Morris Arts Council awards scholarships, honors community’s arts contributors and MorristownGreen.com

Accompanied by her mother on piano, soprano Chelsea Friedlander performs at the Arts Council awards program. Sharon Sheridan photo
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By Sharon Sheridan

The Morris County arts community honored some of its outstanding performers Tuesday at a reception and awards ceremony at Fairleigh Dickinson University‘s Florham Park campus. The Arts Council of the Morris Area presented awards for outstanding arts advocate, organization, educator/school, corporation and professional, as well as a special recognition award to MorristownGreen.com Editor Kevin Coughlin.

Accompanied by her mother on piano, soprano Chelsea Friedlander performs at the Arts Council awards program. Sharon Sheridan photo

The council also presented scholarships to two graduating seniors and provided a performance by soprano Chelsea Friedlander, a former scholarship recipient. And it gave a surprise special recognition award to Janet Darrow.

“You’ve all heard of extreme sports, but how about an extreme volunteer?” outgoing council Executive Director Anne Aronovitch asked. “She’s an endangered species, a truly dedicated volunteer who has given us her time and talents two days a week for more than 20 years.”

The Elaine Ehlers Arts Scholarship went to “talented young trumpeter” Joseph Soriano, a Roxbury High School student, announced council board of trustees member Richard Eger, after whose wife the scholarship was named.

“In his application, Joseph explains the critical role music has played in his life,” Eger said. “Being dyslexic and blind in one eye, he discovered that music was the key to unlock his intellectual and academic potential. … He articulates his debt to music thus: ‘Music was the one and only language I enjoyed reading. Much of what I am able to do today is the result of the effects music has had on my life.’”

Joseph Soriano received the Elaine Ehlers Arts Scholarship. Sharon Sheridan photo

“Whenever my friends or anyone asks me if there’s one thing you could do for the rest of your life, what would it be,” Soriano told the audience, “my answer is always, ‘Make music and share it with everyone.’ This scholarship will help me do this.”

Morris Hills High School senior Miriam Buchwald received the Eugenie Coladarci Arts Scholarship, named after the council’s former board chair.

Buchwald is “a talented industrial designer,” the presenter said, quoting her description of renovating a home for a poor, disabled person in Maine: “In the end, I made an unlivable house into a livable home. I understood what life was about, making a difference. … Through this experience, I discovered that design can have a huge impact on people’s lives and on the world.”

Painter and ArtSpace Studio and Gallery founder Julie Friedman was honored as the outstanding professional in the arts.

“Described as a professional in the arts who is constantly pushing forward to create new and exciting works and is also mentoring the next generation of Morris County artists, Julie Friedman has been painting her entire life,” said presenter Elizabeth Christopherson, president and CEO of the Rita Allen Foundation. “Julie Friedman paints every day and constantly takes risks to push her art forward. … She works and mentors a group of Morristown high school art students … [and] has created a true community of local artists.”

Friedman also is the “creative force” behind the May 6 Morristown Art Walk, which will feature 50 artists exhibiting in public and private spaces in town plus the MG Kids Art Show.

ArtSpace Studio founder Julie Friedman, second from left, poses with her family before the award ceremony. Sharon Sheridan photo

“The community that has evolved at ArtSpace,” Friedman said, “is comprised of really strong, independent and brave working artists who I watch day in and day out work to reveal their thoughts and their feelings and their guts in the pursuit of making real and valid and authentic art. They spark me and inspire me every day, and I am grateful to each and every one of them and to everybody who cheers us on and supports us.”

Coughlin, who helped launch MorristownGreen.com for the Star-Ledger in 2007 and relaunched it as an independent venture in 2010, was honored “for his outstanding efforts to document, promote and enhance the arts in our area,” Christopherson said. “Kevin virtually defies the laws of physics, seemingly by being in two places at once. … He manages to attend nearly every cultural happening. Armed with a notepad and video camera, he documents the cultural life of our community with warmth, wit and generosity.”

MG also adds to the community’s cultural offerings, she noted, with its annual film festival, rooftop concerts (one is scheduled for April 22), six cultural events at a proposed eco-center last spring and, beginning April 27, a two-week Spring Arts Festival co-hosted with St. Peter’s Episcopal Church.

MorristownGreen.com Editor Kevin Coughlin gets a congratulatory hug from artist Danielle Merzatta. Sharon Sheridan photo

“Thank you for those kind words,” Coughlin said, joking, “I don’t know who you’re talking about, but I have to check out his website!”

“I can’t think of an award that would mean more to me,” he continued. “I would like to dedicate today to a great artist: my mom. My mother passed away last week, silenced by Alzheimer’s disease, yet her kind and gentle spirit will always speak to me through her beautiful photos, painting, poetry and music. Toward the end, when words failed her, my mom still played lovely piano melodies that said so much. This is the power of art.

“I’m not sure how I feel about God. But the arts, I believe, allow us to be god-like. When I hear the soaring majesty of Harmonium, 100 voices reaching for heaven, I can imagine such a place. Our world is chaotic and random. Things seldom make sense. But the writers, the composers, the painters, the filmmakers – they impose order on chaos. They call the shots. They choreograph the variables. They distill the meaning. In the act of creating, they are divine.

“And so, in closing, I would like to thank the arts council for nurturing the divine in all of us. And I would like to thank my mom for her artistry, an eternal window to her soul.”

The council presented Allison Larena, Mayo Performing Arts Center president and CEO, with the Josephine Margetts Award for Outstanding Arts Advocate “for her remarkable dedication and leadership, her skill in connecting to a multitude of art stakeholders, her passion for educating the next generation in the arts and her commitment to bringing top-quality arts to the broader community,” Christopherson said.

Arts Council of the Morris Area Executive Director Anne Aronovitch chats with musician Grover Kemble. Sharon Sheridan photo

The Outstanding Arts Organization Award went to the Art League of the Chathams, which holds not only exhibits but also classes and workshops, and fosters arts education for local youth.

The Joyce Talbot Award to an outstanding arts educator of school went to the Visual Arts Department of the County College of Morris. “What makes this program special is its multifaceted and thorough approach to the visual arts,” Christopherson said.

Investors Bank received the Outstanding Corporation Award for its “extraordinary commitment and its embrace of the arts as an essential component of its philosophy,” she said. Since 2005, the Investors Bank Foundation has given more than $6 million to support initiatives in the arts, education, youth development, affordable housing and health and human services.

The arts council also tipped its hat to its many supporters in the audience.

“Thank you all for being with us,” Aronovich said. “It’s not only those who are the artists, whether they’re visual or performing artists. It’s also those who appreciate the arts that are so important that help make that community work.”

Guests mingle before the awards ceremony in the Mansion at Fairleigh Dickinson University. Beth Kujan photo

 

5 COMMENTS

  1. ….a really nice event!…and the Arts Council always makes it happen in a classy way– they do so much for all of us involved in the arts or appreciative of them…great to see Kevin get that well deserved award as well as all the others there….well done… Grover Kemble

  2. A well deserved congradulations to you Kevin. Many of us have benefitted from your service not just to the arts but also to the community.

  3. Congratulations Kevin, and to all the recipients. Art is a mirror and reflects society, through the hearts and souls of the artists, the creators.

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