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Arts Alive! pays tribute to 14

Artists, volunteers, organizations are honored for contributions in enriching the community

By Kerry Clawson
Beacon Journal staff writer

Published on Tuesday, Nov 17, 2009

When actor Jim Volkert says the arts can change the course of a young person's life, he knows what he's talking about.

The winner of the Outstanding Artist in Theatre award at Arts Alive! Sunday night shared an anecdote about a young actor he directed in a recent play. The young man, a theater student at the University of Akron, was telling the cast that as a youngster, he had seen an off-the-wall puppet show of Little Red Riding Hood at Yankee Peddler in Canal Fulton, and had been hooked on theater ever since.

When Volkert heard the story, he started doing the voices of Granny, Little Red Riding Hood, the Wolf and the Wood Cutter. The student realized Volkert was the one who had turned him on to theater.

''It made me realize the influence artists can have on others,'' said Volkert, who has worked as an actor/company manager with the Illusion Factory touring company for children for 20 years. ''Let's keep making some magic.''

Fourteen individuals and organizations were feted by a crowd of 230 at the fifth Arts Alive! at Portage Country Club, a biennial event established by the Akron Area Arts Alliance in 2001 to honor artists, educators, volunteers, patrons and supporters who enrich the community through their work in arts and culture.

Marcianne Herr, who was director of education at the Akron Art Museum for 20 years, received the Lifetime Achievement Award. The 80-year-old artist and volunteer has been a visual arts educator; a 25-year member of the Rosewood Consort, in which she played recorder; and an avid volunteer for the Tuesday Musical Association. She is currently working on writing the history of Tuesday Musical in time for the organization's 125th anniversary in 2012.

''There's still much to be done to keep the arts alive, and I'm not finished yet,'' Herr said.

The other Arts Alive winners are:

• Miller Horns, Outstanding Visual Artist. Horns, a member of Artists of Rubber City for 25 years, is a pioneer in the use of electrostatics as an art medium. He's a graduate of North High School and the Cleveland Institute of Art.

• Jerry Wong, Outstanding Artist in Music. Wong has been an assistant professor of piano at Kent State University for six years. Critics have described the chamber musician and collaborative pianist's work as ''eloquent and elegant'' with ''a finely honed sense of style.''

• Amy Miller, Outstanding Artist in Dance. Miller, who studied at the Dance Institute of the University of Akron, danced with the Ohio Ballet for 12 years and with GroundWorks Dancetheater since 1998. She began choreographic work in 2002.

''Artists like myself need an environment, and cultivating that is up to you, so I thank you for that,'' Miller told the crowd.

• Christopher James Lees, Rising Young Star/Artist. Lees is associate conductor for the Akron Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Akron Youth Symphony and interim associate director of orchestras at the University of Michigan. Sunday night, he talked about a teen with the Akron Youth Symphony who discovered what it was like to feel the music for the first time.

''The arts are a tremendous venue through which they [teens] realize even more than they think possible,'' Lees said.

• Andrea Wlaszyn, Rising Young Star/Leadership. Wlaszyn, co-chair for Arts Alive!, is past president of ArtsCetera, a group that encourages young professionals' involvement in the arts. She has served on the Akron Area Arts Alliance executive board for four years.

• Jim Urban, Volunteer Award. Urban, who has devoted more than 3,500 hours volunteering for Stan Hywet Hall and Gardens, is senior manor house interpreter. His work ranges from performing as the Seiberling family chef to working on the January cleaning.

Last winter, while washing walls at Stan Hywet, ''I stopped and I said, 'I don't even do this in my own house,' '' Urban joked.

• Cynthia Knight, Patron Award. Tuesday Musical Association, Summit Choral Society, the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Akron Art Museum and Chamber Music Society of Ohio have all benefited from Knight's generosity. Knight, daughter-in-law of the late John S. Knight, dedicated her award to him and her late husband, Landon.

''It doesn't matter how much you have in life or how little, as long as you share it,'' she said.

• Children's Concert Society, Outreach Award. Since 1947, hundreds of thousands of children have seen musical performances through this organization's outreach program. Today, fourth- and fifth-graders attend concerts at the Akron Civic Theatre. The society also sponsors an In-School Concert Series and a Scholastic Composers Contest.

• DCI Printing, Business Support Award. Dave Welner, company president, was honored for DCI's support and service to arts organizations, even during troubled economic times.

• Ronald Allan, Civic Leadership. Allan, an attorney at Buckingham, Doolittle & Burroughs, has served on the boards of the Akron Symphony Orchestra, Akron Art Museum, Tuesday Musical, Akron Roundtable and WKSU.

''Music and art can enrich every day of our lives, and music and art can take us out of our ordinary existence . . . and make us better people,'' Allan said.

• George Pope, Arts Educator Award. The University of Akron flute professor is a co-founder of the Chamber Music Society of Ohio and a founding member of the Solaris Wind Quintet. He contrasted his students' competitive and career successes with their daily achievements.

''I gain equal joy and pleasure from all the small events that happen at every lesson,'' as students create the sound they've been looking for, Pope said.

• FUZE Series, Collaborative Project Award. The new experimental series, a collaboration between Tuesday Musical Association and the Akron Art Museum, showcased classically trained musicians playing cutting-edge music in three sold-out concerts at the museum's new theater. According to Barbara Feld, executive director of Tuesday Musical, the project exemplifies the collaborative mission of the Akron Area Arts Alliance.

Arts writer Kerry Clawson may be reached at 330-996-3527 or at kclawson@thebeaconjournal.com.

When actor Jim Volkert says the arts can change the course of a young person's life, he knows what he's talking about.

Get the full article here.



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