Winner of The Fourth Annual Edith Baker Art Scholarship for 2009
Maria Cortes

Edith Baker Scholarship 2009 Winner Maria Cortes

"Khrys," 2008, painting by Maria Cortes, winner of the 2009 Edith Baker Scholarship

The Dallas Art Dealers Association announces the 2009 winner of its fourth annual Edith Baker Art Scholarship.  The young Dallas artist, Maria Cortes will receive her $3500 award June 1 at an awards ceremony at Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts.

In early 2009, DADA’s scholarship committee (Edith Baker, Kevin Vogel of Valley House, Sue Flynn of Norwood Flynn, Kenneth Craighead of Craighead Green, Marcie Inman of Irving Arts Center, David Newman of Brookhaven Community College, and Lisa Taylor, Executive Director of DADA), reviewed materials submitted by 31 senior applicants, narrowing it to seven finalists, and later choosing a winner.

Besides the cash award, Ms. Cortes had an exhibition at DADA’s Spring Gallery Walk show on April 18 at Norwood Flynn Gallery, an opportunity to choose a mentor-for-a-day, and to pursue a summer internship with a DADA member. 

View more photos and read more about the 2009 Spring event.

Click here to read about DADA's 2008 Edith Baker Art Scholarship Recipient, Pepper Ellet.

Edith Baker Art Scholarship

To celebrate its twentieth anniversary in 2005, the Association created the Edith Baker Art Scholarship, which annually benefits a graduating senior from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. Along with a financial award, the student's work is highlighted in an exhibition at a member gallery with the rest of the class's work in May. The student also participates in a mentor for a day program and summer internship. Winners to date have included Maria Cortes, Pepper Ellett, Gustavo Galvan and Everett Brown.

Download Scholarship Guidelines

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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.

In 2005, DADA, in celebration of its 20th year of existence, created the Edith Baker Art Scholarship, which benefits a graduating senior from Booker T. Washington High School for the Performing and Visual Arts. The scholarship not only provides funds for college, but gives the student an opportunity to present in person his/her portfolio to a jury of art professionals, to exhibit his/her work in a member art space, to intern at a member art space and to choose a mentor for a day from a member art space.