The Board of Trustees of the Alliance of Artists Communities voted unanimously to award the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) with a Creative Leadership Award. The award honors the OAC’s long-standing support of individual artists and artists’ residencies. The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.
“The Ohio Arts Council does a great job promoting Ohio artists and making art more accessible to all Ohioans,” Ohio Governor Ted Strickland said. “This award is a well-deserved recognition.”
The Alliance represents the field of artists’ communities, colonies and residency programs—a organizations that support living artists in the creation of new work. The Alliance’s mission—to contribute to America’s cultural vitality by supporting its membership of diverse residency programs and advocating for creative environments that advance the endeavors of artists—is reflected in the work of the Ohio Arts Council and its innovative service to individual artists. The Ohio Arts Council’s values, expressed through its Individual Creativity program in particular, reflect the core belief of artists’ residencies and the Alliance; that supporting artists in the creation of new work is essential to our society’s success.
“We are very pleased to receive this award from the Alliance of Artists Communities,” said Julie Henahan, executive director of the Ohio Arts Council. “The Ohio Arts Council has worked hard over the years to maintain and evolve its programs involving individual artists and it is wonderful to be recognized for our work in this area.”
The Alliance Awards ceremony will be held Saturday, November 10, 2007 in Silver Spring, Maryland at the close of the Alliance’s Annual Conference, which brings together directors of artists’ residencies, funders, researchers, artists and others interested in supporting creativity.
The award will be presented by Jonathan Katz, CEO of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, and Katie Daley, a poet and performance artist who has been the recipient of an Ohio Arts Council fellowship and an Individual Creativity Excellence Award. Julie Henahan, along with Susan Saxbe, Chair of the Council Board, will accept the award.