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News • New Mexico • United States • 2012-05-10

Doña Ana Arts Council Presents 26th Annual Arts Awards

On Thursday, May 31st, the Doña Ana Arts Council presents the 26th Annual Arts Awards at the Rio Grande Theatre. Panama hats and tropical prints are the suggested attire for this year\'s theme, \"Havana Nights\", a street party with a Cuban flare that includes food, music, a cigar bar, door prizes, and dancing in the streets! Every year, the Arts Council honors individuals, organizations and businesses in the community at this annual event who give significantly of their time, talent, and/or financial contributions to the arts community.

Tickets are $15 per person or $25 per couple, and can be purchased at the Arts Council offices, upstairs at the Rio Grande Theatre, or by calling 523-6403.

The 2012 Community Arts Awards recipients are:

THE PAPEN FAMILY AWARD - Winner: Nancy L. Ritchey, Director, Mesilla Valley Chorale

Sponsored by The Cutter Gallery. Award honors an individual who has demonstrated his or her commitment to the arts through extraordinary leadership, service and/or financial support.

Nancy has contributed to the musical arts in the Las Cruces community since arriving from Denver with her husband, Sam, in 1996. Nancy is now in her ninth year as Director of the Mesilla Valley Chorale, an organization that has grown in numbers and today is recognized as a premier community choral group. In 2009, the Chorale was invited to perform at Sevigne Leveque and Le Mans, France, during their national music festival. The Chorale then hosted the singers from France who visited and performed in Las Cruces in 2011.

In addition to the Chorale, Nancy has served as the Director of Music Ministry at Wellspring Church for the last 10 years. She is an accompanist and assistant to the Las Cruces High School choirs, as well as for a large flute studio. Nancy continues to demonstrate her passion and dedication to community musical arts by faithfully supporting public school music performances and competitions as an appreciative audience member, accompanist or as a choral judge. The Las Cruces arts community widely recognizes Nancy\'s choral directing expertise and her ability to touch lives with music and to inspire awaken and expand music appreciation. A lifelong musician, Nancy L. Ritchey is a graduate in piano and voice performance from the Oberlin College Conservatory of Music.

THE NEWCOMER\'S AWARD - Winner: Cynthia Garrett, President, Friends of the Taylor Family Monument

Sponsored by LCPS Superintendent Stan Rounds in memory of his late wife Debi True Rounds. Award recognizes leadership and support of the arts by an individual who has lived in Dona Ana County for less than five years.

Since moving to southern New Mexico in 2009, Cynthia has been an active supporter of the arts. Cynthia has taken on leadership roles in the Las Cruces Symphony Association and the Doña Ana Arts Council and was the primary force behind organization of \"Friends of the Taylor Family Monument\" as creator of the non-profit and its president since 2010. FTFM is dedicated to the preservation and interpretation of the Taylor-Barela-Reynolds-Mesilla State Monument.

Cynthia is also in her second year as a Board member for the Las Cruces Symphony Association. Where she has managed the auction at the Symphony Association\'s annual fundraiser, been an active member of the Grants Committee, and chaired the Education and Outreach Committee.

Cynthia also serves as a Board member of the Dona Ana Arts Council and is currently serving as the Board Secretary and member of the Executive Committee. Before moving to Las Cruces, Cynthia worked for 11 years at the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island. A native New Yorker, Cynthia earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from Columbia University\'s Barnard College where she concentrated in art and architectural history. She also holds a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the George Washington University\'s School of Government and Business Administration. She is married to County Commissioner Billy Garrett.

THE ARTS IN EDUCATION AWARD - Winner: Geri Brink and Paul Hallsted, Co-Directors of the Dona Ana Youth Choir Sponsored by Ruben and Liz Smith. Award serves to recognize individuals whose leadership and pioneering spirit promotes and shapes visual and performing ats education initiatives that benefit youth.

