California College of the Arts is celebrating 25 years of the Barclay Simpson Award with a special retrospective exhibition, We're All Here Because We're Not All There, curated by David Kasprzak and Dane Jensen. The show features recent works by a selection of the artists who have won the award since its inception in 1987.

The featured artists are: Dina Danish, Anthony Discenza Bill Durgin, Patricia Esquivias, Harrell Fletcher, Llewellynn Fletcher, Mik Gaspay, Josh Greene, Todd Hido, David Huffman, Hannah Ireland, Lawrence LaBianca, Katie Lewis, Travis Joseph Meinolf, Linn Myers, Scott Oliver, Patricia Olynyk, Conrad Ruiz, Gabrielle Teschner, Hank Willis Thomas, and Imin Yeh. An accompanying catalogue features works by these and many more artists who have received the award over the years.

The Barclay Simpson Award is given each year to two to four students in CCA's Graduate Program in Fine Arts. Since its inception in 1987, a total of over 100,000 USD has been granted to more than 80 students, helping them finish their degree work and launch their careers. The award is juried by outside experts. Many distinguished arts professionals have participated in the jurying process over the years, including Peter Selz, professor emeritus of modern art at UC Berkeley; Matthew Higgs, director of White Columns, New York; Rene de Guzman, senior curator of art at the Oakland Museum of California; and Renny Pritikin, director of the Richard L. Nelson Gallery and the Fine Arts Collection at the University of California, Davis.

The quality of the works in the exhibition is a testament to the value of receiving such a grant early in one's career. The artists' diverse practices range from painting to printmaking, drawing, sculpture, video, sound, installation, social practice, and other interdisciplinary forms. The work documents changes in political and economic climates, the progression of technology, struggles for racial and gender equality, the rise of globalism, and the ongoing evolution of art and culture. Cumulatively it offers a social and historical record of the past quarter century.


About Barclay and Sharon Simpson
Barclay Simpson is a CCA trustee and honorary doctorate recipient (in 2005). In addition to lending their name to the annual awards exhibition, Barclay Simpson and his wife, Sharon, have given generously to CCA over the years to support a variety of projects:

The Sharon Hanley Simpson Library (1988)
The sculpture facility on the Oakland campus (1993)
The Center for Art and Public Life
The CCA Scholarship Fund


About California College of the Arts
Founded in 1907, California College of the Arts (CCA) is noted for the interdisciplinarity and breadth of its programs. It offers studies in 21 undergraduate and seven graduate majors in the areas of fine arts, architecture, design, and writing. The college offers bachelor of architecture, bachelor of arts, bachelor of fine arts, master of architecture, master of arts, master of fine arts, and master of business administration degrees. With campuses in San Francisco and Oakland, CCA currently enrolls 1,950 full-time students. Noted alumni include the painters Nathan Oliveira and Raymond Saunders; the ceramicists Robert Arneson, Viola Frey, and Peter Voulkos; the filmmaker Wayne Wang; the conceptual artists David Ireland and Dennis Oppenheim; and the designers Lucille Tenazas and Michael Vanderbyl. For more information about CCA, visit cca.edu.