INDIAN RIVER COUNTY — The Cultural Council of Indian River County is pleased to announce its 2015 Laurel Award Honorees.
Over the past 19 years, the Cultural Council has promoted the cultural arts through education, collaboration, marketing, programming and advocacy. During this time the Cultural Council created several awards to recognize leadership in the cultural arts, the Laurel Awards.
Three years ago the Council consolidated the Awards to three, the Richard A. Stark Award for Cultural Leadership, the Alma Lee Loy Award for Volunteer Leadership, and the John J. Schumann, Jr. Award for Business Leadership. This year the Council is introducing a fourth Laurel Award, the Willie C. Reagan Award for Educational Arts Leadership.
Honorees include:
Maestro Stewart Robertson, Atlantic Classical Orchestra, will receive the Richard A. Stark Award for Cultural Leadership.
Anita Astrachan, volunteer for Riverside Theatre and Hibiscus Children’s Center will receive the Alma Lee Loy Award for Volunteer Leadership.
Bridget Lyons, Indian River Academy, will receive the Willie C. Reagan Award for Educational Arts Leadership.
White Glove Moving, Storage & Delivery, Pak Mail Beachside, President Phil DeLange, will receive the John J. Schumann, Jr. Award for Business Leadership.
The Laurel Awards will be presented to the honorees at the 19th Laurel Awards Celebration, Friday April 24, 2015 at the Riomar Country Club. The reception starts at 6 p.m., dinner at 7 p.m., followed by the awards program. Reservations are $175 per person, and are required by April 17, 2015. Call (772) 770-4857 for more information.
The Richard A. Stark Award for Cultural Leadership is awarded to an individual who demonstrates exceptional leadership in promoting the cultural arts, and in providing encouragement, involvement, and motivation to others in support of the cultural arts.
The recipient of the Richard A. Stark Award for Cultural Leadership is Maestro Stewart Robertson, Artistic Director and Conductor of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra.
When Robertson accepted the artistic director and conductor’s baton for the Atlantic Classical Orchestra in 2004, he immediately began setting milestones and raising the bar on his own goals for the orchestra. Starting with his pre-concert talks, he introduced his audiences in an informal way to the music they were about to hear. A few years later he built a bridge between the ACO and the Treasure Coast Youth Symphony, a relationship that continues to grow. In 2008 the Atlantic Classical Orchestra played in concert with both the Youth Symphony and Vero Beach High School Musicians.
Not content to be confined to a concert hall, Robertson branched out creating a Chamber Music Series that is still on the program at Blake Library in Stuart and Vero Beach Museum of Art. That same year he formed a partnership between the ACO and the Dranoff International Two Piano competition in Miami. Robertson’s “Behind the Baton” lectures at Indian River State College has enhanced the college’s LifeLong Learning series. He added “recording artists” to the ACO resume with a recording of renowned violinist Elmar Oliveria.
Robertson has a passion for giving opportunities to the newest generations of composers, often including world premier performances in the programs of the Atlantic Classical Orchestra. He formed a Composers Advisory Council to help with commission project concerts. Last year he established the Rappaport Prize for Music Composition.
Maestro Stewart Robertson has announced his retirement at the end of this season. The outstanding Atlantic Classical Orchestra will go on, but Robertson’s departure will leave a large void in the cultural community.
The Alma Lee Loy Award for Volunteer Leadership is awarded to an outstanding individual who, as a volunteer, demonstrated selfless dedication to the cultural arts, and devoted energy, passion, time and support of a nonprofit cultural organization. The recipient of the Alma Lee Loy award for volunteer leadership is Anita Astrachan, volunteer at Riverside Theatre and Hibiscus Children’s Center.
Astrachan, a high school speech and drama teacher in New York for 35 years, began volunteering at Riverside Theatre by answering phones one afternoon a week and evolving into an indispensable member of the volunteer staff. A roving goodwill ambassador, in 2009, she became a Patron Producer, helping to underwrite the cost of the Theatre’s productions.
In 2012 she was invited to join the Board of Directors and continues to serve. She is a member of the Friends Committee, responsible for the Theatre’s fundraising special events, and this season, co-chaired the Friends Fall Luncheon which raised $105,000 for the Theatre.
In 2012, Astrachan developed and funded a program to provide high school students with an earned opportunity to attend a professional performance at Riverside Theatre for free, one of her greatest contributions. Among the Astrachan Theatre Award program’s mission is to support educators in encouraging and rewarding performance excellence, help students develop the “well-rounded experience” essential for success, provide an exceptional introduction to professional performing arts, and instill an interest in the arts, building supporters, performers and audiences of tomorrow.
Susan Lovelace, Coordinator of the International Baccalaureate Program at Sebastian River High School writes, “As a lifelong educator, I firmly believe that the cultural arts is one of the most powerful ways to connect to students and to get them involved in learning. Mrs. Astrachan has generously provided a unique opportunity.”
