Skip navigation

Send this site to a friend

Arts Commission News

Mississippi Arts Commission to host 2010 Governor's Awards for Excellence in the Arts

DATE:          February 17, 2010  

CONTACT:    Susan Dobbs, Public Relations Director

601/359-6031, sdobbs@arts.state.ms.us

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 

JACKSON— The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) is delighted to host the 22nd annual Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts.  This exciting event spotlights Mississippi’s outstanding cultural resources and honors those who contribute to the state through their vision and creativity.  The 2010 recipients will be honored at a public ceremony at 1:00pm on Thursday, February 25, 2010 at Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church in downtown Jackson.  

This year’s five awards and recipients are:

Arts in Community                     Lenagene Waldrup

Mississippi Heritage                        Bessie Johnson   

Excellence in                            Grassroots Radio Show

Broadcasting                                                      

Artistic Excellence                    Wyatt Waters

Lifetime Achievement                David “Honeyboy” Edwards

                                                     

           The awards are presented to individuals and organizations for outstanding work in visual, literary, and performing arts, community development through the arts, and arts patronage. (Recipients do not have to currently reside in Mississippi, but they must have significant ties to the state through some years of residency.)

           Designed by acclaimed Mississippi artist William Dunlap, this year’s awards are winged figured sculptures cast in bronze and gold leaf entitled “Fragment.”  Dunlap calls his art “aesthetic archaeology,” noting that the winged figure appears in Western European mythology long before the Biblical representation of the angel.  According to Dunlap, the image is as fresh as yesterday yet looks as though it could have been made thousands of years ago and excavated from an archaeological site.

            Dunlap, who received a Governor’s Award for Excellence in the Arts in 1991, will again serve as master of ceremonies, as he has since 1992.

            Each year the poster for the Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts honors the new award recipients and celebrates the relationship between government and the arts.  This year’s poster image is the third in a series of photographs depicting arts facilities that have received support for the Mississippi Arts Commission’s Building Fund for the Arts (BFA) Program.  The Ohr-O’Keefe Museum of Art in Biloxi received a BFA grant in 2003 to support the expansion of its facilities.  In 2005, months before opening, the museum’s multi-structure campus was virtually destroyed by Hurricane Katrina.  Renowned architect Frank Gehry’s stainless steel “pods” have risen from the devastation to form the George E. Ohr Gallery, their sculptural design echoing the form and resilience of the live oak trees. The poster design is by Vidal Blankenstein and the photograph was taken by Tom Joynt, both of Jackson.  The Building Fund for the Arts program is funded through the Mississippi Legislature and state general obligation bongs to provide high quality facilities for arts and cultural activities.   

             The Mississippi Arts Commission is a state agency, funded by the Mississippi Legislature, the National Endowment for the Arts, The Phil Hardin Foundation, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi Foundation, the Mississippi Endowment for the Arts at the Community Foundation of Greater Jackson and other private sources.  MAC is the official grants-making and service agency for the arts in Mississippi. The agency serves as an active supporter and promoter of arts in community life and in arts education.

            The Governor’s Awards ceremony will be free and open to the public on Thursday, February 25th at 1:00pm at Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church in Jackson.

###

« Back to headlines