Geri Brink received both her bachelors in music education and her masters in vocal performance from New Mexico State University. She is proud to have taught in the Mesilla Valley for many years first at Las Cruces Catholic Schools, then at Picacho Middle School and Lynn Middle School She is currently the choral director at Las Cruces High School where her groups consistently achieve top ratings at festivals and competitions across the country. In March of 2012 she facilitated a trip to New York City and a performance at Carnegie Hall for a group of 34 of her choir students. In collaboration with the Las Cruces High Band, Orchestra and Drama departments, Geri served as the musical director for a production of Rogers\' and Hammerstein\'s Cinderella in the Fall of 2011. She is a member of the American Choral Director\'s Association (ACDA), New Mexico Music Educators Association (NMMEA), National Association for Music Educators (formerly MENC) and NEA. Geri is certified in all three levels of Creating Artistry choral conducting workshop at Butler University in Indianapolis under the direction of Henry Leck, and she is certified to Level 2 in the Orff-Schulwerk teaching method. Geri is proud to be one of the directors of the Doña Ana Youth Choir for twenty years and to serve as a music minister at Holy Cross Catholic Church for over twenty-five years. She and her husband, Gerry, have been married for over thirty years. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.

Paul Hallsted received both his bachelors in music education and his masters in choral conducting from New Mexico State University. Paul is also certified in both the Kodaly and Orff music teaching methods. In addition to being a co-director of the Dona Ana Youth Choir for the past 20 years, Paul is currently the Assistant Choir Director at Mayfield High School and Adjunct Professor of Elementary Music Methods at NMSU. Paul is an Orff Certification Instructor for NMSU and several other colleges through the country. He has also been a dedicated High School Band Camp and Southwest Music Academy instructor throughout his career. Paul teaches private voice, recorder and guitar and is a founding member and clinician for the American Recorder Society, Rio Grande Chapter.

THE COMMUNITY ARTS AWARD (individual) - Winner: Olin Calk, artist, educator and creator of the giant Roadrunner sculpture. Sponsored by Southwest Disposal. Distinguishes an individual possessing the highest standard of motivation, service and by example, has made a marked impact on the cultural fabric of our community.

In addition to being a blacksmith and public school educator, Olin Calk is best known as the creator of the giant Roadrunner sculpture that has fascinated I-10 travelers for a decade as they approached Las Cruces from the west. The 20 foot tall and 40 foot long sculpture recently went through extensive refurbishing and was unveiled at the Earth Day Celebration on April 22 at Young Park. The Roadrunner was originally built in 1993 as the final component of a re-cycling education project to get people to think about reusing items and reducing what they are throwing away. Olin searched the South Central Solid Waste Authority\'s recycling center and various thrift stores to find just the right materials for the project, such as lightweight aluminum mesh, fencing wire, sheet metal, and recycled cans of spray paint and bicycle tires. Olin\'s message to the community through his Roadrunner sculpture is reduce-reuse-recycle.

THE COMMUNITY ARTS AWARD (organization or business) - Winners: American Southwest Theatre Company (ASTC) and GFWC Progress Club of Las Cruces Sponsored by NM Cardiac Care. Recognizes an organization possessing the highest standard of motivation, service and by example, has made a marked impact on the cultural fabric of our community.

American Southwest Theatre Company was founded in 1984 by Dr. Bruce Streett and Tony Award-winning playwright Mark Medoff. Their purpose was to invite visiting Guest Artists to work alongside a Resident Company of theatre professionals to enrich the community and New Mexico State University\'s Department of Theatre Arts\' students. ASTC\'s visiting Guest Artists are funded solely by ASTC\'s Board of Trustees fund-raising efforts and include professional artists who are in residence for specific productions. Recent guest artists have included Equity actor Carla Noack; costume designer Crystal Weatherly; and playwright Carol Carpenter. The number of guest artists contracted for each season varies, depending on the artistic needs of the season and available funding.

In the last ten years alone, over 175,000 patrons have attended ASTC/NMSU performances at the Hershel Zohn Theatre. An additional 100,000 area school children have been provided free theatre performances through the award-winning \"Theatre for Young Audiences\" program. More than 10,000 high school students have seen performances at a reduced cost. There are no other theatres in the region that have the capacity and talents of both ASTC and its partnership with the NMSU Theatre Arts Department. ASTC is a not-for-profit corporation (501c-3), governed by a Board of Trustees made- up of company and community members who value the arts and philanthropy.

