The 2016 winners of the Legacy Trust Award Collection will showcase their artwork at DeVos Place during ArtPrize 2016.
Installation has begun for Josh Andrus, Paula Clark, Debra Dieppe and Hope Network Neuro Rehabilitation, who received top honors in the seventh annual LTAC competition for adult artists with disabilities. Sponsored each year by Legacy Trust, LTAC is a mini-art competition that supports four adult artists with disabilities by providing a cash prize, along with venue and marketing support to display their art in ArtPrize.
This year, 101 artists from Ada to Zeeland and the Upper Peninsula submitted artwork to the LTAC competition. In addition to two days of public voting at the Grand Rapids Art Museum, LTAC held online voting, which drew votes from throughout Michigan, across the U.S. and from other countries. Prizes and sponsorships were awarded to the two top vote-getters as well as one winner chosen by a panel of celebrity judges and one winner selected to receive the Lillian Perry Walker award.
This year’s Legacy Trust Award Collection will feature:
- Andrus’s piece, “Cattails and Irises,” is an impressionistic acrylic painting inspired by nature walks and the flora found in his backyard. Andrus often turns to nature to unleash his creative spirit, which is apparent in many of his works. Andrus won one of the public votes.
- Clark’s “Autumn Hues” is an abstract piece that utilizes acrylic paints in a sculptural and expressionistic way to form a fall landscape. Inspired by the rich hues found in the fall season, Clark expressed her love of nature through the piece. Clark received the celebrity judge award.
- Dieppe’s “She Was Made of Magic That Only I Could See” is a mixed-media piece that expresses the importance of love in finding self-peace. Dieppe drew on personal traumas that have shaped her life to develop the hidden, but significant, imagery found throughout the piece. Dieppe won the Lillian Perry Walker Award, which is chosen by the LTAC steering committee.
- is a 3-D exhibition of 28 paper masks, each created by a unique artist, that expresses how brain injury affected each artist or how they triumphed over brain injury. The piece is part of a national project to spread the word on the prevalence of brain injury. Hope Network also won the public vote.
“We continue to be inspired by the creativity each artist in the LTAC competition brings,” said Mary Ann Sabo, board chair of LTAC Arts, the nonprofit that supports the Legacy Trust Awards Collection. “The four winners truly encompass the spirit of LTAC and are wonderful representatives for the larger disabled community.”
This year’s celebrity judges included Richard App, owner of Richard App Gallery, Rosalynn Bliss, Grand Rapids mayor, Meegan Holland, special projects manager for Gov. Rick Snyder, Chris Smit, executive director of DisArt and David Thinger, artist and LTAC 2015 winner.
Legacy Trust will work with each of the four artists to market their entries, secure media coverage prior to and during ArtPrize 2016 and support their entries into the world’s largest art competition. ArtPrize is slated for Sept. 21 through Oct. 19.
