VSA arts Announces National Awards for Excellence

April 21, 2008

WASHINGTON, April 21, 2008 - VSA arts announced its 2008 National Awards for Excellence during its annual affiliate meeting in Washington. VSA arts works with a network of affiliate organizations across the country. Each year, VSA arts recognizes affiliates, partners, and staff for their outstanding work toward increasing access to the arts for people with disabilities.

Affiliates coordinate comprehensive programming across their respective states, providing arts education opportunities in the classroom and in the community, as well as support and encouragement for professional artists with disabilities.

“VSA arts affiliates and their partners are dedicated to creating new opportunities in the arts for both children and adults with disabilities,” said Soula Antoniou, president of VSA arts. “Their work in schools, with local artists, and with cultural institutions makes their communities more inclusive, and I look forward each year to highlighting their accomplishments.”

The 2008 award recipients are:

The Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County, Fla., won the Award for Outstanding Community Partner. The Arsht Center provides accessible performance spaces, funding, production and technical staff support to VSA arts of Florida.
The Kentucky Library & Museum Program at Western Kentucky University, The Cardinal Hill Rehabilitation Hospital and the Lexington Art League in Lexington, Ky., and Murray State University and the Murray Art Guild in Western Kentucky each received an Award for Outstanding Community Partner for their work with VSA arts of Kentucky’s growing Side By Side program—a program where students and community artists create collaborative works of art.
Timothy Anderson received the Award in Excellence in Leadership for his role as board chair, advisor and consultant to VSA arts of Massachusetts from its inception in 1980.
Mark and Marilee Davis, board members for VSA arts of Iowa, also won an Award in Excellence in Leadership for their 10-plus years of service and immersion and dedication to the work.
Leonard S. Marsh, the General Manager of the Daytona Pennysaver (Fla.), received an Award in Excellence in Leadership for his assistance to VSA arts of Florida. Marsh has sponsored events, printed brochures, and provided crucial office and marketing assistance.
Sarah Elizabeth Musgrave won an Award in Excellence in Leadership for her tireless work for VSA arts of Tennessee. Musgrave, a high school student, played a crucial role in the launch of the Tennessee Dulcimer Choir program for students with disabilities, expanding its reach by personally visiting local schools and conducting dulcimer trainings for students with autism. Musgrave also single-handedly arranged a benefit concert to raise funds to purchase additional instruments for these students.
VSA arts of Texas received the Award for Excellence in Organizational Management for their excellence in programming and business management. The affiliate and its leadership have built partnerships and programming that make it the intersection of arts, education and disability across the state.
VSA arts of Alabama won the Award for Excellence in Educational Programming for Art Partners, which partners children and adults with disabilities with established community artists to create collaborative works of art. The works are then auctioned at a popular fundraiser for the affiliate. Participants gain valuable art skills and knowledge, while the partnered artist learns about the importance of inclusion.
VSA arts of Kentucky received the Award in Educational Programming for Side by Side, a spin-off of Alabama’s Art Partners. Students receive six weeks of visual arts classes from a trained teaching artist. At the training’s conclusion, students pair with a trained community partner to create a collaborative piece, which is later displayed in a professionally staged public exhibition.
VSA arts of Utah won the Award in Excellence in Professional Development for their program that pairs a talented emerging artist with a disability with a working professional artist who provides a minimum of 25 hours of mentoring. Together they work on developing an artist statement, making presentations to galleries, and documenting work. They then present their work together in a popular public exhibition.
VSA arts of Minnesota was honored with the Award in Excellence in Cultural Access and Inclusive Arts Services, for serving as an exemplary regional and statewide resource to arts organizations on issues of cultural access.
VSA arts of Pennsylvania received the Excellence in Public Awareness and Outreach Award for its ambitious and far-reaching Festival of Disability Arts and Culture last fall. The festival kicked off with a celebrity opening in a regional performing arts center and continued for more than a month with performances, exhibitions, lectures, and events that called attention to the rich cultural life, accessible to, and provided by, people with disabilities. The reach of the festival continues to reverberate.

About VSA arts
VSA arts is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1974 by Ambassador Jean Kennedy Smith to create a society where people with disabilities learn through, participate in, and enjoy the arts. VSA arts provides educators, parents, and artists with resources and the tools to support arts programming in schools and communities. VSA arts showcases the accomplishments of artists with disabilities and promotes increased access to the arts for people with disabilities. Each year millions of people participate in VSA arts programs through a nationwide network of affiliates and in 55 countries around the world. VSA arts is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. For more information, please visit www.vsarts.org

Media Contact:

Stephanie Taylor/VSA arts
(202) 628-2800 ext. 3883
SKTaylor@vsarts.org