6th Annual World Lemur Festival Art Gallery
Lemurs need our help, and artists around the world have taken action to put a spotlight on Madagascar’s endangered primates.
Visual arts convey powerful messages and instill a sense of awe in ways that numbers and statistics alone cannot.
Art is one of the core principles of LCF’s mission statement, and each year we invite artists to participate in the World Lemur Festival Juried Art Exhibition to truly inspire, raise awareness, and take action to protect lemurs and their fragile habitats.
…dedicated to the preservation and conservation of the primates of Madagascar through managed breeding, scientific research, education, and art”
Congratulations to the winners of the 6th Annual World Lemur Festival Juried Art Contest!
The Lemur Conservation Foundation is honored to announce the winners of the 2023 World Lemur Festival Juried Art Contest!
This unique exhibition encourages artists and the public to more closely examine imperiled lemurs and to think critically about their uncertain future.
This year’s artists come from nine countries, including the United States, Canada, France, Madagascar, Chile, Ireland, Japan, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.
The panel of judges had such a difficult time choosing from among the exceptional entries, they asked to add additional prize categories, which we delightedly did!
First Place Winner
The Lemur Conservation Foundation’s 2023 Artist of the Year, and winner of the $300 prize, is “Little hope” by Taraoo Ranarison from Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Taraoo described his inspiring piece as a combination of abstract and figurative painting.
His work will be proudly included in LCF’s art collection and featured in a variety of ways.
Second Place Winner
Second Place, and a $150 award, goes to “Crowned Lemur,” by SK Jamison of Newtownabbey, United Kingdom.
SK uses pastels to capture the beautiful crowned lemur. The species is endangered, facing critical threats including habit loss from slash-and-burn agriculture, mining and other destructive activities, and being hunted for food and the pet trade.
Third Place Winner
“The Lemurs Tail” by Tracey Walder of Dorset, United Kingdom, was selected by the judges for Third Place and a $125 prize.
“The Lemurs Tail” is a celebration of faces of some of the world’s wonderful lemurs,” Tracey said of her pastel pencil creation, which provides a stunning portrait of six lemur species.
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mentions, and $100 prizes, go to the mixed media work, “Mongoose Lemur,” by Bailey Streefland of Duluth, Minnesota (US) and the photography collage, “Citizens Unite to Protect the Giant Mouse Lemur,” by Sam Zeveloff of Ogden, Utah (US).
Sam described his work as “A collage featuring a mouse lemur (likely a golden-brown mouse lemur: Microcebus ravelobensis). I took the photo in Madagacar. The juxtaposition of this photo with the small human figures, and the piece’s title, are meant to be humorous while conveying a conservation message.”
Many thanks to all of the talented artists who entered the competition!
Congratulations to the winners of the 6th Annual World Lemur Festival Art Contest!
The Lemur Conservation Foundation is honored to announce the winners of the 2023 World Lemur Festival Juried Art Contest!
This unique exhibition encourages artists and the public to more closely examine imperiled lemurs and to think critically about their uncertain future.
This year’s artists come from nine countries, including the United States, Canada, France, Madagascar, Chile, Ireland, Japan, Nigeria, and the United Kingdom.
The panel of judges had such a difficult time choosing from among the exceptional entries, they asked to add additional prize categories, which we delightedly did!
First Place Winner
The Lemur Conservation Foundation’s 2023 Artist of the Year, and winner of the $300 prize, is “Little hope” by Taraoo Ranarison from Antananarivo, Madagascar.
Taraoo described his inspiring piece as a combination of abstract and figurative painting.
His work will be proudly included in LCF’s art collection and featured in a variety of ways.
Second Place Winner
Second Place, and a $150 award, goes to “Crowned Lemur,” by SK Jamison of Newtownabbey, United Kingdom.
SK uses pastels to capture the beautiful crowned lemur. The species is endangered, facing critical threats including habit loss from slash-and-burn agriculture, mining and other destructive activities, and being hunted for food and the pet trade.
Third Place Winner
“The Lemurs Tail” by Tracey Walder of Dorset, United Kingdom, was selected by the judges for Third Place and a $125 prize.
“The Lemurs Tail” is a celebration of faces of some of the world’s wonderful lemurs,” Tracey said of her pastel pencil creation, which provides a stunning portrait of six lemur species.
Honorable Mentions
Honorable Mentions, and $100 prizes, go to the mixed media work, “Mongoose Lemur,” by Bailey Streefland of Duluth, Minnesota (US) and the photography collage, “Citizens Unite to Protect the Giant Mouse Lemur,” by Sam Zeveloff of Ogden, Utah (US).
