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By Michael Upchurch
Seattle Times arts writer

Sandra Jackson-Dumont, the Seattle Art Museum’s deputy director of education and public programs, is one of four winners of the $50,000 Creative Leadership Award from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation.

The award, inaugurated this year, honors “future-focused thinking and adept work by individuals and community organizations.” Dumont joined SAM in 2006.

Susan M. Coliton, vice president of the Allen Foundation, said that the awards’ aim is to support ”organizations that are successfully adapting in light of financial and other challenges that face many nonprofits.”

Specific reference was made to Jackson-Dumont’s creation of a Teen Advisory Group aimed at involving younger audiences, and to the museum’s highly popular “SAM Remix,” a quarterly late night party series that blends music, dancing, arts activities and social networking with current museum exhibits. (The next Remix is at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 9, and is tied into SAM’s new “Elles” shows.)

Other winners of 2012 Creative Leadership Awards are Deidre Holmberg, principal at Delta High School in Richland, and Literary Arts and Portland YouthBuilders, both based in Portland.