Former NEA Chairperson Chu will deliver keynote at award ceremony
As a way to recognize outstanding arts leadership within Central New York, in February 2020 Le Moyne College will present the inaugural Impact Awards at an event that will take place at the W. Carroll Coyne Center for the Performing Arts.
Awards will be given in five separate categories:
- Arts Manager of the Year
- Arts Board Member of the Year
- Newcomer of the Year
- Artist as Manager
- Arts Educator of the Year
"The Impact Awards recognize those who work 'behind the scenes' in Central New York's vibrant arts and culture environment," said Travis Newton, associate professor and director of the Arts Administration Program at Le Moyne. "The awards are focused on recognizing the leaders, managers, teachers and community leaders who help to ensure art makes it to the eyes and ears of the communities they serve."
The awards will be presented at a reception and ceremony at Le Moyne College on Monday, Feb. 24, with a reception at 5:30 p.m. and the award presentations at 6:30 p.m. At the event, the keynote speaker will be Jane Chu, former chairperson for the National Endowment for the Arts. The cost for the evening is $10 and the event is made possible in part by USITT, an association for performing arts and entertainment professionals based in Syracuse. CNY Arts, which serves as the arts council for our region, is a community partner for the awards.
Nominations for the awards are being accepted now and will be taken through Jan. 15, 2020. For full nomination criteria and to submit a nomination, click here. Any questions can be directed to Professor Newton at [email protected].
Award Eligibility:
Arts managers, board members, and educators must work within the New York State counties of Cortland, Herkimer, Madison, Oneida, Onondaga or Oswego. For the purposes of these awards, arts managers (also known as arts administrators) are defined as those who provide today’s artists with the framework, resources, and support that they need in order to create works of art. Such work may be done within an organization, through an artist collective, as individuals in the community, or in any context that provides support to artists. If working within an organization, arts managers in both the for-profit and not-for-profit sectors are eligible to be nominated for the Arts Manager of the Year, Newcomer of the Year, and Artist as Manager awards.
About Keynote Speaker Jane Chu:
Jane Chu served as the 11th chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts, having completed her term in June 2918. With a background in arts administration and philanthropy, Chu is also an accomplished artist and musician. During Chu’s four-year tenure at the National Endowment for the Arts, she traveled to all 50 states, 200 communities and made more than 400 site visits to visit visual artists, musicians, dancers, actors, writers, arts educators and arts administrators. The agency awarded $430 million over the four years to support the arts in 16,000 communities covering all 50 states, U.S. territories, and in every Congressional District. She led the agency through increases in the arts endowment budget for three consecutive fiscal years (2016, 2017, 2018). The NEA’s Creative Forces military healing arts initiative expanded from two sites to 12 across the nation, to connect arts therapy with service members and veterans with brain recovery conditions. She launched another new program – Creativity Connects – to connect $2 million in grants for art programs that linked with science, technology, health, agriculture, aging, and other non-arts sectors, and she cultivated two international performing arts exchange programs with Cuba and China.