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Each year, KFW recognizes outstanding achievement in feminist art for social change with the Sallie Bingham Award. We are proud to announce that the 2005 Sallie Bingham Award went to Judy Sizemore, an outstanding community artist from McKee, Kentucky .
Judy has received several grants from KFW, and in each project she has demonstrated her commitment to feminism. She continually honors the gifts of women to their families, communities, cultures, and the world. For example, in the Shaped by Water project her vision was to empower women in eastern Kentucky by creating opportunities for them to discover their own “voice” and the power of many voices raised together. Judy clearly understands the inherent connection women have with the environment. By looking at the role the Kentucky River Basin watersheds played in their lives, the women were able to look at their own oppression in a different light. Through writing, visual art, and music the women were able to express themselves, some for the first time. They became an energized and organized force for cleaning and preserving the waterways they treasure.
J udy has been working with community arts and creative writing in Kentucky since 1988. She is one of Kentucky ’s top experts at using art to create and build community. Currently, Judy serves as the Regional Outreach Director/Eastern Region for the Kentucky Arts Council. In that capacity she connects artists, teachers, and community organizations with the resources and services of the Kentucky Arts Council and helps them to identify other avenues for supporting community arts development and arts education. She is also a freelance writer with over 300 stories, poems, and articles published in magazines and anthologies. Judy is a veteran writer-in-residence, having completed eighty-six residencies ranging in length from five days to nine months and involving preschool through senior citizens. She was the recipient of the 1998 Governor's Award for Arts in Education. |
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Judy has a passionate interest in the role of the arts in the holistic development of children and in the connections between cultures and arts. She grew up on a lake in New Hampshire , studied in France and Spain , and spent most of her adult life in the hills of Eastern Kentucky . She lives with her husband of 37 years and close to her daughter and her family.
The ultimate goal in all of Judy’s work is social change. She clearly understands the power of the arts to change attitudes. She consistently brings in artists from diverse cultural backgrounds, including international artists from Africa , Japan , Russia , South America , and Eastern Europe . She has made certain that the students are exposed to Native American artists and beliefs by bringing in storytellers, musicians, and visual artists from native nations. In the Artist Enrichment grant she received from KFW she gathered stories of Native American women living in Kentucky . She has worked hard to help students and their parents take pride in their Eastern Kentucky roots by producing dozens of Heritage Festivals highlighting local artists.
Judy was the director of the Route 23 Cultural Heritage Project (The Country Music Highway ) , which involved a massive survey of cultural resources with in the counties along the highway. The ultimate goal of this project was to enhance cultural tourism as a sustainable non-invasive industry in a region where work in the coal fields has destroyed the land and left many people impoverished. She facilitated partnerships between artists, venues, political and arts organizations, and state bureaucracies to create a self guided driving tour through eastern Kentucky . She also was the creative genius behind the Community Scholars program which provides training to local people interested in gathering and documenting the cultural resources and oral histories in their own community.
Judy is a selfless, tireless crusader for positive social change who embraces art as the most powerful tool for creating a just and peaceful world. KFW, its constituents, and the state of Kentucky are privileged to have Judy Sizemore in our midst as an artist, activist, feminist, and friend. Congratulations again, Judy! |