Sam described his work as “A collage featuring a mouse lemur (likely a golden-brown mouse lemur: Microcebus ravelobensis). I took the photo in Madagacar. The juxtaposition of this photo with the small human figures, and the piece’s title, are meant to be humorous while conveying a conservation message.”
Many thanks to all of the talented artists who entered the competition!
Community Favorite!
The Community Favorite, with 200 votes, is “Togetherness,” a stained glass piece created by Ken Moser of Wesley Chapel, FL USA.
The 13.5″ x 11.5″ framed artwork depicts two ring-tailed lemurs, had received 200 votes when voting closed.
Congratulations to Ken!
Thank you to all artists who participated in the 2022 Juried Art Exhibition.
Community Favorite!
Our judges selected their favorites, now it’s your turn!
View the full gallery of lemur artwork and vote for your favorite piece by clicking the Thumbs Up Button. The art with the most votes will be recognized as the Community Favorite.
Votes will be tallied on Thursday, October 26, 2022 at 5:00 pm EST. Cast your vote below, and make sure to encourage your friends and family to vote, too.
Check back at on Friday, October 27 at 12:00 pm EST for the Community Favorite reveal.
We are proud to digitally showcase the following entries during our 6th annual Juried Art Exhibition.
Please enjoy these lemur-themed pieces created by artists around the globe. Thank you to all the participants who submitted art; together we can protect the primates of Madagascar.
Click (or tap, on your mobile device) any image to view the full sized piece. Click on the Vote button to vote for your favorite(s). You can place one vote per submission, and vote for as many as you like!
Meet the Judges
Penelope Bodry-Sanders
Penelope founded LCF in 1996 and served as its executive director until 2010. In 1998, Penelope retired from New York’s American Museum of Natural History after serving over 18 years in a number of capacities, but primarily as education coordinator for the museum’s international education travel program. She continues her AMNH affiliation as a field associate in the Division of Anthropology.
Penelope’s own path to conservation was anything but conventional: she was a Dominican nun and an actress/singer on and off Broadway before she founded LCF. Today she makes paintings that celebrate animals undervalued or loathed, mostly hyenas, lemurs, and invertebrates. Penelope is dedicated to the idea that art cannot change the world but that it can most certainly change the way we think, interpret, and feel about it.
Mark Ormond
Mark’s primary interest and expertise is in contemporary art. With over 25 years of experience in the art world, he has organized dozens of museum exhibitions – and scheduled, coordinated, designed and installed over one hundred others. After completing graduate and undergraduate programs in art history at George Washington University and the University of Pennsylvania, respectively, he held museum positions in the areas of education, curatorial, collections management and administration. He is also a graduate of U.C. Berkeley’s Museum Management Institute.
During his ten-year association with the Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, he was appointed Senior Curator & Deputy Director for Collections and Programs. While in Miami, he became the first Curator and then was appointed Director of the Center for the Fine Arts (now the Miami Art Museum). He has also held positions at the Philadelphia Museum of Art and the Corcoran Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. As an independent curator, author, lecturer and consultant since 1999, Mark remains engaged in a broad range of contemporary art projects.
George Cwirko-Godycki
George began teaching at Ringling College of Art and Design in 2017 as an adjunct instructor. In addition to his teaching role, George is a freelance illustrator with a focus on whimsical line work for print and online publications. His work with students, art projects, and travels are frequently featured on his Instagram account, @georgedrawing, which enjoys an active following of more than 120,000 people around the world. George has completed a solo gallery show, published four books of illustrations and is under contract to write a drawing instruction book.
Prior to Ringling College, George was a faculty member at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco for six years, where he taught costume drawing, digital painting, and fashion illustration, among other courses. George earned his B.F.A. in Illustration from the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Jean Blackburn
Jean was born and grew up on Anna Maria Island, Florida. She received a BA Degree from the University of Florida, an AS degree in Biological Parks Technology from State College of FL, Gainesville and an MFA from the University of Oregon where she was awarded a two year graduate teaching fellowship. She taught fine arts at State College of Florida, Manatee, Ringling College of Art and Design and New College of Florida. She has completed a masters workshop at the Canadian School of Non-toxic Printmaking in Alberta and at The Edinburgh Institute of Printmaking in Scotland.
She was certified by the University of Florida as a Master Gardener and Master Naturalist and served on governing boards of Sarasota’s Environmentally Sensitive Lands Oversight Council, Sea to Shore Alliance and The Friends of Myakka River State Park. Her early adult years were spent sailing and painting throughout the Caribbean, Bahamas and Central America. A small farm in Old Myakka and a cottage on Longboat Key is where she now gardens, paints and lives with her family.