VANCOUVER, BC — Artists for Conservation (AFC), the world’s leading artist group supporting the environment,
thrilled to announce the creation of the new "Priscilla & Michael Baldwin Award for Conservation through Art Education", ("Baldwin Award") to be presented to an AFC artist who has made an exceptional contribution to the conservation cause through art education and instruction. The new award's establishment follows years of support of AFC by Priscilla - an AFC Signature Member - and her husband Michael. Both have been longtime patrons and sponsors of AFC and in 2019, Priscilla was a prior recipient of the prestigious Simon Combes Conservation Award - AFC's highest honor since 2004.
The new award also joins a cadre of other special awards named in recognition of prominent AFC members, including the Pollyanna Pickering Memorial Award and John Seerey-Lester Memorial Award, which recognize specific works of art in AFC's annual exhibit.
The inaugural award will be presented to Arizona artist Rachel Ivanyi – AFC Signature Member, multiple AFC award winner, zoologist, natural science illustrator, and conservation art educator for over 30 years. Rachel received a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from the University of California, Davis, and a Graduate Certification in Natural Science Illustration from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Sharing her philosophy, Rachel asserts, "The act of slowing down and studying our natural world as we explored art techniques allowed endless opportunity for students to come to their own conclusions that the desert was worth protecting."
In response to her nomination to receive the first ever Baldwin award, Rachel adds, "I'm deeply honored to receive this award from Artists for Conservation in recognition of my work as an art educator. It means even more that it carries the names of Priscilla and Michael Baldwin and is presented here at the Arizona Sonora Desert Museum—two individuals and an institution that have helped shape my path and made so much possible for me. Though this recognition may appear to be the culmination of effort, I view it more as inspiration to continue my work and take it to new heights".
In 2025 Rachel started offering traveling art workshops to her schedule, working with Art Safari Ltd. out of the UK. Rachel is also collaborating with the soon-to-open museum and whale watching destination dubbed "The Whale" in Andenes, Vesterålen, Norway, where she is working to paint all the world's species of whales. Like the museum itself, Rachel's project is an enormously ambitious one, set to launch in June 2027.
Since it first opened its doors, Rachel has been a core instructor at the Art Institute of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in her hometown of Tucson, Arizona. Through the Priscilla and Michael Baldwin Foundation, the Baldwins founded the Institute in 1998 with the vision to support conservation through art education, and since have been huge supporters of the institution, its programs and the international community of educators and students. The Art Institute offers a unique and wide range of art education classes, where conservation concepts underlie each course. Its gallery space regularly hosts major touring art exhibits.
Rachel's nomination came at wholehearted recommendation of Priscilla and Michael Baldwin, having known Rachel and seen her work first-hand at the Art Institute since it welcomed its first student. In a statement about the award and its first recipient, they shared, "We're so pleased and honored to have this award created by Artists for Conservation – an organization that shares our mission – to recognize very dedicated and talented individuals like Rachel, who inspire others and give the gift of life through conservation and art education."
The award presentation will take place at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum's Ironwood Gallery at a special reception at 4pm on January 23rd, where AFC's latest annual exhibit is currently on tour for the ninth time in eighteen years of the exhibit's history.
Learn more about Rachel through her AFC website
For information about the exhibit and reception, visit the ASDM Art Institute website.
About Rachel Ivanyi
Rachel Ivanyi is an award-winning contemporary nature artist, illustrator, and art educator. Recent recognition includes Invited Juror for the 2024 Artists for Conservation (AFC) juried art exhibition, as well as the Environmental Statement Award and two Medals of Excellence in the 2023 AFC juried art exhibition. She received a Bachelor of Science degree in Zoology from the University of California, Davis, and a Graduate Certification in Natural Science Illustration from the University of California, Santa Cruz.
Rachel has been an art educator for over 30 years. With degrees in zoology and scientific illustration, she has used art education to spread her love of the natural world, and her passion for conservation. Whether teaching happened in traditional classroom settings, out in the field, on a boat, or during art receptions, she rarely missed a moment to share what she learned with others.
