Jackson Wrede arrived in Seattle last October for the Seattle Prize, the year-long fine art fellowship sponsored by the Conru Art Foundation at Occidental Fine Arts Center. A year later, the heady Wrede is ready for the steady direction to lead the Seattle Prize into its second year. After a successful first year, Wrede was promoted to Program Director of the Seattle Prize. His promotion is part of an updated format that will add 13 artists to the program.

“The first year from the get-go has been framed as an experiment,” Wrede said, “Overall it was a very positive experience. We produced some really cool art that was recently finished. For year two, we made small tweaks to the program that will make it even better.”

Among the tweaks are more artists with different time commitments. Three artists have been selected for the full-year fellowship at Occidental Fine Arts Center in Seattle’s Pioneer Square. An additional 10 artists will roll throughout the year for four-month terms. Most of the original class of fellows will continue to pursue their work.

“The larger idea is not simply to bring more artists into one building,” said Seattle Prize and Conru Art Foundation founder Andrew Conru in a statement. “It is to make the building more useful to artists already working in Seattle and beyond, and more welcoming to the public that sustains an arts neighborhood.”

Kevin Müller Cisneros, Jude Dutton, and Ian Morrison are the newest Seattle Prize artists selected for full-year fellowships at the Occidental Fine Arts Center. Ten more artists have been invited for focused four-month signature work terms, with dates still being arranged. The inaugural fellows will remain part of the community as the program enters its second year, helping connect one cohort to the next, Conru said.

Wrede and Conru said they also want to make the Seattle Prize, its artists, and art more public-facing. Occidental Fine Arts finished renovations to its first-floor gallery this summer after a fire in 2024 devastated the space. Fellows have dedicated studio space on the third floor of Occidental Fine Arts.

“When I walk downstairs and see what the first-floor gallery can become, if I can help actualize that, I am really excited about it,” Wrede said. “We want to make it a free museum. It’s going to be a kind of community and event center where organizations can have events, shows, discussions. The (Conru Art) Foundation’s goal is to give back to the community.”

Change equals more chances for artists

The first Seattle Prize year concentrated on long-form support: sustained studio time, financial support, mentorship, and a peer group for painters trying to make work that would be difficult to fit around commissions or teaching schedules, Conru said.

That full-year model continues. What changes in 2026–27 is the addition of shorter, focused terms. The ten four-month artists have been invited to develop a signature work with the program before arriving, then use their time in Seattle to make it. It is meant to extend the Prize experience to more artists without pretending that an invitation is the same as a confirmed arrival, Conru added.

Arrival dates for each artist are yet to be determined.

At the same time, last year’s artists will continue participating. The goal is for returning fellows to become teachers, mentors, and neighbors within the building, including through subsidized workshops and classes. In that sense, year two is less a replacement cohort than a widening circle, Conru said.

As Wrede put it, “I want to make sure everyone has a very positive experience. It is a very big risk for artists to uproot their life and come here for four months or for a year. I feel some responsibility in that regard, regardless of my participation.”