Dick Bowers, Tucson Artist Jim Waid, Southwest Ambulance, Marshall Magnet School Win Governor's Arts Awards

Tucson artist Jim Waid, whose abstract work reflects the magnificence of Arizona's plants and animals and is represented in more than 40 major collections from Arizona to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, received the Artist Award at the 2013 Governor's Arts Awards on March 6 at The Herberger Theater Center.

Waid was among six honorees recognized at the 32nd annual event presented by Arizona Citizens Action for the Arts in collaboration with the Arizona Commission on the Arts and the Office of the Governor. The Governor's Arts Awards were sponsored by Resolution Copper Mining, SRP, the Arizona Lottery and The Herberger Theater Center.

Longtime arts executive Dick Bowers, who served as Scottsdale City Manager for 23 years and currently is President of the Herberger Theater Center and Executive Director of the Phoenix Boys Choir, received the Individual Award.

Honorees also included:
• Business Award: Southwest Ambulance, Mesa, Arizona's largest ambulance transportation provider and a consistent and active contributor to the arts. In 2012 alone, the company donated more than $400,000 to Mesa arts and civic causes.
• Arts in Education - Community: Marshall Magnet Elementary School, Flagstaff, is a Title 1 Art and Science Magnet School of 585 primarily middle to low-income students in kindergarten to 5th grade. The students benefit from unique art programs from six Reggio Emilia inspired classrooms to year-round Suzuki Violin, Dance and Artist-in- Residency programs and a faculty that integrates arts and science into the classroom daily.
• Arts in Education - Individual: Marion Kirk Jones, Tempe, Professor Emeritus of Dance at Arizona State University, has taught at Cornell University, Purdue University and the University of Rochester. She joined the ASU faculty in 1970 and served as Artistic Director of Desert Dance Theatre from 1988 to 2006.
• Community: Alwun House, Phoenix, was created in 1971 by Kim Moody as a single venue for artists of all media. Located in the historic Sedler House, Alwun House was the first nonprofit alternative/contemporary art gallery in downtown Phoenix that has offered diverse art and cultural opportunities from theater to cultural productions that included the first "Caribbean Carnival," now a city co-sponsored event.
In addition to the Governor's Arts Awards recipients, the 500-plus arts advocates, educators, business leaders and elected officials in attendance honored Phoenix Art Museum's Sybil Harrington Director Jim Ballinger who received the 8th annual Shelley Award.
Ballinger, a nationally respected arts advocate and visionary, is among the nation's longest-serving museum directors, taking over the position in 1982 after serving as Curator of Collections beginning in 1974. During his tenure, he has organized more than 40 exhibitions for the museum. He administered two capital campaigns that expanded the museum from 86,000 square feet to its current 285,000 square feet and he currently manages a staff of over 115 and a budget that tops $8 million a year.
The award, named in honor of former Arizona Commission on the Arts Executive Director Shelley Cohn, is presented to an individual who has advanced the arts through strategic and innovative work in creating or supporting public policy beneficial to the arts in Arizona.
For more information and to register visit www.governorsartsawards.org.

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