VOL. 12  NO. 1

The Blue Moon is published bi-monthly by the Kentucky Arts Council, a state agency in the Commerce Cabinet. Please send comments, questions and information to the Blue Moon, Kentucky Arts Council, Old Capitol Annex, 300 West Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601-1980 or call 502-564-3757, toll free 1-888-833-2787.
E-mail: kyarts@ky.gov

The awards to be presented by Governor Fletcher to the recipients of the 2004 Governor's Awards in the Arts are the "Noble Series," created by Kentucky glass artist Brook Forrest White, Jr.   PHOTO: David Harpe

The Governor's Awards in the Arts, the Commonwealth's most prestigious arts awards, honor Kentucky individuals, businesses and organizations that make significant outstanding contributions to the arts in the state. Governor's Awards in the Arts recipients exemplify the range and diversity of accomplishments in all areas of the arts, and the irreplaceable value of those contributions to the state's communities, educational environment and economy. The combined achievements of this year's esteemed group further demonstrate the many ways that Kentucky citizens uphold the tradition of creating a rich cultural legacy. The annual presentation of the Governor's Awards in the Arts offers irrefutable evidence that Kentucky is indeed a thriving atmosphere for the arts.

The National Award - Ricky Skaggs

The National Award honors a Kentucky son or daughter who has achieved national acclaim. Ricky Skaggs' contributions to bluegrass and country music make him a natural award-winner. Born in rural eastern Kentucky, he received his first mandolin at the age of five. With no formal instruction, by the time he was ten he had played his mandolin with bluegrass legends Bill Monroe and Flatt and Scruggs. By age 21, he was already recognized as a master of one of America's most demanding art forms. He is also known as bluegrass music's official ambassador.

Although fame and fortune have brought Ricky Skaggs to the fore in the country music arena, he is dedicated to promoting Kentucky bluegrass music around the world. He has collaborated with numerous musicians, including the late country singer Keith Whitley, bluegrass pioneer Ralph Stanley, Kentucky son J. D. Crowe and the New South and Emmylou Harris' Hot Band. Skaggs and his band Kentucky Thunder have received numerous accolades, including eight trophies and an entertainer of the Year Award from the Country Music Association and eight Grammy awards.

Beyond his award winning recordings, Skaggs continues to lead the charge in bringing renewed vitality to country music's most down-to-earth form. From his string of high profile tours dates with the Dixie Chicks in 2000 to his position as host of the unprecedented All Star Bluegrass Celebration on PBS to his participation in last summer's wildly successful 41-city Down from the Mountain tour, Ricky Skaggs is one of bluegrass' most talented and dynamic performers.

The Milner Award - David A. Jones

The Milner Award was established in 1977 in honor of B. Hudson Milner, a Louisville utility executive and civic leader whose contributions to the arts in Kentucky remain important to this day. The Milner Award is presented for outstanding individual commitment to the arts and their role in the economy, community and culture of Kentucky and is the program's most prestigious tribute.

Philanthropist, entrepreneur and civic leader David A. Jones meets the Milner Award criteria many times over. Chairman of the Board at Humana, Inc. and its Chief Executive Officer from 1961 to 1997, Jones has supported the arts personally and professionally for more than 27 years. He is a founding member of the Kentucky Center for the Arts Endowment Fund Board, formed in 1980; the Jones' family and Humana have contributed substantially to the funds raised in the public campaign to build the Center.

Jones' executive and board leadership of Humana, Inc. has created partnerships with many arts organizations and has provided millions of dollars in corporate sponsorships locally and regionally. One of the best examples of his influence and leadership was the establishment of an employee payroll deduction program that annually raises in excess of $2 million for the arts for arts organizations such as Actors Theatre of Louisville, Louisville Orchestra, Blue Apple Players, Louisville Ballet, The Speed Museum, Louisville Bach Society, Chamber Music Society of Louisville, Kentucky Shakespeare Festival, and The Louisville Chorus. Perhaps the most well- known arts event supported by Humana, Inc. is Actors Theatre of Louisville's annual Humana Festival of New American Plays. The Humana Festival is the country's most famous and influential forum for new scripts.

David A. Jones believes that business and the arts are natural allies. They both flourish in a stimulating atmosphere where taking risks is acceptable and where traditional approaches are valued but regularly reevaluated and reworked. Jones' beliefs are embodied in his prominent and generous support for the arts throughout his life and set the gold standard for other individuals and corporations to emulate.

The Artist Award - Elizabeth Hartwell

The Artist Award is presented to someone with a lifetime achievement in the arts. Although she was born is Los Angeles, Elizabeth Hartwell joined the Louisville Ballet in 1984 after dancing professionally with the Pittsburgh Ballet Theater and the Cincinnati Ballet. She was promoted to principal dancer in 1988 and has been dazzling Kentucky audiences ever since.

