El Centro College student Michelle Reyes
DADA presented its Edith Baker Art Scholarship to Michelle Reyes, a visual art student from El Centro College of the Dallas County Community College District at a reception on Friday, Sept. 9, 5–7 p.m. at The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, 3120 McKinney Ave.
Art of all the finalists Taylor Pierre Bryant and Evan Davis of Brookhaven, Isiac Ramirez and Heidi O’Ferrall of Mountain View, Jesus Segovia and Giovanni Gonzalez of North Lake, Holly Lorren of Cedar Valley, Cathy Night of Eastfield, and Michelle Reyes of El Centro from five of the seven DCCCD campuses were on exhibition at the reception.
The Scholarship included a check for $2,500, a mentorship, an internship and an artist studio visit.
The jury for the EBAS was Edith Baker, Maloree Banks, Sue Flynn and Lisa Taylor.
Michelle Reyes was born and raised in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas. She attended Mountain View and El Centro Community Colleges since graduating form Bishop Dunne High School in 2006. She received her Associates of Art Degree in 2009. In the fall of 2010, she took a printmaking class and fell in love with the medium. She is now attending Texas A&M Commerce at the University Center in Dallas and completing her Bachelors Degree.
ABOUT THE EDITH BAKER ART SCHOLARSHIP AND ARTIST CAREER DEVELOPMENT FUND
To celebrate its 20th anniversary in 2005, DADA created a scholarship honoring a respected member of the Dallas art community and one of its founding members, Edith Baker. Edith owned and directed The Edith Baker Gallery in Dallas for nearly thirty years before retiring in 2004. Every year, the Edith Baker Art Scholarship and Artist Career Development Fund, a 501(c) 3, financially benefits a student pursuing the study of visual arts in college as well as presents programs such as a career fair at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, two juried exhibitions of Booker T and Dallas County Community College students’ artwork, a docent training program, biannual educational events, and Art Chicas and Art Chicos at La Reunion TX.
Winners to date have included Brian Hauser, Maria Cortes, Pepper Ellett, Gustavo Galvan and Everett Brown.
*The Edith Baker Art Scholarship and Artist Career Development Fund is a tax exempt non-profit organization under Section 501(c) (3) of the Internal Revenue Code.
About Edith Baker
Long a prolific contributor to the Dallas arts scene, Edith Baker was born and educated in Bulgaria, where she graduated from the American College with a Bachelor of Arts degree. Studies at Chicago’s Art Institute were a prelude to her continued scholarship in Dallas, where she studied during the 1950s with the city’s prominent core of contemporary artists: Octavio Medellin, Otis Dozier, Jerry Bywaters, Roger Winter and DeForrest Judd.
After a period of travel and study of art history and painting in France, Portugal and Mexico was terminated, she returned to Dallas in 1963 to establish her own studio and for the next 15 years taught and lectured, including a three year symposium at Temple Emanu-El on “Understanding of Modern Art” based on a syllabus developed at Brandeis University.
While continuing to teach, in 1977 she became a partner in a Dallas art gallery, which ultimately evolved into the Edith Baker Gallery, with a concentration on the work of local and regional contemporary artists, another evidence of her devotion to the local artistic community. In 1985 she became a charter member and active participant in the establishment of DADA, the Dallas Art Dealers Association. In 1992 Edith Baker and Patricia Meadows co-founded EASL, the Emergency Artists Support League, a non-profit organization that provides financial assistance to North Texas visual artists who are in dire distress because of unforeseen medical emergency or catastrophic events.
Although Edith Baker’s enthusiastic efforts in the success of EASL contributed toward her receiving the Dallas Visual Arts Center’s (now known as Dallas Contemporary) Legend Award in 1977, as well as a prestigious High Profile article in The Dallas Morning News, she believes that the real heroes are the artists who contribute their work to the annual fund raising events, which distribute grants to those artists in need.