The GFWC Progress Club of Las Cruces (General Federation of Woman\'s Clubs) was established in 2002. From 2010 through 2011, Progress Club members worked closely with the Branigan Cultural Center to collect works of art that would create a permanent memorial to 9-11. They presented an annual art exhibit entitled 5,000 Flowers to commemorate those lost on 9-11-2001. The \"Twin Towers\" have become the ultimate expression of remembrance through the 5,000 Flowers project. The project involved over 380 artists from across the United States. Miniature paintings of ten flowers were rendered on four-inch blocks of wood that were applied to two towers representing the Twin Towers destroyed on 9-11. Art was received from 14 states and Canada and from 24 communities in New Mexico. The artists ranged in age from 2 to 95 years old. Working with the City of Las Cruces, the Progress Club found a home for the towers in the City\'s permanent art collection. The Progress Club received wide spread recognition for their leadership in establishing the 5,000 Flowers project as a community, state and national commemoration of the 9-11 tragedy.

THE ART IN PUBLIC PLACES AWARD - Winner: Kelley S. Hestir, creator of the Bataan Death March Memorial sculpture at Veteran\'s Park Sponsored by Southwest Senior Magazine. Recognizes an individual or organization that has created or placed art on permanent public view within Dona Ana County that exemplifies the highest standards and commitment to art in public places.

Kelley is the original co-founder of Art Forms Artists\' Association of New Mexico and the annual For the Love of Art month-long celebration. She is best known as the site designer and sculptor of The Bataan Death March Memorial at Veterans\' Memorial Park in Las Cruces, dedicated in 2002 on the 60th anniversary of the Bataan Death March. She works as a Program Coordinator at NMSU and teaches art at Dona Ana Community College. Kelley S. Hestir returned to Las Cruces, the city of her childhood, in 1995. Originally from Idaho, she grew up in Las Cruces and Albuquerque, lived and worked on the islands of St. Thomas and Guam, then moved to Honolulu to complete her Bachelor and Master of Fine Arts degrees at the University of Hawaii. Kelley currently has studio space at Mikey\'s Place in Mesilla Park and exhibits at the Adobe Patio Gallery in Mesilla, the Main Street Gallery in Las Cruces and The Studio Space in Silver City. In addition, she designed the first two buildings at Mercado de la Mesilla complex in Mesilla. Kelley has work in both public and private collections, and participated in numerous art exhibitions over the past 30 years.

THE EXCELLENCE IN PUBLIC SERVICETO THE ARTS AWARD - Loie Fecteau, Executive Director of New Mexico Arts Sponsored by Steve Newby Architects, recognizes outstanding contributions by an individual or government organization for their contribution to the arts.

Loie Fecteau has served as executive director of New Mexico Arts, the state arts agency and a division of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs, and its advisory New Mexico Arts Commission since January 2004. Fecteau has focused much of her tenure on arts-based economic development and cultural tourism, including the development of Arts Trails designed to put New Mexico artists on the map and bring the market to them, as well as the creation of state-designated Arts and Cultural Districts in partnership with the New Mexico Economic Development Department\'s MainStreet Program. The pilot New Mexico Fiber Arts Trails have received national recognition and been featured in USA Today\'s daily newspaper and its GOESCAPE travel magazine. A new report by the National Governors Association on how arts, culture and design are new engines of growth also highlights the New Mexico Arts Trails -- and it should be noted that one of New Mexico newest community based arts trails is the Crossroads Art Trail of Dona Ana County.

Fecteau served on the legislative advisory panel that recommended creation of the New Mexico School for the Arts, a publicly funded statewide arts high school, and currently serves on the steering council of Creative New Mexico, a brand new statewide arts and cultural advocacy organization. Fecteau also serves on the Multicultural Advisory Committee for the Western States Arts Federation and as the New Mexico State Captain for Americans for the Arts. She is a former member of the Board of Directors of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. Prior to becoming an arts administrator, Fecteau was a journalist for more than 20 years and covered politics in New Mexico, Pennsylvania and Connecticut. She received a M.A. in journalism from the University of Missouri, and a B.A. in English from Marietta College, spending her junior year abroad at Durham University in northern England. Fecteau has long believed in the transformative power of the arts and the importance of arts education for our children.

For more information on the Arts Awards or other programs and services at the Art Council and Rio Grande Theatre, call 523-6403 between 9:00am and 5:00pm Monday thru Friday or go to www.las-cruces-arts.org.

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