Three island artists have been recognized as this year’s newest recipients of the Island Treasure Award, joining a roster which includes some of the most famous names in Bainbridge culture.

The 2015 awardees are Diane Bonciolini and Gregg Mesmer of Mesolini Glass and photographer Art Grice.

The trio will be honored at an awards celebration next month, having been officially approved by the Bainbridge Island Arts & Humanities Council Board in December, following an anonymous nomination and juried selection process.

All of the 2015 recipients agreed that they were surprised by the recognition.

Grice said he had no idea that he had even been nominated, let alone chosen for the award.

“I had no idea, it just never crossed my mind,” he said.

Grice, an island resident since 1977, has worked as an architectural and fine arts photographer for more than 40 years.

He has also been a gallery owner, mentor and teacher. His work has been published in numerous books and magazines around the world, he has produced digital art seminars and a lecture series, curated dozens of exhibitions in numerous museums and galleries and has also served on a number of juries for many different art shows and festivals.

Helping others

The island photographer is also noted for the tireless work he has done to promote and support other artists.

In 2002, he founded Arts Studio Gallery, which Grice and friends established in a converted old barn on Bainbridge. The gallery served as an alternative island venue and specialized in debuting artists who had little or no prior exhibition experience.

Though he sold the gallery last year, Grice said it remains one of the most rewarding chapters in his career.

“Over the last couple of years, I sort of realized that the gallery really was about encouraging people to do work,” Grice explained. “A lot of the people who showed at the gallery had never shown.”

By providing a place for these artists to showcase their work, Grice said, he felt that he gave them something definite to work toward and the motivation they needed to move forward with a project.

Grice said he was very influenced by his involvement with the artistic community in Canada, where he lived before moving to Bainbridge.

“The art community that was really fascinating was the one in Vancouver,” he remembered. “It was not competitive.”

It was just such a supportive and unified community, Grice said, he worked to foster here.

“There was an openness in Canada,” he said. “It was quite different, much more supportive in the general overall sense, and more camaraderie. I had a gallery up there for a while, and you could feel it when you came across the border — because I was up and down a lot doing things there and here in Seattle — and we almost made fun of the Americans at times about their competitiveness and more commercial approach.”

Among the numerous group projects in which he played a role, Grice was also one of the founders and editors of “Exhibition Magazine,” a publication by the Bainbridge Arts Council, as well as a founding member of the annual Studio Tour.

On his selection as an Island Treasure, Grice said that he did not expect his outlook or involvement to change, only his behavior.

“I think now I’ll have to really be good,” he laughed.

The idea of being selected for the award really had yet to sink in, Grice said.

“I don’t know what it will mean,” he said, adding that at this point in his career he was not concerned with the idea of a legacy beyond ensuring a complete record of his work for his children to inherit.

“I don’t really care about making myself more important or valuable,” he said.

Making a difference

Bonciolini and Mesmer agreed that, while the idea of an artistic legacy had only just recently begun to become a subject of consideration for themselves as well, the award did allow them a definitive point from which to consider their journey within the Bainbridge arts community.

“For us to be recognized in terms of being down on paper and associated with the previous winners, that’s the real honor,” Mesmer said.

The couple are extremely proud, he said, to have been “shown the respect of being just a single thread in a fabric or the tapestry that is the history of the community.”

Mesmer first moved to Bainbridge in 1977, by which time Bonciolini had been living and working here on and off for several years already.

The couple relocated their glass studio to the island from Seattle to have a place to work and refine their own unique style, and they quickly became integral members of Bainbridge arts scene.

Many of the pieces from Mesolini have become community staples on permanent display in prominent locales around the island, including the Waypoint park entrance in downtown Winslow, the Beach Glass Quilt on Winslow Way as well as pieces at the library, the Bainbridge Island Aquatic Center and several other locations.

In 2012, as a holiday gift to the island, Bonciolini and Mesmer created 50 glass “Solstice Icicles” which they hung from bare trees around Bainbridge.

More so even than the original work they produce, Bonciolini and Mesmer embody the Island Treasure ideals in their constant involvement and volunteer efforts with various groups around Bainbridge, working to spread their passion and knowledge.

As founding members of the Bainbridge Island Studio Tour, Bonciolini and Mesmer proved tireless in their encouragement of new artistic talents. More recently, they established the Working Studio Group to help further connect island artists to the public and each other.

Their latest nonprofit endeavor, the Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network, is currently working to create a community center focused on craft and invention, with special programs geared toward children and young adults.

Bonciolini said that the award has proven to her that the pieces she and Mesmer have created, or that they helped others to create, go on to have a positive affect. She’s proud of that.

“You don’t think about that,” Bonciolini said. “A lot of our work, they have a major life here in the studio with us when we’re working on them. And then we send them out into the community — install them or whatever it takes — and then they take on a life of their own.”

“That part you don’t always see,” she added.

Looking ahead, Mesmer said that he did not anticipate the award, or the duo’s new status as Island Treasures, to bring any extra pressure to their next large project.

“The fact is that we still enjoy our relationships with who we have on the island, the different organizations that we work with,” he said. “I hope that they’ll continue to search and seek us out like they have.”

“We just hope that this isn’t the end,” he laughed, adding that the couple still have plenty of projects, in addition to their community work, “on the back shelves” that they’ve been meaning to get started.

Bonciolini agreed, and said the couple’s reputation had kind of snuck up on them.

“I think that part of it has to do with the people we’ve worked with over the years,” she said. “The schools that have seen our work and that want us to be a part of a mural or that sort of thing. They’ve become legacy projects.”

Awards ceremony

This year’s awards celebration will take place Saturday, Feb. 21 at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. There will be a special Island Treasure exhibit from Feb. 14 through the reception honoring all past and present recipients.

Winners of the Island Treasure Award receive an unrestricted $4,000 cash prize as well as a candle holder sculpted by Kent Van Slyke.

Originally conceived in 1999, the Island Treasure Award honors excellence in the arts and humanities and is given annually to individuals who have made outstanding contributions in those areas in the Bainbridge Island community.