GREATER COLUMBUS ARTS COUNCIL ANNOUNCES 2023 RECIPIENTS OF ARTISTS ELEVATED AWARDS
A national jury selected the five recipients of the Greater Columbus Arts Council’s (GCAC) $25,000 Artists Elevated awards for 2023: Jenny Deller, Noah Dixon, Marcus Jackson, Joan Madison and Ricarrdo Valentine.
Ricarrdo Valentine (he/him) is a second-generation Black, Jamaican American/estadounidense, same gender-loving interdisciplinary artist and certified Ohio master farmer, who finds value in collaboration and community. With Orlando Hunter-Valentine he co-founded Brother(hood) Dance!, an interdisciplinary duo that seeks to inform its audiences on socio-political and environmental injustices from a global perspective, bringing clarity to the same-gender-loving African-American experience in the 21st century. Valentine is a third-year MFA candidate in dance, integrating agriculture and technology at Ohio State, and a 2020 Bessies Honoree of the NY Dance and Performance Awards, The Bessies for Afro/Solo/Man.
Each of the five artists will receive unrestricted awards of $25,000 each. The awards are focused on providing substantial funds to Columbus-based artists who have been working professionally for at least three years and are intended to provide a more meaningful investment in moving an artist forward in their career. This year the awards were expanded from two to four recipients, with a fifth added in honor of Nick and Donna Akins, in acknowledgement of their contributions to the arts.
“This new round of Artists Elevated award winners joins an accomplished group of previous recipients,” said Tom Katzenmeyer, president and CEO of GCAC. “It’s remarkable how they stand out for the strength of their work, especially given such a talented pool of applicants. We’re incredibly proud to have increased the awards and expanded their numbers, with Nick and Donna Akins’ help, to five Columbus artists.”
GCAC invited community and arts leaders for nominations of Columbus-based artists to apply for this year’s award. A total of 283 artists were nominated and 134 applications were received.
The five award-winners were selected from a group of 14 finalists.
Recipients were chosen by a national jury of seven creatives with representation across disciplines. They included Baba Stafford C. Berry, Jr. (dance); Chas Gillespie (literary arts); Kathryn Gremley (visual arts); Michelle Lesniak (fashion); Rehana Lew Mirza (theater); Jacques Thelemaque (film); and Michèle Vice-Maslin (music).
“Having to jury the artists, in all of their varied mediums, was an honor and a curse,” said Michelle Lesniak, one of the jurors. “Taking more than 130 talented, gifted minds and going through their emotional work was incredibly difficult. It was an emotional rollercoaster that inspired me and stripped me at the same time. That is what art does. I felt naked, joyous, scared, sad, angry, hungry, spunky, burned… but most of all inspired.”
The five awardees, along with the nine finalists, were honored at GCAC’s Big Arts Night on Nov. 2, 2023 from 5-8 p.m. at the Southern Theatre and Westin Great Southern Columbus.
The awards are part of GCAC’s Artists Elevated endowment campaign, designed to uplift individual artists through investment. GCAC currently has an endowment, the GCAC Community Fund, at the Columbus Foundation. GCAC’s giving site can be viewed at givetogcac.org.
Brother(hood) Dance!, photo: Ryan Muir.
