Aaron Jafferis, one of several theater-savvy recipients of 2011 Arts Awards from the Arts Council of Greater New Haven. The awards ceremony is Dec. 2 at the New Haven Lawn Club.
The Arts Council of Greater New Haven has announced who’s getting its 2011 Arts Awards.
These awards are cool. There’s always a loose theme—this year it’s “Great Adaptations”—but the recipients are chosen for deep and longstanding commitment to the local arts community. (Objectivity prize: I was given one of these sweet statuettes in 2001, and have served on the jury twice, including just last year.)
A couple of names on this year’s list are fairly new to the are—Will Baker’s been in his post for less than a year, and while A Broken Umbrella Theatre has been producing shows in town for four years, other companies (Elm Shakespeare, for instance) took much longer to earn Arts Award recognition.
The awards ceremony, held each winter at the New Haven Lawn Club, is a highlight of the community arts calendar. Sure, some of the patrons can be pretentious, but there are always unpredictable moments and heartfelt speeches and rousing speeches about how we should support the arts in New Haven, shouldn’t we?
This year’s awards ceremony is Dec. 2. And the recipients will be:
• A Broken Umbrella Theatre
• Institute Library Executive Director Will Baker
• Thea Buxbaum of Westville Village Renaissance Alliance.
• Eileen Carpinella, executive director of the non-profit Young Audiences Arts for Learning Connecticut.
• Playwright/performer/teacher/rapper Aaron Jafferis.
Baba David Coleman, who already has an Arts Award (from 2002), is receiving the C. Newton Schenk III Award for Lifetime Achievement.
I certainly can’t find fault with these choices. I’ve been an Institute Library member for years and can attest to the fresh energy that Will Baker’s brought to this wondrous 185-year-old institution. He’s given the place an online presence, recently held a fundraising book sale there and is encouraging a range of new events, from gallery exhibits to readings and lectures.
Thea Buxbaum’s been shortlisted for an Arts Award for years, due to her perserverance in finding and maintaining affordable housing for artists in New Haven’s culture-happy Westville neighborhood.
I’ve known Aaron Jafferis since he was a teenaged intern at the New Haven Advocate in the mid-1990s. Aaron shared in an Arts Award a few years ago, when the Fair Haven-based Bregamos Theatre Company won after producing his musical Kingdom, about New Haven street gangs. But Aaron’s done many notable projects before and since Kingdom. He won an Open Rap Slam championship at the National Poetry Slam, performed his hip-hop play No Lie at the International Festival of Arts & Ideas and elsewhere. His current work-in-progress Stuck Elevator was developed at the Yale Institute for Music Theatre in the summer of 2010. He’s also been devising original works with weighty social themes as an instructor at New Haven’s Educational Center for the Arts. Aaron’s work is unfailingly progressive and multiculturally rich. He’s unified some disparate arts communities in town, and this honor clinches it.
Not much to say about A Broken Umbrella Theatre that’s not in this post I just wrote about the company’s latest site-specific, local-historical production Play With Matches. Their originality and enthusiasm has boosted the entire local small theater scene.
Baba David Coleman is the longtime percussionist for the Afro-Semitic Experience one of the finest jazz/world ensembles anywhere. I reviewed the band’s latest album on my main scribblers.us site, here.
Coleman, who besides being an awesome drummer is a great teacher and a Yoruba priest, has suffered some debilitating health problems in recent months. A big benefit concert was held for him in May.
I don’t know Ms. Carpinella, but I’m sure she’s very nice too. Her organization is the Connecticut affiliate of VSA, “the international organization on arts and disability.” The acronym stands for Very Special Arts.
Congrats to all. Arts isn’t easy. You deserve these prizes.