The Genie Shenk Excellence in Book Arts Award
The Inaugural Award
The Genie Shenk Excellence in Book Arts Award began with a grant to recognize an outstanding mid-career artist whose work has influenced the San Diego area and demonstrates artistic achievement of excellence in the medium of book arts. The inaugural recipient, Judith Christensen, received a grant sponsored by the Genie Shenk Family. In addition, SDBA also supported this recipient with a solo book arts show.
2026 Iteration of the Genie Shenk Award
In May of 2026 the Genie Shenk Award for Artistic Excellence in Book Arts was granted to fifteen dedicated students from San Diego State University and San Diego City College. We welcome them to San Diego Book Arts as new members, granting them Access to SDBA’s website. This gift opens the SDBA Library of videos and tutorials to them and offers any class at a twenty percent discounted rate. Each recipient will receive the bimonthly newsletter End Papers, and we welcome them to attend SDBA’s Monthly Meetings. We look forward to the online Exhibit these artists will present in April of 2027.
Honoring the legacy of Genie Shenk is a privilege as she set a standard that we can inspire us all as an artist community dedicated to the book.
How to Apply
Applications must include:
Artist Bio
Artist Statement
Artist Curriculum Vitae
Photos
In Honor of Genie Shenk
A founding member of San Diego Book Arts, Genie Shenk lived in Solana Beach, California, with her husband Al, for over 50 years. After earning an MFA from UCLA in 1990, Shenk’s interest in paper, form, and text coalesced into a focus on book structure. She worked in collage, assemblage, and installation, and she became most known for artists’ books that document her life and dreams, as well for her large, meditative constructions that explore symbolic form, light, and space. Shenk was the initiator of the Book Arts program at Mesa College in San Diego, where she taught book arts for 17 years at Mesa College and at the Athenaeum School of the Arts in La Jolla. Genie was beloved by her students and colleagues for her kindness, positivity, and humor, and she was admired for her artistic and technical skill. As an instructor, Shenk combined exacting standards with a generous capacity to see and encourage talent in her students and to guide them to express themselves effectively through the book art form. Her work has been shown widely and is included in numerous collections, including those of the Long Beach Museum of Art, the National Museum for Women and the Arts in Washington, D.C., the University of Washington, Stanford University, University of Southern California, the Tate in London, the University of California, San Diego, and the Athenaeum in La Jolla. Genie Shenk passed away in 2018 at the age of 81.
