2026 John Kurtich Scholarship Foundation Winner

Cate Whittemore - MFA, IATSE, is a fine artist, set designer and painter for theater backdrops, tv, and film.   She is motivated by the meanings and insights found through creativity.  A figurative and landscape painter, her work investigates depictions of light, color vibration,  the innate eloquence of bodies, and the fluid logic of paint.

In 2011 she was commissioned by the International Campaign for Tibet to create a poster @ religious freedom, featuring a sanctioned portrait of the Dalai Lama. 

She earned her BA in Studio Art at  Connecticut College, studying with Barclay Hendricks, her MFA in Drawing and Painting at the University of Minnesota, and in between she studied set design and scenic painting from 1977-1979 at Lester Polakov’s Studio and Forum of Stage Design in NYC. 

She teaches painting locally and on retreat for the past eleven years in Skyros, Greece.