Jill Hamilton Bullitt (born August 21, 1951) is an American artist, political activist, and academic.

Early life and education

Bullitt was born on August 21, 1951, in

Seattle, Washington Seattle ( ) is the List of municipalities in Washington, most populous city in the U.S. state of Washington (state), Washington and in the Pacific Northwest region of North America. With a population of 780,995 in 2024, it is the List of Unit ...

. She is the daughter of the poet Carolyn Kizer and Charles Stimson Bullitt, an attorney. She is from a prominent Seattle family descending from Alexander Scott Bullitt. Her paternal grandmother, Dorothy Stimson Bullitt, was the founder of the

King Broadcasting Company King Broadcasting Company is an American former media conglomerate founded in 1946 by Dorothy Bullitt. The company was owned by the Bullitt family until it was sold to the Providence Journal Company in 1991; it is currently a subsidiary of T ...

and the

Bullitt Foundation The Bullitt Foundation is a foundation established in 1952 by Dorothy S. Bullitt, a prominent Seattle businesswoman and philanthropist who founded King Broadcasting Company in Seattle. Its assets as of the end of 2010 were in excess of US$100M. ...

. Bullitt graduated from

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

in 1973 and received a master of fine arts degree from the

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (UNC, UNC–Chapel Hill, or simply Carolina) is a public university, public research university in Chapel Hill, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1789, the university first began enrolli ...

in 1999.

Career

In 1978 Bullitt co-founded the Social Justice Fund, a foundation focusing on promoting solutions to social justice issues in Idaho, Montana, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming. From 1989 until 1990, Bullitt served as the executive director of Dieu Donné Papermill in New York City. In 1995 she was appointed as a scholar-in-residence at

Hamilton College Hamilton College is a Private college, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Clinton, Oneida County, New York, Clinton, New York. It was established as the Hamilton-Oneida Academy in 1793 and received its c ...

. While in graduate school at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, she worked as a teaching fellow. Bullitt has been a visiting lecturer in art at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

and

University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...

. She also served as an assistant professor of art at the

University of Mount Olive The University of Mount Olive (UMO or Mount Olive) is a private university in Mount Olive, North Carolina, United States. Chartered in 1951, the university is sponsored by the Original Free Will Baptist Convention and Higher education accreditati ...

and a professor at the

Savannah College of Art and Design Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD) is a private art school with locations in Savannah, Georgia; Atlanta, Georgia; and Lacoste, France. It was founded in 1978 to provide degrees in programs not yet offered in the southeast of the United ...

. ''

Marquis Who's Who Marquis Who's Who, also known as A.N. Marquis Company ( or ), is an American publisher of a number of directories containing short biographies. The books usually are entitled ''Who's Who in...'' followed by some subject, such as ''Who's Who in A ...

'' listed Bullitt as a notable artist and educator. In 1993 she was a recipient of the David R. Hunter Founder's Award by A Territory Resource Foundation. In 2003 she was a finalist for an award in painting from the

American Academy of Arts and Letters The American Academy of Arts and Letters is a 300-member honor society whose goal is to "foster, assist, and sustain excellence" in American literature, Music of the United States, music, and Visual art of the United States, art. Its fixed number ...

. Bullitt was president of the Friends of the International School of Painting, Drawing, and Sculpture in Monte Castello di Vibio, Italy from 1993 until 2001 and is a co-founder of the El Salvador Media Education Project. She has also served as the executive director of the Boca Lupo Fund, co-director of The Energy Project at the Corporation Data Exchange, and a co-founder and board director of the Central American Media Education Project. In 1996-97 she was a board director of the Threshold Foundation. Bullitt is also a patron of the

Museum of Northwest Art The Museum of Northwest Art (also referred to as MoNA) is an art museum located in La Conner, Washington La Conner is a town in Skagit County, Washington, United States with a population of 965 at the 2020 census. It is included in the ...

Personal life

Bullitt was married to

David Rigsbee David Rigsbee (April 1, 1949) is an American poet, contributing editor and regular book reviewer for '' The Cortland Review,'' and literary critic. He served on the faculty at University of Mount Olive. Career Rigsbee is the author of 20 books ...

, a poet and academic, for eighteen years before they divorced.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Bullitt, Jill Living people 1951 births 20th-century American women painters 20th-century American painters 21st-century American women painters 21st-century American painters American activists American women academics Artists from Seattle Jill Hamilton College (New York) faculty University of Mount Olive faculty Savannah College of Art and Design faculty Stanford University alumni University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill alumni