ArtsWestchester has named nine individuals and organizations to be honored at its annual Arts Awards Luncheon to be held April 11 at the Westchester Country Club in Rye.
“The Arts Award has been presented since 1976 to recognize individuals and organizations whose vision, commitment and leadership have enriched the cultural life of Westchester, its communities and its citizens,” ArtsWestchester CEO Janet Langsam said.
The President”™s Award will go to Tarrytown”™s The Pocantico Center, which is managed by the Rockefeller Brothers Fund. The center offers a wide variety of cultural events such as dance, music concerts and readings.
LaRuth Gray, a former president of the ArtsWestchester Board of Trustees, will receive the Leadership Award.
Deborah and Alan Simon are to be presented with the Emily and Eugene Grant Arts Patron Award. They have been active with many arts and cultural groups and Deborah Simon is a founding member of Friends of ArtsWestchester and secretary of the ArtsWestchester”™s board.
The Artist Award will go to Will Crutchfield, who is familiar to opera lovers and concertgoers. In addition to conducting, playing and producing, in the mid-1980s he became the youngest music critic in the history of The New York Times.
The Performing Arts Center at Purchase College, now celebrating its 40th season, will receive the Cultural Organization Award.
The Sophia Abeles Education Award will go to The Play Group Theatre, a nonprofit located in White Plains.
Recipients of Community Awards will be Lifetime Arts, an arts advocate and service organization, and Leandra Pope founder of The Schoolhouse Theater and Arts Center, which came into being when she transformed an old elementary school building in Croton Falls into a visual arts center in 1983.
The first Larry Salley Photography Award will go to Peekskill photographer Ocean Morisset.
More information and tickets for the event through artswestchester.org.
