Dartmouth resident Heather Stivison has received national recognition for her graphite drawing “Other,” which was selected for the National Association of Women Artists' Medal of Honor & Elizabeth Morse Genius Foundation Award for Works on Paper. The award is part of NAWA’s 136th Annual Exhibition.

Completed on a 18 inch by 30 inch paper, the graphite piece from an entirely new body of work on the subject boundaries, borderlands and borders, depicts a metal fencing distorted to be thicker, denser and impenetrable, while the hand behind it is softer and tactile, according to Stivison. 

The piece was created during Stivison’s time in residency at the Vermont Studio Center and was chosen by a panel of three independent jurors: Art Historian Ksenia Nouril, Arts Center Executive Christina Mossaides and International Curator Grace Yeonsook Ji.

“Almost speechless at the honor,” Stivison said she felt “a profound sense of gratitude for NAWA’s encouragement and support of women artists.” 

The drawing will be on view at the Leonovich Gallery at 520 West 24th Street in New York City through Saturday, June 21.

Stivison is an elected Signature Member of NAWA, the country’s first women’s fine art organization, founded in 1889 and based at the National Arts Club in New York. Records of NAWA award recipients are preserved in several major art institutions, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Museum of Modern Art, and the Library of Congress.

Stivison maintains a studio at Hatch Street Studios in New Bedford and holds a Master of Fine Arts in painting from UMass Dartmouth. Her work, spanning painting, drawing and textiles, has appeared in galleries, universities and museums across the U.S., as well as in juried exhibitions abroad. She is represented by Pleiades Gallery in New York, where she will hold a solo exhibition this September.

Prior to relocating to Massachusetts in 2014, Stivison served as a museum director and held leadership roles in the New Jersey and Mid-Atlantic associations of museums.