The Vida Scudder Award: Betty LaDuke

I'm a little overwhelmed. I'm so used to painting with color and now I have to make my words do the job. So it's a little awkward, but I'm going to try. First, I'm just sort of overwhelmed to be honored by The Witness. But first I want to backtrack. I want to tell you how I first came to Denver 50 years ago and I've hardly ever been back since. I came on the Greyhound bus from the Bronx! I had a scholarship to Denver University as an art major! How about that? So to come back 50 years later is like Wow!

And so what have I done in 50 years? Well, my mother has always been worried because, you know, "You want to be an artist? I mean, how do artists survive?" But I did gratify her by becoming a teacher, but always being an artist and being an arts teacher. And somehow blending the two in my life and looking outward -- way beyond the Bronx -- living in a small town in Ashland, Ore., the need was enormous to bring a different view of the world to my students. And I'm a great adventurer. I grew up with lots of books that sent me looking and feeling and wanting to venture out. So I started my travels in Mexico and later on through grants and sabbaticals I was able to continue traveling annually and it shows in my work.

I had a great deal of pleasure in two ways. Number one, as a woman artist I was very interested in other women artists. Who are they? What are they doing around the world? And this is in the non-European, western world, but in Latin America, Asia and Africa? And I found ART: art in mud huts, art out of clay, art out of fiber, art made in art centers, magnificent sculptures that you can't believe were done by women with very poor backgrounds, economically poor. And that's the difference. I ran into wonderful cultural heritages and the spirit of people that never ever gets demonstrated through the CBS news and through the media that come to us and I felt very inspired by these people and felt the need to make it visible as much as possible.

But things never, never happen alone! And for me, whose work has never been in the big museums until very, very recently, having a chance to have my work gain more visibility has involved being part of The Witness, being part of book covers, posters, and finding magnets of my work on people's refrigerator doors. I love it! And note cards and so on. I feel that you are my museum in a sense. And it's been a great, great pleasure. So I just want to say thank you very much.