The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards 2025
The Trawick Prize: Bethesda Contemporary Art Awards 2026 presents work by eight finalists selected from artists in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia. Organized by the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, the exhibition highlights contemporary practices ranging from jewelry, sculpture, painting, photography, and mixed media to work addressing identity, memory, grief, language, social justice, ancestry, and the relationship between technology and culture.
Established by community activist and philanthropist Carol Trawick in 2003, the prize awards $14,000 in cash prizes. The 2026 awards went to Ciarra K. Walters for Best in Show, Cindy Cheng for Second Place, Anne Clare Rogers for Third Place, and Ayana Gordon as Young Artist Honoree.
When: September 3–27, 2026
Showtimes: Gallery hours are Thursday through Saturday from 12–5 p.m. and Sunday from 11 a.m.–4 p.m.
Opening Reception: Friday, September 4, 2026, from 6–8 p.m.
Venue: Gallery B, 7700 Wisconsin Avenue, Suite E, Bethesda, Maryland
Tickets: Price not available
Finalists: Cindy Cheng, Diana Derby, Ayana Gordon, Leslie Holt, Madyha Leghari, Anne Clare Rogers, Tony Shore, and Ciarra K. Walters
Lineup: Cindy Cheng is a Baltimore jeweler and sculptor who previously taught at the Maryland Institute College of Art. Her honors include a Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant and the 2017 Sondheim Artscape Award; she also won the Sondheim Prize and placed second in the Trawick Prize in 2017.
Diana Derby of Cheverly creates narrative paintings addressing mythology, animals, war, political power, social injustice, history, justice, memory, and the human condition. Her recent exhibitions include “Asylum Women,” “India Crows,” and “Action Men,” and her work has received Best in Show recognition from CITY Gallery in Washington, D.C., and The Art League.
Ayana Gordon is a self-taught Antiguan-Haitian photographer and multimedia artist from Baltimore. Working primarily with analog film and darkroom printing, she explores identity, heritage, ancestry, spirituality, and relationships between people and place. Her work has appeared at the SCOUT Art Fair and LA Art Show and in publications including Vogue Italia’s Global PhotoVogue, Artsy, and The Guardian.
Leslie Holt, based in Takoma Park, combines painting, silkscreen, and embroidery to investigate memory and grief. She has exhibited nationally and internationally, completed residencies at Pyramid Atlantic, Montgomery College, and Paul Artspace, and received support from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Prince George’s Arts and Humanities Council. She is also co-director of Red Dirt Studio in Mount Rainier, Maryland.
Madyha J. Leghari of Hyattsville makes work about the instability of language and the body. A graduate of the National College of Arts in Lahore and Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she has exhibited across North America, Asia, and Europe, including at the Kreeger Museum, Pera Museum, Karachi Biennale, and University of Colorado Boulder. She has also written about art and taught at several art institutions.
Anne Clare Rogers is a Baltimore artist whose practice includes investigations of material possibilities, including work with the seaweed Codium fragile, sometimes known as “dead man’s fingers.” She holds degrees from the University of Texas and Beloit College, received a 2024 Rubys grant, and recently completed a Visual Arts Fellowship at the Fine Arts Work Center.
Tony Shore of Baltimore earned degrees from the Maryland Institute College of Art and Yale University School of Art and also attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. His honors include the Sondheim Prize, a Bethesda Painting Awards Best in Show award, a Baltimore Artist Rubys Grant, and other fellowships and grants. In 2025, curator Derrick Adams selected him as one of five artists for the light-based public installation “Inviting Light Baltimore.”
Ciarra K. Walters, based in Baltimore, has exhibited at the California African American Museum and galleries throughout the United States. Her honors include a Maryland State Arts Council Artist Grant, the Manifest Freedom Foundation Award, the Leslie King Hammond Fellowship, and the Bunting Award for Graduate Excellence. She holds an MFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art and is an artist-in-residence at Creative Alliance.
2026 Awards: Ciarra K. Walters received Best in Show and $10,000. Cindy Cheng received Second Place and $2,000. Anne Clare Rogers received Third Place and $1,000. Ayana Gordon was named Young Artist Honoree and received $1,000.
Jury: The 2026 jury consists of Mollye Bendell, Alanna Fields, and Michael Jones McKean. Bendell is an interdisciplinary artist specializing in electronic and immersive media and an Assistant Professor of Art at the University of Maryland. Fields is a mixed-media artist, archivist, and photography lecturer at Howard University whose work examines Black queer memory and history through photographic archives. McKean is an Associate Professor of Sculpture and Extended Media at Virginia Commonwealth University whose work considers folklore, technology, anthropology, mysticism, deep time, and changing human perspectives.
Background: Carol Trawick founded the awards in 2003. She has held leadership roles with the Bethesda Arts & Entertainment District, Bethesda Urban Partnership, Strathmore Music Center, the Bethesda Chevy Chase Rotary Club, and other civic and arts organizations. She also founded the Bethesda Painting Awards and established the Jim and Carol Trawick Foundation.
Prize Chair: Catriona Fraser serves as the non-voting chair. Fraser is a photographer, curator, juror, and director of the Fraser Gallery. She has organized and curated more than 100 fine-art exhibitions and also chairs the Bethesda Painting Awards and directs the Bethesda Fine Arts Festival.
Location Note: Gallery B is in downtown Bethesda, approximately two blocks from the Bethesda Metro station. Public parking is available in the lot on Woodmont Avenue.