The Connecticut Sea Grant program at the University of Connecticut will award its first Arts Grant to artist Debbie Hesse of Branford. Hesse will use the $1,000 grant to create a large-scale wall installation and a limited edition artist’s book depicting seaweed in and out of its habitat.

“The new grant program is intended to inspire and facilitate works of art that will foster appreciation and understanding of the marine environment by a larger and more diverse audience,” says Sylvain De Guise, director of Connecticut Sea Grant.

The competition was open to writers, artists, musicians, and filmmakers, and the program hopes to offer the grant annually.

“I am excited and honored to be the very first to receive the Connecticut Visual Artists Sea Grant award,” says Hesse. She notes that she is fascinated with seaweed for its formal aesthetic properties as well as its historical, medicinal, industrial, ecological, and aquaculture significance.

Hesse holds a B.A. from Smith College and a master’s degree in Printmaking and Painting from the University of New Mexico. She plans to create etchings under the guidance of a master printer as a special project at the Center for Contemporary Printmaking in Norwalk.

View Hesse’s portfolio on her website.

The Connecticut Sea Grant Program is a partnership between the University of Connecticut and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.  The program sponsors marine-related research, outreach, and education.

For more information:

Peg Van Patten, Connecticut Sea Grant, 860-405-9141
Christine Buckley, University of Connecticut, 860-486-0871

Images available upon request.