SANTA MONICA — The Santa Monica Arts Foundation is taking nominations for recipients of the Arts Leadership Award, which honors the men and women who have continued to serve the City’s artistic community.
“The purpose of the awards is to recognize Santa Monicans who contribute their time, energy, and resources to the arts, and dedicate their leadership skills to supporting the depth and breadth of the arts community in our city,” said Jessica Cusick, Santa Monica’s Cultural Affairs Manager, to Canyon News. The annual leadership awards recognizes both individuals and businesses in three categories: the Arts Patron Award, which is given to someone who has supported the arts in Santa Monica; the Artist in the Community/Bruria Finkel Award, which is given to an artist who has contributed through activism, patronage or volunteering; and the Creative Community Innovator Award, which is given to someone who has contributed to the city’s artistic avant-garde through design, experimentation and sustainability.
The Santa Monica Arts Foundation is an agency in charge of promoting the arts in Santa Monica as well as raising funds for programs developed by the Santa Monica Arts Commission. The Arts Leadership Awards is a program inaugurated this year, during which the Foundation honored Bruria Finkel with the Lifetime Achievement Award, while Abby Sher, Jon Swihart and Wayne Blank were honored in each of the three categories, respectively.
The deadline for nominations is 5:00 p.m. Wednesday, December 18. Recipients will be honored in a ceremony which will happen in March or April 2014, during which they will also receive an original artwork created by a local artist. Forms and guidelines for the nominations are available at www.smgov.net/artsleaders. Both nominators and nominees must either be a resident of Santa Monica or have a permanent studio/office there; any businesses that are nominated must be licensed and operating in the City. Self-nominations are also acceptable.
