The Arts Commission Announces 2025 Merit Award Recipients

Eye On Art  |  12/10/2025 10:00 am

The Arts Commission is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 Merit Awards.

The Merit Award program recognizes outstanding local literary, performing and visual artists, rewarding the many hours and personal resources each artist dedicates to their artform. This year, three awards are given at $4,000 each.

Recipients are selected by a panel of renowned artists and cultural leaders from around the Midwest, with a range of expertise across artistic disciplines. The 2025 Grant Panelists included Momar Ndiaye—Assistant Professor in the Department of Dance at The Ohio State University; Calcagno Cullen, Program Manager at the Carol Ann and Ralph V. Haile Foundation and Wave Pool Arts Center Co-founder in Cincinnati; and Shastri Akella—Assistant Professor of Creative Writing at Michigan State University.

Local artists selected as finalists for the Merit Awards program are highlighted below. The awards were publicly announced at the December 9^th Arts Commission Holiday Reception.

“The Merit Awards demonstrate the impressive depth and diversity of artistic talent in our region. Each year they reaffirm why Toledo’s arts community is so special and make the jurors' job of picking just three very difficult! Congratulations to this year’s awardees,” says Marc Folk, President and CEO of The Arts Commission.

The Arts Commission’s Merit Award program is generously sponsored by the Ohio Arts Council, the National Endowment for the Arts, and Margy Trumbull.

ABOUT THE ARTISTS

Ruth Foote

Ruth Foote is a Professor of Photography at Owens Community College, where she teaches a wide range of courses—from introductory to advanced levels—spanning both traditional darkroom and contemporary digital practices. Before joining Owens, she taught photography at various colleges and universities across the Midwest.

Ruth holds a Bachelor's degree in Biology from Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She began her professional career in environmental advocacy, working with organizations such as the Sierra Club. When one of these organizations dissolved, she took it as an opportunity to pursue her long-standing interest in photography, eventually earning her MFA from Southern Illinois University.

Her award-winning work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, reflecting a diverse range of subjects, styles, and photographic technologies. A dedicated alternative process enthusiast, Ruth explores the relationship between message and medium—working with tools ranging from digital and film SLRs to pinhole and vintage view cameras. Her portfolio includes everything from Daguerreotypes to inkjet prints.

Barry Whittaker 

Barry Whittaker is a multi-media artist, designer, musician, and Professor of Art at the University of Toledo. His work explores themes of mythology, language, miscommunication, and cultural hybridization through technology and collaboration. 

Whittaker creates mediated experiences that serve as platforms for exploring, modifying, and questioning human activities and the world around us. Through unconventional interactions, installations, ambient software, and games, his work challenges established narratives and complicates humanity's central role in our understanding of existence.

Isabel Zeng

Isabel Zeng graduated with her MFA in 3D Studio Art from Bowling Green State University. Her practice is invested in contemporary craft, performance, video, and photography.

Her work has been exhibited and published nationally and internationally, including at Society of North American Goldsmiths Annual Conference, Arrowmont School of Arts and Crafts, Ohio Craft Museum, Contemporary Art Toledo, and Jewelry and Metals Survey (JAMS). She has received various awards and scholarships, including the Ohio Designer Craftsmen Scholarship Award and the Ed Honton Memorial Award for Excellence.

Prior to joining the MFA program, Zeng had been the studio assistant of the Woodruff Studio at the Toledo Museum of Art and an independent jewelry artist since 2013. Besides her experience and education in art, Zeng is also an economist. She earned her MA in Economics in 2005 and Ph.D. in Economics in 2009 from Southern Methodist University in Dallas, Texas. Currently, she is a Professor of Economics at Bowling Green State University. Her multinational and multidisciplinary background has affected both the content and form of her artwork in a significant way.

Ruth Foote had this to say about receiving the award, “I am deeply honored to receive this Merit Award. This recognition affirms my creative direction and strengthens my commitment to advancing a process that involves substantial technical challenges. The award will support essential studio modifications, enabling me to expand and refine the work. These resources represent a meaningful investment in the continued development and long-term success of this project.”

About The Arts Commission
The Arts Commission is the longest standing arts commission in the state of Ohio, founded in 1959, administering the City of Toledo’s One Percent for Art Program since 1977. The Arts Commission is supported in part by the Ohio Arts Council and by an award from the National Endowment for the Arts.