“Tentacle Head,” 2008, painting by Brian Hauser, winner of the 2010 Edith Baker Scholarship
The Dallas Art Dealers Association (DADA) 25th anniversary festivities began with a reception for the winner of DADA’s Edith Baker Art Scholarship and Artist Career Development Fund on Friday, September 24, 2010 at the Irving Arts Center, 3333 N. MacArthur Boulevard. The DADA Scholarship Committee juried the 14 finalists chosen by visual art faculty members of the Dallas County Community College District. The winner, Brian Hauser of Brookhaven College, received $4,000, and may obtain a mentorship and an internship with a DADA member if he so chooses. Call 214-914-1099 for more information.
Brian Hauser was born in Denver, Colorado in January 1975. He has been in Dallas for 20 years, where he graduated from the Art Institute of Dallas in 1997 with an Associate’s Degree in Visual Communication. Two years ago he decided to come to Brookhaven College to take Continuing Education classes. After two semesters, it was suggested that he take the courses for credit. Printmaking was something that he originally took to fill out his schedule but it quickly became the primary interest of his art studies. Brian is completing his last semester in printmaking at Brookhaven this fall and will continue study for his B.F.A. at Arizona State University in 2011.
The finalists were Francisco Alvarado of Brookhaven, Suzan Hawkins and Mary Thomas of Cedar Valley, Thien Ho and Antony Sarelli of Eastfield, Gonzalo Trujillo and Caitlin Ramsey of Mountain View, Christopher Gonzalez and Pavlina Panova of North Lake, Zachariah Montoya and Robert David Reedy of Richland, and Raymond Butler and Janet Aguirre.
The jury was Kevin Vogel, Kenneth Craighead, Edith Baker, Marcie Inman, Sue Flynn and Lisa Taylor. DADA thanks Eddy Rawlinson and Marcie Inman for coordinating the exhibition.
Winners to date have included Maria Cortes, Pepper Ellett, Gustavo Galvan and Everett Brown.
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 financially benefits a visual art student pursuing the study of visual arts in college as well as presents Art Chicas at La Reunion TX, a career fair at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts, juried exhibitions of Booker T and Dallas County Community College students’ artwork, and biannual educational events.
Proceeds from individual donations, annual DADA events and collection jars at each DADA member location support the Edith Baker Art Scholarship and Artist Career Development Fund. Please help us continue this by donating now.
*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.
