Wednesday marked 32 years of the Governor’s Arts Awards, celebrating and recognizing artists, organizations, businesses, educators and individuals in Arizona.
The awards were held at the Herberger Theater Center, 222 E. Monroe, and were presented by Arizona Citizens for the Arts, the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Office of the Governor of Arizona.
“It’s clear that the arts benefit our state in so many ways,” Gov. Jan Brewer said at the opening of the ceremony. “So congratulations to the awardees and thank you everyone here tonight for all that you do for the arts and for the state of Arizona.”
The first award of the night was the Shelley award, which is named in honor of former Arizona Commission on the Arts Executive Director Shelley Chon and was given to Jim Ballinger.
Ballinger is among the nation’s longest-serving museum directors, having served the Phoenix Art Museum as the Sybil Harrington Director since 1982.
Ballinger’s list of achievements also includes an appointment by the mayor to serve as treasurer for the last two city of Phoenix Civic Bond Programs, president of the Board of Directors for the Association of Art Museum Directors and an appointment by President Bush in 2004 to the National Council on the Arts, serving an extended term until this year.
Ballinger’s acceptance speech set the tone for the evening, creating an inspirational atmosphere that promised a future full of success for the art world in Arizona.
“Over the years I’ve seen tremendous growth in Arizona’s cultural community,” Ballinger said. “I’ve experienced, along with everyone else, setbacks, recessions and downturns. We’re severely challenged in revenue, but I know in a few years we will see growth again. We must be ready for that moment, seize the momentum.”
He continued, “Let’s commit our institutions to incubate, innovate, create, educate and collaborate for all the families of our great state.”
The recipient of the Community award went to the Alwun House Foundation, which has created opportunities for artists and served as a foundation for the downtown Phoenix arts scene.
Kim Moody, director of the Alwun House foundation, accepted the award and said it was the neglect of downtown that prompted him to revitalize the community.
“Now we have ASU, a medical campus, the Roosevelt Row arts district,” Moody said. “Quite an impact for artists in what they can do engaging art and transforming their community.”
The Individual Award went to Dick Bowers, president of the Herberger Theater Center, executive director of the Phoenix Boys Choir and former Scottsdale city manager.
His acceptance speech summarized how he said the art community felt about the future of the art world.
“Without art there is no imagination, without imagination there are no new ideas, without new ideas we don’t have the entrepreneurial capacity and the spirit that this nation is known for,” Bowers said.
The Artist Award went to Jim Waid, whose work is in over 40 public and private art collections, and he said he was particularly thankful to the artists in his community for all that they do.
“Artists inspire each other,” Waid said. “I think we know that a life in art is a privilege.”
A life in art is something that Marion Kirk Jones, recipient of the Arts in Education for an individual, has tried to provide for her students.
Jones started teaching dance at Arizona State University in 1972 and has choreographed many works for her students and for Desert Dance Theatre in Tempe, becoming the artistic director in 1988.
“It was a while before we began to have help to develop a large faculty,” Jones said. “But anyway, we did develop that dance department until it was one of the five best in the whole country.”
The Arts in Education Award for an organization went to the Marshall Magnet Elementary School in Flagstaff.
The Marshall Magnet Elementary School is a federally identified Title 1 art and science magnet school of primarily middle-to-low-income students. The school integrates arts and science into the classroom academic experience daily.
The school’s principal, John Coe, accepted the award on the school’s behalf.
“I am the most fortunate principal in the state,” Coe said. “Not because any of these things were my ideas, but because it has been my good fortune to inherit this one of a kind, extracurricular arts integration program and a faculty that believes in it.”
The fifth award of the night went to Southwest Ambulance under the business category.
According to its biography, Southwest Ambulance is Arizona’s largest ambulance transportation provider and has served more than 40 communities, contributing in numerous ways to the arts across the state.
Michael DiMino, the president and CEO of Southwest Ambulance’s parent company Rural Metro Corporation, accepted the award.
“Our support of the arts is not by accident,” DiMino said, “although we attend many accidents every day.”
He continued, “We truly believe that the arts fulfill an important civic and social responsibility. We understand that behind every artistic expression is a story that needs to be told.”
There were 62 applicants for this years Governor’s Arts Awards, said Michelle Peralta, a representative with Arizona Citizens Action for the Arts.
Peralta said the nomination process typically opens in mid-September and is kept open for about six weeks.
Businesses, groups or individuals may submit a nomination as long as they meet the requirements for their category, which can be found on the Governor’s Arts Awards website.
Each year a selection panel made up of business and art leaders from across the state reviews the nominations for the Governor’s Art’s Awards based on certain criteria.
The criteria includes the significance of the contributions and achievements of the nominee, the range of individuals or groups served by the contributions of the nominee and the length of time and degree to which the nominee is dedicated to the arts.
Contact the reporter at victoria.stangl@asu.edu
