Arts Council celebrates the best
by S. Derrickson Moore
Las Cruces Sun News
Friday June 17, 2005
"When a community still values the treasures in its own back yard, you're witness to something that's rare." - Kevin McIlvoy
"We're pumping for the grand opening of the Rio Grande theater, so at this year's gala, we're going to show what it used to be and progress through movie themes to the present," said DAAC executive director Amy Johnson Bassford. "And we'll also be honoring a very unique group of people."
Cultural leaders receiving the annual DAAC honors will include Ceil and Peter Herman, Zandra Santanova, Debra Knapp, Laurel Weathersbee and Keith Wilson.
"What I love about the whole feeling of the gala is that because DAAC's outreach goes wide and deep, you really do see a whole cross section of the community there: those who are active in the arts and also people who are not themselves artists but who have a passion for the arts," said Kevin McIlvoy of Las Cruces, who has attended DAAC galas for the past seven years.
"I think the awards ceremony is particularly inspiring. When a community still values the treasures in its own back yard, you're witness to something that's rare," he said.
Bassford feels 2005 honorees have made major contributions to the community. "I think that some of our honorees are people who have deserved recognition for quite some time and it's nice that how they are finally getting it. Keith Wilson has been very instrumental for some time in the fields, of English and the she said.
Wilson who will receive the Papen Award, is an award winning poet and short story writer whose body of work includes 27 volumes of poetry. The native New Mexican was New Mexico State University's poet in residence and an English professor until his retirement in 1987. His honors include the New Mexico Governor's Award for Excellence in the Arts, the D.H. Lawrence Fellowship and a National Endowment of the Arts Creative Writing Fellowship.
Debra Knapp, Arts in Education Award winner, became director of the NMSU Dance program in 2001. She has been an artist in education dance and movement special^ ist since 1977 and a dance faculty member at Butler University, the University of New Mexico and the Palucca School Academy of Performing Arts in Dresden, Germany. She has danced professionally with companies in Indiana, Germany and Albuquerque and has been a guest choreographer and instructor for universities and colleges throughout the United States.
Ceil and Peter Herman, Community Arts Award winners, have long been active in Las Cruces theater organizations. They founded the No Strings Theatre Company in 1998. After their retirement in 2000 from the NMSU Biology Department, they built the Black Box Theatre on the Downtown Mall as a home for No Strings. Ceil is the company's artistic director and Peter is the resident designer/technical director. No Strings and the Hermans have presented 48 productions and the Black Box has become a venue for a wide variety of other cultural activities.
Zandra Santanova, Art in Public Places, and her husband Santiago, own Studio Santanova Creative Metal Designs. Zandra, a painter and metal artist known for her specialized metal painting techniques and finishes, recently completed "Child's Play," a sculpture featuring silhouettes of children at play, for the new First Step Pediatric Center.
Laurel Weathersbee, Newcomers Award moved to Las Cruces in 2004 and quickly became an active volunteer for several arts and cultural organizations, including ArtForms, which sponsors February For the Love of Arts Month, and the New Mexico Watercolor Society. She will be lauded for efforts to support and encourage other: artists, which include organizing exhibitions and presenting art demonstrations. The watercolor and collage artist said she has "been painting, coloring, cutting and pasting for nearly 50 years." The former journalist earned a degree in art from Park College in Parkville, Mo. in 1995.
Tickets for Tuesdays gala, at $10, will be available at the door. For reservations or information, call DAAC. at 523-6403.
|| Performances | Reservations | Upcoming Events | Auditions | Past Productions ||
|| Volunteers | Contact Us | Meet the Board | Visit the Theatre | Directions | Donors | Links ||
Web graphics by :
Web design and layout by:
|
