Somer Hahm
Photograph by Sarah Lewis
Somer Hahm is a visual artist and a visitor living and working on the ancestral lands of the Tanana Dene peoples, also known as Fairbanks, Alaska. She received a BFA from University of Montana, Missoula in 2005 and an MFA, with an emphasis in Painting and Drawing, from University of Alaska, Fairbanks in 2008. Her past works drew from nature, often combining colorful abstraction with flora and fauna. Interested in the plants found locally in the Tanana Valley, in 2017 she designed and released an annual series of educational botanical posters for children.
With robust involvement in the Fairbanks art community, Somer exhibits her work statewide and teaches painting and drawing workshops for the Folk School of Fairbanks and Well Street Art Company. Employment as Exhibition Technician, installing rotating exhibits at Fairbanks Arts Association’s Bear Gallery, allows her to work one on one with Alaskan artists in all career stages and hands on with a diverse variety of art works.
Hahm’s recent body of work has been inspired by the wealth of the American Patchwork and the timeless beauty of quilt block designs. Motivated to create community involvement and interest in public art, Somer founded the Far North Quilt Trail in 2019. In 2020, Hahm received a Rasmuson Individual Artist Project Award, funding from the Alaska Chapter of the Awesome Foundation, the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment of the Arts to further her artist-led endeavor of creative place making, initiating Alaska’s first barn quilt trail. Somer is a mother of two young children.