Filmmaker Lynne Siefert '04 to be Featured at the Seattle Art Museum 

The Seattle Art Museum and the Betty Bowen Committee, recently announced that filmmaker Lynne Siefert '04 is the winner of the 2019 Betty Bowen Award. The Betty Bowen Committee—comprising Northwest curators, collectors, and artists—reviewed 545 applications from visual artists residing in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. The juried award comes with an unrestricted cash award of $15,000 and a solo exhibition at SAM.

Founded in 1977 to continue the legacy of local arts advocate and supporter Betty Bowen, the annual award honors a Northwest artist for their original, exceptional, and compelling work.

"Shooting on 16mm film and digitally, Lynne Siefert creates experimental nonfiction films and world-scapes to address the current climate crisis. Her work is often satirical or uncanny, pointing to political complacency and cultural amnesia in the wake of climate change. The tensions between industry and recreation are a driving element in recent works. By re-contextualizing common, everyday scenes, Siefert de-familiarizes the world to uncover what is hidden in plain sight."-Lynne Siefert - Seattle, WA

Lynne Siefert '04 is the first filmmaker to win the award. Shooting on 16mm film, her digital films address the climate crisis in seductive yet unsettling ways. In Spring 2020, Lynne's films will be featured at the Seattle Art Museum.

Siefert '04 holds a Bachelor of Arts in International Studies from the University of San Francisco. She has an Master of Fine Arts from Emerson College in Boston, focusing on experimental film and media art. 

Since graduating from Seattle Academy her work has been shown in film festivals nationally and internationally, such as the Edinburgh International Film Festival, EXIS Experimental Video and Film Festival, and the San Diego Underground Film Festival. Her work has also been exhibited in galleries and museums, including Glassbox Gallery in Seattle.

Congratulations to our 41st Annual Betty Bowen Award Winner Lynne Siefert!🎉 She's being honored with a cash award of $15,000 and a solo exhibition at SAM—look forward to seeing it in spring of 2020!

"Generations," Lynne Siefert, 2019 pic.twitter.com/ggpoDTTXRG

— SAM (@iheartSAM) September 14, 2019