Dogtown Wire

The Arkansas Arts Council Executive Director Joy Pennington has announced the recipients of the 2008 Governor’s Arts Awards.

The Governor’s Arts Awards recognize outstanding contributions to the arts in Arkansas. The recipients will be honored at an awards ceremony and luncheon during the ArtLinks 2008 Annual Arts Conference in Little Rock on October 21, 2008. Each recipient will receive a work of art created by Arkansas Artist Registry member Gary L. Carter of Fayetteville.

The recipients to be honored are as follows:

Arts Community Development Award   

Paul Leopoulos, North Little Rock

Nominator: Patrick H. Hays, Mayor of North Little Rock

Paul Leopoulos founded the nonprofit THEA Foundation seven years ago to advocate the importance of introducing the arts to young people. As full-time executive director, Leopoulos travels the state of Arkansas promoting the arts and raising funds for THEA scholarships, THEA’s Art Closet (which has supplied 98 art teachers in Pulaski County with art supplies at no charge), the Art Across Arkansas program (which has installed fine art in 152 Arkansas public schools), acting and dance workshops and more.

The THEA Foundation was created in remembrance of Paul and Linda Leopoulos’ daughter Thea, who was tragically killed in a car accident in 2001. The arts had been an inspiring and transformative influence in Thea’s life as a teenager.

Arts in Education Award

Zinse Agginie, Little Rock/Hope

Nominator: Repha Buckman, Executive Director of the Southwest Arkansas Arts Council

Even before the after-school program “Intervention Hope” began five years ago, Zinse Agginie had been teaching drumming and African enrichment to students in Hope. The Drum Ballet, one part of the Intervention Hope program, is more than drumming techniques and storytelling. Students build self-confidence, respect for self and others, and a belief that goals are attainable.

The verifiable goals of the program include improved academic grades, better school attendance and fewer behavior problems. The drum ballet is not only a great source of community pride, but has served as a model program for other communities.

The Drum Ballet was invited to perform at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library Opening for an audience of over 30,000 and was the only after-school program to be included in Class Act, a national documentary film on arts education. Agginie, who was born in Ghana, West Africa and educated there and in England, has been an outstanding role model for the at-risk students in the program.

Corporate Sponsorship of the Arts Award    

Brackett-Krennerich & Associates Architects, Jonesboro

Nominator: Steve Owens, President/CEO Arkansas State University Foundation 

Jerry Brackett and George Krennerich understand that involving children in the arts from an early age helps create a lifelong cultural appreciation. Brackett-Krennerich & Associates Architects in Jonesboro have been supporters of Arkansas State University theatre programs for more than 15 years.

In addition to designing the Fowler Center on the ASU campus, Brackett-Krennerich & Associates are avid audience members at the performing arts facility and have established a $25,000 endowment to provide scholarships for junior and senior level theatre majors. Brackett and Krennerich are the corporate sponsors for the ASU Summer Children’s Theatre as well as the Delta National Small Prints Exhibition.

They have also taken a lead role in creating the Theatre Guild, a local fundraising organization to provide support for theatre in Northeast Arkansas.

Folklife Award

Ruby Sales Rayder, Lake Village  

Nominator: Vera C. Pesaresi, Executive Director Guachoya Cultural Art Center

Ruby Sales Rayder, now 79, started tatting when she was 47 years old. Using the finest of threads with skill and consistency she handcrafts durable lace using a series of knots and loops. Her work reflects the creativity of a master of the craft and a remarkable control of her medium. After mastering her art she began teaching classes.

She is known regionally as a maker, teacher and demonstrator of her craft. Rayder is eager to share her talent with anyone wanting to learn so that this art might be perpetuated for generations to come.

Individual Artist Award               

John Erwin, Little Rock

Nominator: Lisette Christensen, Executive Director Arkansas Chamber Singers

John Erwin is director of choral music at the University of Central Arkansas in Conway and artistic director and conductor of the Arkansas Chamber Singers. Erwin began his work at UCA teaching voice, music literature and conducting while also establishing two choirs.

