Jill Abramson.
Always canny at making its presence felt year-round and not just for two weeks in June, the International Festival of Arts & Ideas has announced its second annual “Visionary Leadership Award” recipient. It’s New York Times Executive Editrix Jill Abramson, first female to hold that post in the Old Gray Lady’s history. The ceremony is Nov. 4at noon in the Omni Hotel on Temple Street. Tickets are $150 or $250, or ten times those rates if you want a table. Tickets and info here.
The award goes to Abramson this year, and was bestowed upon Women for Women International founder Zainab Salbi last year, but every year it honors the late Jean Handley, a cool and down-to-earth civic leader who served on a zillion boards and committees and was a founding director of Arts & Ideas. Money raised at the awards luncheon goes to the Jean M. Handley Fund for the International Festival of Arts & Ideas, which supports festival stuff which Handley would have especially appreciated.
Jean Handley.