Elizabeth Hartwell has performed a lifetime of lead roles, including Princes Aurora in Sleeping Beauty, Cinderella in Cinderella, the Sugar Plum Fairy and the Snow Queen in The Nutcracker, Kitri in Don Quixote, Odette and Odile in Swan Lake and Juliet in Romeo and Juliet. Her performances received many accolades in The Louisville Courier-Journal reviews over the years. She has been an active educator as well, teaching at the Governor's School for the Arts for 8 years and as an instructor with the Louisville Ballet School for 10 years. She has worked tirelessly on behalf of The Louisville Ballet and her undying enthusiasm for dance and enormous reserves of energy will be greatly missed after her retirement this year.

The Business Award - Julius Friedman

The Business Award recognizes an individual or business that has demonstrated outstanding support in the arts. Julius Friedman's graphic design and gallery ownership career are the embodiment of such commitment. As the owner of the former Images Gallery (1992 - 2001) and co-owner of Chapman Friedman Gallery (opened in 2001) he has consistently promoted regional, national and international artists and marketed their work. He has focused his considerable leadership skills on educating the public about art and about living with art, talking to students about being an artist and selling art, and sponsoring theme-related invitational shows to exhibit multiple artists addressing one topic.

An active part of the Louisville arts scene, Friedman provokes discussions and dialogue through his own work and the work of others. His graphics work has been recognized and featured throughout the country and some of his images are among the most recognizable in the region, for example the ballet toe point on the egg and the French horn with ice cream. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. One of his graphic design prints was included in the MOMA's American Posters in the 20th Century exhibit. This display was presented to the government of Japan in 1985 to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. He was also selected by the Special Assistant to President Reagan to create work for inclusion in a show of 100 posters advocating peace.

The Community Arts Award (Individual) - Nana Yaa Asantewaa

The Community Arts Award (Individual) is presented to storyteller Nana Yaa Asantewaa for her extraordinary efforts on behalf of the Louisville Arts Council, which she founded in 1998. The Council's mission is to assist community arts and artists by nurturing relationships, fostering multi-cultural diversity, providing tools and resource materials and advocating for growth and economic development of the community. She developed a community-wide arts education academy to " touch, teach and reach youth through the ARTS." She has received the distinguished City of Louisville Merit Award and represented the city as a delegate to the 1994 International African and African American summit.

Nana Yaa is known regionally, nationally and internationally as a creative and professional individual artist. A Louisville native and graduate of the University of Louisville, she has used her talent and skills to 'spread the word.' She is a "keeper of the African Oral Tradition" that was passed on to her from her Grandmother and family. "Mama Yaa's" stories are presented nationally on Kentucky Educational Television's "Telling Tales". She has written seven original arts education plays with companion teacher study guides that are produced independently at Actors Theatre. In 2001 she performed, with three other women, for the Fifth Pan-African Historical Theatre Festival in Ghana, West Africa. An artist in residence with the Kentucky Arts Council, NaNa Yaa has kept audiences spellbound on Commonwealth soil and around the world.

The Community Arts Award (Organization) - Singletary Center for the Arts

The Community Arts Award- (Organization) is given to an organization that makes a substantial positive impact in the community through the arts. Built in 1979 and located on the campus of the University of Kentucky, the Singletary Center is the largest arts complex in the Lexington metropolitan area. It is unquestionably essential to UK's School of Music, but its exceptional acoustical properties make it an attractive venue for many community arts organizations including the Central Kentucky Youth Orchestra, the Lexington Chamber Chorale, the Lexington Singers and the Kentucky Ballet Theatre. The Center serves as the home of the Lexington Philharmonic, which performs its Master Classics, Pops, and Family series.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Holly Salisbury, The Singletary Center has offered numerous residencies and partnered with the many regional organizations such as the Woodford Educational Endowment Fund to provide performing arts to more than 2,500 Woodford County Schools students annually and professional development for the schools' faculty. In 2003, 14,250 students statewide attended programs especially designed for them. There Center also presents a rotating visual art exhibit in the President's Room.

In its 25 years, the Center has presented a treasure trove of world-renowned musicians such as YoYo Ma, Kathleen Battle, Denyce Graves and the Montreal Symphony. It has commissioned new works in music by David Ott for the Amadeus Trio and in visual art for the center by Kentucky artists Arturo Alonzo Sandoval and David Caudill. The center hosts a tremendous range in programming that reflects the University's and the greater community's increasingly diverse population. The Center has served Central Kentucky by hosting more than 8,870 events over the years with an audience count in excess of 3.8 million.

The Education Award - The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center, Covington

The Carnegie Visual and Performing Arts Center is presented the Education Award for its unflagging mission of offering programs that bring arts and cultural experiences to people who have been typically underserved by other arts organizations. Through its arts programs and performance schedule, the Center's activities give local inner-city youth opportunities to experience a variety of performances from many cultures and familiarize children with an arts environment to cultivate life skills important to personal economic and social success. The Carnegie Center is in the process of constructing a new arts education addition that will substantially expand its ability to make programs available to the local population. Programs include Expanding Youth Horizons, which introduces 3rd, 4th and 5th graders in the Covington Independent School System to the rich cultural heritage the region, and ArtStop, a discipline-based art education after-school program that provides a creative nurturing environment for children 5-15.

