Past Dayton-area winners of the Governor’s Awards for the Arts
2010: Awards in Arts Administration went to Kevin Moore and Marsha Hanna with the Human Race Theatre Company, and Greenville residents Jim and Enid Goubeaux received the Arts Patron award for their philanthropic efforts toward Dayton organizations including the Victoria Theatre Association, Culture Works, Think TV, the Human Race Theatre Company, and more.
2009: Cityfolk was awarded for Community Development and Participation, and local artist/educator William "Bing" Davis received the Irma Lazarus Award, which is presented at the discretion of the Ohio Arts Council Board for efforts in shaping public support for the arts and bringing statewide, national and international recognition to Ohio through their artistic work.
Three Dayton-area nominees will receive high honors from the state for their efforts in promoting the arts.
Nine winners were announced Wednesday to receive awards at the 2016 Governor's Awards for the Arts in Ohio, and among them were Wright State University Distinguished Professor Joe Deer for Arts Education, Premier Health for Business Support of the Arts (large) and Bradford sci-fi author John Scalzi.
Premier Health, the second largest employer in the region and the largest health care system in southwest Ohio, has a history of support for arts organizations throughout the area. Premier Health's employees contributed to the workplace Culture Works giving campaign, participate in art contests connected to Dayton Art Institute exhibits, and attend sponsored events.
Chief Operating Officer Mary Boosalis said Premier Health was “thrilled and very proud” to hear that they received the award.
“We put our efforts where our beliefs are, and it’s nice that that’s acknowledged, especially at this level of awards,” she said. “I believe it’s an extension of our mission to build a healthier community, and the arts make you better.”
Premier Health also has contributed close to $9 million in the past 20 years in corporate support to the arts, according to nomination materials submitted by the Ohio Arts Council. They support multiple local arts organizations, including the Human Race Theatre Company, the Schuster Center for the Performing Arts, the Dayton Art Institute and the Muse Machine.
“We get positive feedback from our employees, when we boost participation in the form of the tickets to take their families to shows: some people have never had that opportunity (to attend a show), and it’s very enriching to them,” Boosalis said.
“This is the seventh year that Dayton has received two awards (or more) from the OAC, and I think it is a great reflection on Dayton,” said Julie Liss-Katz, vice president and chief government affairs office for Premier Health. “We’re really proud to be counted among Dayton’s historic winners; it speaks volumes on the quality of arts in our community.”
Deer has been involved in multiple aspects of musical theater since he began his performing career as a street busker in New York City, as an actor, director, production manager, choreographer, author and educator. He moved to Dayton 19 years ago, and now runs the Bachelor of Fine Arts Musical Theatre program at Wright State University.
“According to his colleagues, Joe’s energy, thoughtfulness and commitment to quality are truly inspirational,” wrote WSU President David R. Hopkins in his nomination letter to the Ohio Arts Council. “His students succeed in a very difficult profession because of the excellence and inventiveness of his teaching.” Deer’s students can be seen on Broadway, national tours, and in regional and international stages.
Deer called his award “an incredible honor to be recognized in a state as rich with the arts and arts education as Ohio is.”
“The city of Dayton is so unusual in the amount of high-quality arts organizations, and their willingness to make education part of their arts mission,” he said.
“We arrived here when Dayton was still very flush financially and not long after, things took a downturn as we all know,” he continued. “Despite that, the city and arts organizations really held on. And now that things are starting to be better, I can see that community commitment to keep the arts alive here in Dayton despite leaner times has been profound.”
He credited the increased support for the arts at Wright State University and throughout the city of Dayton in boosting the awareness and success of the region’s art culture across the state.
His many accomplishments include critically acclaimed productions on Broadway and national touring productions of "Anything Goes" and "Singin' in the Rain," among others, and appearances at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center Honors. He received Wright State University's Trustees' Award for Faculty Excellence, the College of Liberal Arts Award for Faculty Excellence, and was recently inducted into the Dayton Theatre Hall of Fame. He frequently travels around the world as an arts educator, and has written multiple articles and several books on theater.
John Scalzi has already had a pretty eventful year: The New York Times bestselling author signed a $3.4 million,10-year book deal in May, and said he was "quite honestly surprised" to hear that he had won the Governor's Award.
“They called me up in December and I thought, wow, that’s Christmas sorted, isn’t it,” he said. “Socks don’t quite match up in comparison.”
Though he’s been a part of the sci-fi fiction community since before moving to Ohio in 2001, he said slowly becoming a part of the Dayton area’s diverse and prolific arts community has been a great experience.
“I think there’s a lot of thought that some place that’s the size of Dayton won’t support the vibrancy of the arts, and that just doesn’t seem to be the case,” he said. “With places like the Dayton Art Institute or the Schuster Center, or even people just being engaged day to day, writing or crafting, it just seems like Dayton is a place where there is actually a lot going on, where ‘homegrown’ does not necessarily mean second rate.”
In addition to his bestselling novels, Scalzi has won three of science fiction's Hugo Awards, including 2013's Best Novel for Redshirts, and his Old Man's War series of novels is currently under option for television at SyFy. An Ohio resident since 2001, he's written numerous fiction and non-fiction books, video games, has updated his personal blog Whatever since 1998, and was the creative consultant for the television series Stargate Universe.
“In an artistic field glutted with increasingly dark visions of the future, Scalzi’s hopeful futures stand out,” read one of several nominations for Scalzi submitted to the Ohio Arts Council. “As a resident of Dayton, Ohio as it undergoes a tremendous amount of change to reinvigorate and reorient itself toward the future, I recognize that we need art that not only gives us a window into the past or a mirror of our present, but art like Scalzi’s that challenges us to look to the future.”
Dayton-area organizations have been honored with Governor's Awards for the Arts every year since 2009, according to the Ohio Arts Council.
The Governor’s Awards Selection Committee is made up of four Ohio Arts Council (OAC) board members and three members selected by the Ohio Citizens for the Arts (OCA) Foundation, who selected the winners after reviewing 88 nominations submitted by individuals and organizations from across Ohio, according to the press release.
The nine 2016 winners will be honored at a special luncheon on May 18 in Columbus.
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