For over thirty years UCA choirs have performed nationally and internationally under Maestro Erwin’s direction receiving numerous awards including the Grand Prize Winner of the Great American Choral Festival and gold medals at the Riva del Garda International Choral Competition in Italy.

As director of the Arkansas Chamber Singers, Professor Erwin leads the choir in three main performances each season, including a major choral work with orchestra. The Arkansas Chamber Singers have produced 10 outstanding concert recordings under Erwin’s direction. 

Patron Award        

Coleman and Shirley “Peaches” Peterson, Rogers

Nominator: Walton Arts Center

Coleman and Shirley “Peaches” Peterson have provided their time, talents, and financial resources in support of the Walton Arts Center. As chair of the Walton Arts Center Council, Peaches guided the arts center through an exciting period of growth and dramatic increase in annual fundraising.

Both Coleman and Peaches have spent countless hours attending performances, hosting lunches, dinners and special events.  They have actively recruited support from business and community leaders and introducing newcomers to the Walton Arts Center. They are an inspiration to others and set a high standard for generosity and leadership in Northwest Arkansas.

Lifetime Achievement Award                   

Peggy Caudle Vining, Little Rock

Nominator: Vicky Crawley

Peggy Caudle Vining is an often published poet, who has won numerous awards for her poetry, including the coveted Sybil Nash Abrams Award for her seven sonnet sequence entitled, Arkansas, the Natural State.

She was appointed Arkansas Poet Laureate in 2003 for her many contributions to the literary arts. Her focus as poet laureate has been with pre-school and elementary classrooms. Vining earned her Masters Degree in Early Childhood Education, and for 21 years she was instructor and director of the UALR Children’s Center, a lab school for the Department of Education, emphasizing the arts through music, literature and dramatic play.

Since 1963, Vining has been a member of Poet’s Roundtable of Arkansas, which is associated with the National Federation of State Poetry Societies. Mrs. Vining was also director of the Ozark Writers Conference for 12 years, the director of the Arkansas Writer’s Conference for two years and still serves on the official board of each.

She is past president of the National League of American Penwomen in Arkansas, past president of Arkansas Songwriters Association and a member of Fiction Writers of Central Arkansas. Over the years, four Arkansas governors have cited her for her volunteer work with the literary arts in Arkansas. She is presently compiling a collection of her published works entitled “Tethered to the Moment”.

Judge’s Special Recognition Award

RuAnn Ewing, Hindsville

Nominator: Walton Arts Center

RuAnn Ewing’s contributions to the arts extend beyond her work as an accomplished bead artist and blacksmith. Her dedication to teaching others reaches the local, national and international art community.

Ewing has been featured in the nationally recognized Beadwork Magazine and 30 pieces of artwork fashioned out of sculptural bead weaving and iron were exhibited at the Walton Arts Center in 2007.  One of her iron gates is currently on exhibit at Crystal Bridges at the Massey Museum of American Art. In 2006 and 2007, she worked with members of an entire community in Costa Rica teaching them to make necklaces, bracelets and earrings. The crafts, created as part of the Costa Rican Community Craft Project, were sold with proceeds going towards a new cistern and improved water system.  

The Arkansas Arts Council was established in 1966 to enable the Arkansas (or the state of Arkansas) to receive funds from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1971, Act 359 (A.C.A . § 13-8-101 et seq.) gave independent agency status to the Arts Council, with an executive director and a 17-member council appointed by the governor. In 1975, the Arts Council became an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

As an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage, the Arkansas Arts Council shares the goals of all its agencies, of preserving and enhancing the heritage of the state of Arkansas.

The other agencies are: Arkansas Historic Preservation Program, Arkansas Natural Heritage Commission, the Delta Cultural Center in Helena, Historic Arkansas Museum, the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center and the Old State House Museum. Funding for the Arkansas Arts Council and its programs is provided by the state of Arkansas and the National Endowment for the Arts.

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