Astrachan is an extraordinary person whose love of children has no bounds. Having suffered abuse as a child, she came to the Hibiscus Children’s Center to help children. If a child at Hibiscus had a birthday, she was there with a birthday cake. If food was needed for a holiday party, she pitched in. The needs were great, and she was there. Always upbeat, smiling, always ready to help – that is Anita Astrachan.
The Willie C. Reagan Award for Educational Arts Leadership is awarded to an arts educator to honor, recognize, celebrate, and advocate arts education for all whose talent and leadership keeps the arts alive for people of all ages. The recipient of the Willie C. Reagan Award for Education Arts Leadership is Bridget Lyons, Indian River Academy, Indian River County School District.
Bridget Lyons, a visual arts teacher and leader of Indian River Academy’s cultural arts team, encourages not only the nearly 500 elementary students she sees each week in the school’s art room, but works closely with music and physical education teachers, media specialists, literacy coaches, classroom teachers, and administrators to provide a high quality of diverse cultural arts experiences and arts integration strategies for each child. As part of the school’s leadership team, Lyons engages parents in opportunities to share cultural arts experiences.
In addition to her current position at Indian River Academy, Lyons has taught elementary students for more than 20 years, both in the United States and internationally. Locally, she taught 1st and 2nd grade at Thompson Elementary where she was the 2011 Teacher of the Year, and 2nd grade at Glendale, focusing on inspiring students with the motivation to learn. She is also certified in Gifted Education. In addition to visual arts, Lyons uses music in her classroom and is herself a musician who sings and plays several instruments. Her world travels bring a diverse spectrum of multicultural experiences into her teaching and leadership.
Lyons worked tirelessly with the Vero Beach Museum of Art and The Learning Alliance as part of Literacy Off the Page: Experience the Power of the Arts, a community partnership seeking to provide professional development for teachers in the use of arts integration strategies to increase literacy in district schools. Last summer, at Gifford Youth Activity Center, Lyons launched Literacy Off the Page to enhance student’s oral language, comprehension and visualization though a hands on drama experience.
Possibly the biggest contribution Lyons has made to the cultural community of Indian River County has been in connecting the richness of Indian River County’s arts community and institutions with children and families who would not otherwise have had the opportunity. Working with educators at the Vero Beach Museum of Art, Lyons helped with the Moonshot Masterpiece Project, a Museum public art initiative to bring arts into the schools and engage community members in educational ways to look at images. Lyons and Holly Vannoy, Literacy Coach, created the curriculum parents will use to engage their students.
Lyons has also been instrumental in gathering support for arts integration in the schools and for sharing her students’ successes as living proof of the cultural arts’ ability to make a difference in lives and learning for the community’s children. An appreciative parent writes, “Ms. Lyons has instilled a passion for creativity, deeper learning, and expression throughout just six month of having my kindergartener. He cannot wait until it is ‘his’ art day with Ms. Lyons.” Principal Diane Fannin at Indian River Academy writes, “Her leadership in promoting the cultural arts by providing encouragement for the students, teachers, parents, and the community to become actively involved in the arts is transformational.”
The John J. Schumann, Jr. Award for Business Leadership is awarded to an individual or business who demonstrates outstanding commitment to nonprofit cultural organizations in support of their operations, enabling growth and sustainability. The recipient of the John J. Schumann, Jr. Award for Business Leadership is White Glove Moving, Storage and Delivery and Pak Mail Beachside, President Phil DeLange.
From its conception White Glove Moving, Storage and Delivery and Pak Mail Beachside has been assisting the art community by customizing services that artists need, such as custom crating, shipping expertise, art installation, space for creating art and securing short and long term storage.
President Phil DeLange, a community-minded entrepreneur, has been contributing to the arts community and non-profits for more than 25 years. As any artist who has had to ship work to a client or for exhibition in another city knows, doing it well and safely has nothing to do with brushing paint onto canvas or shaping a ball of clay.
Through his businesses, DeLange has made it possible for artists to do what they love to do, create art. He and his staff have the expertise to crate and ship art to make sure it gets to its destination in perfect condition. One gallery wrote, “These businesses have helped our gallery by enabling us to offer the most effective process for transporting and shipping original art. Prior to our successful business relationship, this process of shipping was laborious and time consuming. Now, we can rely on their professional service and guarantee satisfaction to our clients who wish to ship their paintings and sculptures.”
As a member of the Cultural Council’s Business for the Arts, DeLange’s companies offer generous discounts to Cultural Council members as well as to members of art clubs and galleries. The attention to detail that DeLange has instilled within his team makes for absolute peace of mind in regards to every job they are asked to do.
His other community contributions include Cell Phones for Soldiers, raising money for calling cards to include in care packages to troops overseas. White Glove and Pak Mail Beachside raised and donated several thousand pounds of non-perishable food items through Move for Hunger, and helped the Homeless Family Center with donations of household goods given to them by customers who use their shipping and moving services.
DeLange’s businesses provide employment for more than 40 employees. As one of his employees says, “Phil is an exceptional business leader and family man, teaching his staff to put honest effort in all we do both at work and at home. He is a driven leader who truly cares about his community, employees and the customers we serve.”