Through a collaborative effort with the James E. Biggs Early Childhood Education Center, preschool youth from nearby Biggs come to the Carnegie Center twice a month for hands-on visual arts activities tied to the Center's rotating exhibit. Everyone Is An Artist, an annual multi-generational visual and performing arts event, features activities by art specialists and Carnegie Kids Connection brings together children from Biggs, the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the Covington Public Schools to participate in interactive performing arts events in the theater.

The Folk Heritage Award - John Harrod

The Folk Heritage Award recognizes an individual who has made an outstanding effort to perpetuate and promote Kentucky's unique artistic traditions. Kentucky has a priceless heritage of rare and beautiful fiddle tunes going back to the days of the pioneers. For the past 30 years it has been John Harrod's mission to preserve this music and the history of Kentucky's old fiddling styles. Through his field recordings, collecting, archiving, writing, advocacy, performances and media appearances, he has kept Kentucky fiddle styles and repertoire alive and in the forefront of local, national and international attention.

John has made countless audio and visual recordings of now-deceased fiddle players demonstrating and talking about their music. He maintains an enormous archive of recordings, information and photographs and makes them available to regional organizations and institutions. According to one longtime fan, his house is a shrine to Kentucky music.

A generous and knowledgeable scholar, John has been active in helping the Kentucky Folklife Program locate musicians to present at the Kentucky Folklife Festival, obtain recordings for archival purposes and encouraging performers to continue their art. He plays the fiddle himself and teaches younger musicians. He teaches tangible lessons about chords, tunes and bowing styles, but even more importantly, he nurtures his students' love for the intangibles; the beauty of a fiddle tune, the purposes of playing such an instrument and taking pride in Kentucky's venerable musical heritage. John says it very well himself. His goal is "to provide a link between the old traditions and a newer generation in the hope that some of the individuality, depth of feeling, and sense of place that animates old-time fiddling might find it's way into the music of talented younger musicians...and that...the names [of those who have passed on] will be remembered in a future where Kentucky continues to cherish its precious folk fiddle styles."

The Government Award - The Hindman/Knott County Community Development Initiative

The Government Award honors the work of an individual or agency that has significantly supported the arts through government action. In 1997, a volunteer community group of Hindman and Knott County leaders and citizens began meeting to develop a strategic plan to diversify the region's economy and secure funding from the state and other sources for an array of community development projects. They decided to base their plan on the region's long history of tradition, education, and one of the community's most valuable resources, its artisan population. The twenty-year plan included the expansion of Hazard Community and Technical College - Hindman Branch and a long-term push for an economy based on arts and heritage. The results of this agency's efforts are already quite visible.

Taking the program's theme, "Using our Heritage to Build Tomorrow's Community" to heart, the national award-winning initiative has seen the establishment of a new city hall and Welcome Center and the Kentucky Appalachian Artisan Center. It recently celebrated the renovation and opening of the Kentucky School of Craft. Other community development projects, such as the 'Opportunity Center' consisting of county offices, a daycare center and a public library, an amphitheater, a Mainstreet Association, and the Hillfolks Arts Guild are still in the process of being developed or constructed.

The Media Award - WTCR radio

The Media Award pays tribute to an organization or journalist that has shown a notable commitment to bringing the arts to the attention of the public. One of the top-rated and most listened to country music stations in eastern Kentucky and the tri-state area (Kentucky, West Virginia and Ohio), WTCR radio has served its community with extraordinary generosity. Station manager Judy Jennings makes it clear that the arts are one of her passions. The station provides ongoing corporate sponsorship for the Paramount Arts Center (PAC) Subscription Series events and is a main sponsor for the Kentucky Music Trail and the WTCR Highway 23 Jamboree. Other PAC-related contributions include underwriting a monthly performance at the Center and helping the Center expand its agenda to include the Broadway Series, Entertainment Series, Discovery Series and a Family/Special Events series. On air promotions and ticket give-aways are standard fare for Center events.

But the Paramount Arts Center is not the only arts institution that is supported by WTCR. The station commits management and staff time, effort and real dollars to a wide variety of community events. Many of the festivals that are held in Boyd and Greenup counties are sponsored by WTCR; it is the largest contributor to Summer Motion, a five-day festival that provides free high-quality entertainment to the community in an alcohol-free and safe environment. The station assists individual musicians in career development and supports other organizations in the state like WoodSongs Old-Time Radio Hour. Judy Jennings has also been instrumental in creating a public-private collaboration for a working artisan center in Ashland.

Although owned by Clear Channel, a world-wide media giant, WTCR and station manager Judy Jennings prove that a nationally-owned but locally-operated business can be a mainstay of a community's culture and an integral part of its thriving arts environment.

Governor Fletcher will present the 2004 Governor's Awards in the Arts at a public ceremony and reception on Tuesday, February 8, 2005 at 10:00 a.m. EST in the Capitol Rotunda in Frankfort. Please call the Kentucky Arts Council at 888.833.2787 or 502-564-3757 for further details.

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