Painter, Teacher, Traveler
Betty LaDuke is a Bronx born, Oregon based artist with a broad cultural vision of life and art. She taught at Southern Oregon University from 1964 to 1996. For her first eighteen years, while she was the only woman in the Art Department, she initiated the courses “Women and Art” and “Art in the Third World.”
LaDuke is the recipient of the Oregon Governor’s Award in the Arts (1993) and the National Art Education Association’s ZiegfieldAward for distinguished international leadership (1996). LaDuke has traveled extensively to Asia, Africa and Latin America, documenting cultural traditions and the experiences of women and communities during war and peace. Many of her paintings also depict animals, rituals, and celebrations, illustrating similarities among geographically and traditionally disparate cultures. Her work has been exhibited in museums across the country, and is in numerous public collections in the U.S., and Eritrea, Africa.
In 2012 she received community sponsorship for the permanent installation of 26 mural panels in the Medford International Airport, Oregon on the theme “Celebrating Local Farms and Farm Workers.” LaDuke’s 2015 book Bountiful Harvest: From Land to Table is a celebration of local agriculture in Southern Oregon and beyond.
