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About the Seattle Prize
What happens when an artist and a patron agree to make an ambitious work for the public, without asking whether the market would have commissioned it first? The Seattle Prize is an initiative of the Conru Art Foundation designed to answer that question.
For artists
The prize exists so a small number of artists can attempt ambitious, meaningful work. Time, a studio, and demanding peers create the conditions serious painting actually needs.
For visitors
When the work leaves the studio for the first-floor gallery at Occidental Fine Arts, it meets people who did not make it and do not owe it anything. We look for painting that can remind a stranger of shared humanity, and of the full range of human emotion, not as a lecture, but as something they can stand in front of and feel.
Why we do this
We call this Rehumanism. It is a conviction of the Foundation, not a scorecard for applicants.
Art has the power to remind us that we share a life, and that feeling is not a small thing. Traditional figurative and narrative realism are the forms this prize trusts most to carry that power.
We strive for work that can hold a visitor through beauty, recognition, grief, humor, or dignity, and still matter after they walk away. We are not asking artists to perform a theory. We are looking for work with that power.
The measure of the prize is not the ceremony. It's whether a visitor leaves with something that still matters.
Patronage, reimagined
We are embarking on a significant experiment: to revive and reimagine the historic tradition of comprehensive artistic patronage for the 21st century.
The program has two connected parts. The fellowship supports an artist's practice and development within a cohort. Separately, the Foundation selectively commissions or acquires work through an individual agreement. Participation in the fellowship does not make every studio work a Foundation project.
Our name draws inspiration from the Prix de Rome, the prestigious fellowship established by Louis XIV in 1663 that sent France's most promising painters, sculptors, and architects to study at the Académie de France in Rome. For over three centuries, the Prix de Rome gave artists something invaluable: years of dedicated time, a studio, a stipend, and a community of peers, freeing them to develop ambitious work without commercial pressure. Many of history's greatest artists emerged from this tradition. The Seattle Prize carries that spirit forward, adapted for today's figurative painters.
For too long, many exceptionally talented artists have faced a difficult choice: pursue their deepest artistic visions or focus on work that pays the bills. “Slow art” requires profound thought, extensive development, and masterful execution, yet it often struggles for support in a fast-paced, commercially driven art world. The Seattle Prize challenges this status quo.
We believe that great art, art that speaks to the core of our shared humanity, requires more than just occasional grants. It needs sustained, holistic support. This is why we provide our selected fellows not only with generous stipends but also with dedicated studio space, materials, mentorship, and a collaborative environment.
This is patronage reimagined. It's a commitment to nurturing artists so they can, in turn, nurture society with creations that inspire, connect, and offer profound meaning.
The collection
The Foundation acquires the Signature Works it commissions and pays for. Those works become part of a permanent collection held for public benefit by the Conru Art Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to commissioning art for public benefit. Personal and out-of-scope work remains the artist's to keep, show, or sell. We believe traditional, narrative art has a unique power to offer recognition, understanding, and delight. In a world increasingly dominated by screens and abstraction, figurative work that attends to human dignity can meet people directly. That's why we're building this collection for everyone.
Works are showcased at the Art Love Salon and throughout our Occidental Fine Arts campus, ensuring your art remains permanently accessible to the public rather than disappearing into private collections.
Our support
We believe artists need more than talent. They need an ecosystem of support including dedicated time, resources, mentorship, and community.
Located in Seattle's historic Pioneer Square (311 Occidental Ave S), the purpose-built Occidental Fine Arts Center has good lighting, individual studios, and shared areas for both focused work and collaboration.
Significant stipends remove market concerns, and we provide materials, models, and logistical support so fellows can tackle the most ambitious paintings of their careers. The Foundation's shared aim with each fellow is work that lands with the people who see it and keeps mattering long after the year is over.
The pieces created will debut in our Pioneer Square gallery. We document the journey: the dedication, breakthroughs, and human story behind creating art with purpose.
Creative direction for the program comes from the Foundation's founder, Andrew Conru. Andrew holds a PhD in design from Stanford, was an early Internet pioneer, and is himself a working painter and the steward of one of the more extensive private collections of contemporary narrative figurative painting. His technology career underwrites the program. He's joined by visiting mentors and resident program leaders, all working with each fellow on technique, narrative depth, and artistic voice.
We work individually with each artist to develop and shape the ideas for their major works, in a process that brings the artist's voice and the Foundation's mission into the same room and pushes the painting toward its highest realization. The cohort itself acts as a catalyst, a supportive community fostering growth through shared learning, constructive critique, and collaboration.
“Technical skill is foundational, but true masterpieces arise from a profound connection to the work's audience and a deep caring and love for the story being told.”
Our team
Meet the instigator
Andrew Conru's path has been unconventional, from a small Indiana farm to a Stanford PhD, becoming an internet pioneer focused on fostering human connection.
After tech success, a period of reflection led him to philanthropy. Through the Conru Foundation and the Conru Art Foundation, he applies his service-oriented mindset to address societal needs for deeper meaning.
An amateur artist himself, he believes in art's power to heal and unite, especially when it pursues Beauty, Truth, and Love with masterful craft. Learn more at conru.com.
Seattle Prize lead fellow
Jackson Wrede is a Seattle Prize fellow now taking on Artist Operations for year 2 of the program. He holds a BFA from the University of Notre Dame and an MFA from Kendall College of Art and Design.
A teaching stint in France, where he encountered European masterworks firsthand, reshaped his practice toward realism and a deeper commitment to the classical tradition. His work fuses time-honored techniques with a contemporary sensibility.
Jackson remains a participating fellow while guiding day-to-day artist operations, bringing peer insight from inside the experiment, now in a year-2 operations role.
