The 2022 Neddy Artist Award Application Period Open Now!

About the Neddy

Stewarded by Cornish College of the Arts since 2011, the Neddy at Cornish is one of the most generous and longest-running award for visual artists in the State of Washington, providing two annual gifts of $25,000, and six awards of $2,000, to artists living and working in the Puget Sound region.

Cornish prepares its students to contribute to society as artists, citizens, and innovators. The Neddy at Cornish program is a beacon of this mission. The Neddy at Cornish is funded by the Behnke Foundation as a tribute to Seattle painter and teacher Ned Behnke (1948-1989).

For many years the Behnke family and the Behnke Foundation supported this gift of direct and unrestricted support to artists in the Pacific Northwest. Since 2011, Cornish College of the Arts is honored to steward this awards program, on behalf of the Behnke Foundation and the artist community. Cornish especially thanks Ned’s mother, Sally Skinner Behnke, in memoriam, for spearheading this vital program to Cornish as part of her legacy, continuing the investment of her grandmother in the founding of the College.   It is currently entirely funded by the Behnke Foundation.