Signe Wilkinson to Receive 2011 Visionary Woman Award

The 2011 Visionary Woman Awards will honor three exceptional women who have made significant contributions to the arts: artists Jaune Quick-to-See Smith and Jane Walentas, and cartoonist Signe Wilkinson. The awards gala will be held on Wednesday, October 12, 2011 from 6 to 9 pm at Moore College of Art & Design.

The 2011 Visionary Woman Award gala will be held at Moore College of Art & Design, located at 20th Street and The Parkway. The Elizabeth Greenfield Zeidman Lecture featuring the three honorees will be held earlier that day at 2 pm in the Stewart Auditorium. The lecture is free and open to the public.

The festivities will also include individual Visionary Woman Award exhibitions of the work of all three honorees.

Since 2003, the Visionary Woman Awards has become a widely recognized event that honors women whose work and leadership have had a powerful influence on the visual arts. In 2005, the College designated proceeds from the Visionary Woman Awards to benefit Visionary Woman Scholarships. Since then, 24 four-year scholarships have been awarded.

The personal vision of each of this year’s honorees has had broad impact. Internationally renowned painter, printmaker and artist Jaune Quick-to-See Smith is one of the most acclaimed American Indian artists today. Jane Walentas, a 1966 Moore graduate and former Estee Lauder advertising executive, is credited along with her husband as the developer of the arts-rich DUMBO neighborhood in Brooklyn, NY and the artist behind a restored 1922 Philadelphia Toboggan Company carousel to be installed in Brooklyn Bridge Park in August. Signe Wilkinson, the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize for political cartooning, has worked for the Philadelphia Daily News for more than 25 years.

Signe Wilkinson Exhibition Information:

Signe Wilkinson: The World in Line!

This exhibition celebrates the work of Signe Wilkinson, the first woman to be awarded the Pulitzer Prize (1992) for cartooning. Highlighting her career, the exhibition includes a selection of editorial cartoons that she has produced for the Daily News for more than twenty-five years. Grouped by ongoing themes found in the artist’s work, they include her perspectives on education, peace and/or war, women and everything else.

In addition, the show includes a section devoted to works from Family Tree, her daily comic strip that follows a family’s loopy attempts to live green in modern, chemically dependent America, as well as a selection of illustrations dedicated to gardening and the environment that have appeared in publications such as “You Bet Your Tomatoes” and “Mike McGrath’s Book of Compost.” by nationally syndicated Public Radio show host, Mike McGrath, in Organic Gardening magazine and in her own illustrated calendar, “How to Grow the $735 Tomato.”

When:       August 20 – October 15, 2011
Opening Reception: Friday, September 30, 5 – 8 pm
Visionary Woman Award Panel: Wednesday, October 12, 2 – 3:30 pm

Who: Graham Gallery

Where: Levy Gallery for the Arts in Philadelphia

Cost: FREE and open to the public

Info: For more information call 215-965-4027 / www.thegalleriesatmoore.org