UPCOMING DEADLINES January 8 and February 12: Artists with Disabilities Access Capacity Building Building Cultural Diversity January 15: Arts Innovation Traditional Arts Apprenticeships March 1: Arts Access Artist in Residence—Sponsors Arts Partnerships Please note:  Due to budget and staff reductions the Arts Access program now has only one deadline for both project and operating support.  There is no longer a September 1 deadline.

Six winners were chosen for the 2010 Governor’s Awards for the Arts in Ohio.  Winners were selected from 79 nominations submitted by individuals and organizations throughout Ohio. Awards will be presented at a luncheon ceremony honoring winners and members of the Ohio Legislature hosted by the Ohio Arts Council and Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation at noon on April 21, 2010 at the Columbus Athenaeum in downtown Columbus. Winners will receive an original work of art by Cleveland photographer Larry Kasperek.

More information about the Governor’s Awards for the Arts in Ohio and Arts Day Luncheon, including a full list of past winners, is available on the Ohio Arts Council Web site at www.oac.state.oh.us/events/GovAwards.

The ARRA grant received by ProMusica helped preserve the job of Julia Hare, education director. Hare is crucial to the success of the Youth & Family Day Program which provides musician site visits at 15 Central Ohio social service agencies and after school programs throughout the year.  The program works to break down the barriers of enjoying classical music and provides an opportunity to engage underserved children with the beauty and power of music and the arts. Over the course of the 2008-09 season, 598 children benefited from these visits, and an estimated 425 children and families were in attendance at the program’s culminating event, the Youth & Family Day concert at the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium. Oather Talley II, School Resource Coordinator at Kae Avenue School in Whitehall, loves working with Hare during the multi-month educational experience for disadvantaged and at-risk children.  “In this day when we face so many financial setbacks and cutbacks, it is so refreshing to find such a vital and meaningful community resource and friend in ProMusica.  Music of all sorts and styles is just the ‘stimulus’ our world, our economy and our young artistic minds need.”

PASSINGS The arts community mourns the loss of several dear friends to the arts.  Virginia Heffner, November 9, 2009 Lithopolis resident and former vocal music teacher in the Columbus Public Schools, Virgnia was director of the Lithopolis Area Fine Arts Association and a lifetime advocate for the arts and friend of the Ohio Arts Council.  Charles Fenton, December 26, 2009 Former journalist and OAC publications editor, Charles regularly attended Riffe Gallery openings and other arts events, demonstrating his long-standing support for the arts in Columbus. Charles Kleibacker, January 3, 2010 World renowned designer and “Master of the Bias” cut, Charles dressed the likes of First Lady Pat Nixon and singer Diahann Carroll and helped build a nationally respected historic clothing collection for The Ohio State University. He recently served as an adjunct curator of design for the Columbus Museum of Art and curated two critically acclaimed clothing exhibitions at the Riffe Gallery.

Cuyahoga Arts and Culture named Karen Gahl-Mills as the new executive director. Gahl-Mills brings two decades of leadership in arts administration to her new post at CAC. A vocalist and former cellist who holds an MBA from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business, Gahl-Mills’ experience spans both for-profit and not-for-profit industries and disciplines ranging from strategic planning to marketing and communications to finance. She has headed the Syracuse Symphony Orchestra since 2006.

The Dayton Art Institute named Yuling Huang as the Kettering associate curator of Asian Art. Huang comes to The Dayton Art Institute from the faculty of Kennesaw State University.  She has served as Associate Curator of Asian Art at the Birmingham Museum of Art in Alabama and Research Assistant at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art in Kansas.  Huang holds a Master of Arts degree in Art History from the University of Kansas and a B.A. in Japanese Language and Literature from Soochow University, Taipei, Taiwan.