Her passion for nature education was discovered during college summer breaks in the early 90's as the nature director for a Boy Scout camp in the Sequoias. That led her to taking teaching assistant jobs during her scientific illustration schooling. From then on, if she had the opportunity to combine nature and art education she took it, leading art workshops, teaching drawing classes, etc. This path led her to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum in the mid 90's for a graduate internship in the Design and Planning department, where she spent her time working on multiple projects, drawing on museum grounds and sharing her art with museum visitors. Teaching illustration workshops for adults and children followed shortly thereafter.
As a Signature Member of AFC, her art lives in the hope that people look closer, feel deeper, and make positive changes in their lives and in the lives of others. Her work has been featured in solo, two-person, and group exhibitions, with many of her paintings appearing throughout the U.S. and internationally, as part of permanent museum collections, and in numerous private collections. Her illustration clients include the Smithsonian, National Geographic, Scientific American, Monterey Bay Aquarium, and nature institutions around the world. Rachel has also taught a wide variety of art classes as a core instructor for the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Art Institute, in her beloved desert home of Tucson, Arizona, for over 25 years. She is represented by Keep Contemporary in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Rachel was recently selected to illustrate all the whale species of the world for a large-scale installation in a new museum being built in Andenes, Norway.
In 2025 Rachel added traveling art workshops to her schedule, working with Art Safari Ltd. out of the UK. Her first tour was to Costa Rica, and more trips are in the works.
About Priscilla and Michael Baldwin
Born in South Africa and having lived for an extended time in Texas, Hawaii, Colorado and Arizona, Priscilla has experienced a variety of botanical and natural science environments. She holds a BA from Sweetbriar College. Her varied interests have included scuba diving and competitive trapshooting, gardening, architectural design and botanical and natural sciences art. Always a conservationist, Priscilla's art has given her a channel to promote specific subjects and habitats. Her passion for conservation was magnified in the 1990's, while she was learning botanical illustration and made it a personal mission to inspire others to become conservationists through art.
Priscilla became aware of the powerful connection between art and nature when she displayed an iris from her botanical portfolio. The realism of the painting attracted a wasp, which landed on the paper and attempted the pollination pathway placed by nature. The tiny creature initiated Priscilla's path to the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.
Thanks to the generosity of the Priscilla and Michael Baldwin Foundation, in 1998, the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum Art Institute (AI) was founded. It represents both the brainchild and the legacy of Priscilla and husband Michael, offering a unique and wide range of art education classes, where conservation concepts underlie each course. Its gallery space regularly hosts major touring art exhibits. The Art Institute has also been developing through acquisition of original artwork, a permanent collection of original art featuring species native to the Sonora Desert. In addition, the Institute includes a large theatre and an active Artist-in-Residence Program.
Today the Art Institute programming regularly conducts classes with live animals from the Museum's collections as models. No other institution is known to follow this practice on a regular basis. The result is powerful. Now, each year, hundreds of students form an emotional bond with these subjects which leads them to become attuned to the natural world and dedicated conservationists.
For Priscilla, pursuit of excellence has been a common goal through each endeavor. A six-time All-American trap shooter and master gardener, Priscilla's art has been the subject of numerous publications, including feature articles in Colorado Homes and Lifestyles, and House and Garden magazines. Priscilla's artwork is in many private collections, and in the corporate collections of Amirob & Associates and BVZ Architects, and in the permanent collections of the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum and the Hunt Institute for Botanical Documentation.
About Artists for Conservation
Artists for Conservation (AFC) is the world's leading group of artists supporting the environment. Founded in 1997, the non-profit organization comprises a membership of 500 of the world's most gifted nature artists from 27 countries, across five continents. Dedicated to nurture, promote and leverage its world-class community of artists in support of our natural world, AFC drives its mission through three key programs: Art & Environmental Education; Field Work & Research; and Artist Development. The Artists for Conservation Festival is AFC's annual flagship initiative to showcase, support and further these programs. For more information, visit http://www.artistsforconservation.org.