Three local artists have been named the 2025 Victor Thomas Jacoby Award winners by the Humboldt Area Foundation + Wild Rivers Community Foundation. Now in its 27th year, the annual program honors artists for their creativity and commitment to excellence and includes a $10,000 award to help them deepen their artistic practice and explore new ideas.
This year’s winners are painter Gina Tuzzi, jewelry maker and soft soldering artist Jessica Lebert, and media artist and educator Sarah Lasley.
Each fall, local artists are invited to apply for the Victor Thomas Jacoby Award by submitting examples of their work and sharing their vision for innovating and elevating their art. The award’s focus shifts on a five-year cycle: for three of the five years the award is open to all Humboldt County–based artists, in the fourth year it is limited to Eureka based artists, and in the fifth year it is limited to artists working in textiles. This year, the award was open to all Humboldt County artists; next year, it will focus on Eureka based artists.
HAF+WRCF has managed the awards since its establishment in 1998, and selections are made by a committee of individuals appointed by local arts organizations. As of this year, more than $540,000 has been awarded in support of local artists. The 2025 winners were celebrated at a ceremony at the Morris Graves Museum of Art on December 12, 2025.
Each year the Foundation updates the Victor Thomas Jacoby book, inviting readers to ‘meet the winners’ of past years. Originally compiled by Victor’s friends Kay Gott Chaffey, Bob Doran, Alan Sanborn, and Gary Bloomfield, the “Kay Gott Chaffey Jacoby Book Fund” established by Kay Gott Chaffey in 2014, supports the continued production of the book, documenting local artists and the impact of the award each year. The book can be viewed online at hafoundation.org/vtjbook.
Information on eligibility and application details is posted on the Foundation’s Grants Portal at hafoundation.org/apply in early fall.
About the Artists
Gina Tuzzi
Gina Tuzzi is a painter whose work is inspired by her deep connection to the landscape surrounding her Northern California home. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in painting and printmaking from Humboldt State University and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Mills College.
Tuzzi is a Murphy and Cadogan fellow, a Facebook Artist in Residence, and a two-time SECA nominee. She teaches painting at Cal Poly Humboldt and lives in Blue Lake, California, with her dog, Pidgin.
“It is very exciting to be a recipient. My project for next year is a little bit of an anti-project. What I want to do is slow down and try to take the pressure off, focusing solely on incubating my ideas in my studio, finding new ways to thrive in my process, and deepening my connection to the landscape in which we live,” Tuzzi said at the award ceremony. “I’m really looking forward to the stillness and the quiet—and to having fun and being experimental in my studio.”
Learn more about Tuzzi’s work at GinaTuzzi.com or on Instagram at @ginatuzzi.
Jessica Lebert
Jessica Lebert is a jewelry maker and soft soldering artist. Her lifelong love for gemstones began in childhood, when her mother took her to gem shows and taught her basic beading and wire wrapping techniques. After high school, Lebert worked for 10 years in a sales gallery, where she learned about jewelry, folk art, and textiles from around the world. She enjoys creating bold, expressive statement pieces that help the wearer feel powerful and seen.
When Lebert first moved to Humboldt, she was living in her car and selling jewelry on the street—unaware that her dream of working as a full-time artist would soon be realized. Since then, she has participated in hundreds of local events.
“My goal is to continue evolving and sharing my art as an act of service. I always wanted to have a positive impact on my community. Art is not only my calling but a way I can connect. It’s a blessing that I get to do that,” Lebert said. “I deeply feel that art has the power to open hearts and inspire us. I needed help reaching my goal of becoming a silversmith. Right now, I’m using the technique of soft soldering, but I have so much more in mind. This award is the answer to my prayers and will help me gain the tools I need to progress.”
Learn more about Lebert’s work on Instagram at @howlinglily.
Sarah Lasley
Sarah Lasley is a media artist and educator whose collaborative, no-budget films use absurdist humor to explore the contradictions of contemporary life. Grounded in experimentation and shared authorship, her projects examine how people construct meaning amid chaos and collapse. A native of Louisville, Kentucky, Lasley is an Associate Professor of Film at Cal Poly Humboldt. Her work has been screened internationally at festivals and events including Slamdance, Ann Arbor, AIFVF, 25 FPS, and Les Instants Vidéo. She holds an MFA from the Yale School of Art and attended the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture.
“I fell in love with the collaborative aspects of filmmaking. The project we’ll be working on this coming year is a musical created with the community at the scrap and salvage yard. I come from a deeply working-class background, and the film is about the invisibility of the labor and burden carried by waste management workers,” Lasley said. “As a teacher, I’m committed to giving my students hands-on experience and résumé building opportunities, so we’ll be making this film with students and our beautiful community of performers.”
Learn more about Lasley’s work at SarahLasley.com or on Instagram at @sarah_lasley.
About Victor Thomas Jacoby
Victor Jacoby, an internationally recognized Eureka visual artist whose chosen medium was French tapestry, established the Victor Thomas Jacoby Fund with HAF+WRCF before his death in 1997 at age 52. Victor’s vision inspired his friend Dr. Rosalind Novick to make an additional gift to the fund and expand his dream of supporting local artists. This trust fund is dedicated to supporting Humboldt County visual artists and craftspeople and encourages exploring new ideas, materials, techniques, and mediums. In addition, the fund distributes annual cash awards to artists or craftspeople selected by a review panel of leading arts representatives.