CAA Announces Addition of Arts Educator Award to Overtures

Cincinnati Arts Association Announces Addition of
Arts Educator Award for Excellence in Arts Instruction
to Overture Awards Program

CINCINNATI, OH – For eighteen years, the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) has recognized excellence in arts achievement by high school students through its Overture Awards program. CAA is now expanding the program with the Arts Educator Award to recognize the instructors who inspire students to excel in the arts.

The Arts Educator Award promotes and rewards excellence in arts instruction throughout Greater Cincinnati. An educator who teaches any of the following arts disciplines may be nominated: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art, and Vocal Music. They can be a high school arts specialist, teaching artist working with high school students, or an arts professional or educator providing private lessons or instruction. Nominations for the award must come from students between the ages of 14-19 who are currently enrolled in high school. Nominations are made by submitting an on-line application with a three-minute video about why the nominee is an exemplary arts educator (see link below).

Three finalists will be selected from the nominations by a panel of judges and the winner will be announced at the Overture Awards Finals and Awards Ceremony on Saturday, February 28, 2015 at the Aronoff Center’s Jarson-Kaplan Theater. The winner of the 2015 award will receive $2,500, and the two other finalists will receive $500 each. The recipients of the Arts Educator Award may utilize the monetary award to strengthen their program or practice, such as the artist fee for a guest lecturer or master class, the purchase of equipment, or a professional learning opportunity (e.g. tuition assistance for either the educator or students to study with an arts professional).

The deadline for nominations is January 20, 2015.  For complete guidelines and to submit a nominee, visit www.cincinnatiarts.org/education-community/overture-awards/arts-educator-award.

The Arts Educator Award  was first introduced during the 2006-07 Season as the “Theater Educator Award” and was originally created by Jackie Demaline, former Cincinnati Enquirer theatre critic and arts reporter, as one of the first initiatives of the Enquirer’s Acclaim Awards for Excellence in Cincinnati Theatre. In recent years, the Theatre Educator Award was hosted and presented by the League of Cincinnati Theaters at its annual theatre award ceremony. With its move to the Cincinnati Arts Association’s Overture Awards program, the Theatre Educator Award has broadened its scope to become the Arts Educator Award.

“The Theatre Educator Award grew out of a commitment to spotlight some of the people who make the biggest difference in the lives of young artists – their teachers,” said Jackie Demaline. “Each year, high school students from around the region nominated their teachers by telling emotional, inspiring stories of how these educators changed their lives, the hours and effort their committed teachers gave to the kids and the shows, and what they learned from working as a member of a team, because art is collaborative. I’m thrilled that Cincinnati Arts Association has adopted and expanded this initiative, celebrating great teachers across the arts.”

“All of us at the Cincinnati Arts Association are honored to be entrusted with growing and nurturing this award,” said Joyce Bonomini, CAA Director of Education and Community Relations. “As a former arts instructor, I am thrilled that I work for an organization that understands the value of arts education and celebrates the important and inspirational work being done each day by our regions arts educators for our youth.”

The Overture Awards Scholarship Competition is the largest locally-run high school arts scholarship competition in the country.  This season, the program will provide a $4,000 scholarship to six area high school students for education and training expenses, with eighteen finalists each winning a $1,000 scholarship.

Each year, students are nominated by their schools to compete in one of six artistic disciplines: Creative Writing, Dance, Instrumental Music, Theater, Visual Art, and Vocal Music. The Overture Awards was developed to recognize, encourage, and reward excellence in the arts among Tri-state students in grades 9-12. It also provides students an opportunity to share their talents and interests among their peers in a supportive environment outside of their individual schools. There are three levels of competition: Regionals, Semi-Finals, and Finals.

Now in its 19th year, The Overture Awards was launched in 1996 by the Cinergy Foundation (now Duke Energy) and Leadership Cincinnati (a program of the Greater Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce). The Overture Awards is funded by generous sponsors and donors, and administered by the Cincinnati Arts Association, which operates and manages the Aronoff Center and Music Hall. The Overture Awards also relies on hundreds of volunteers from the community who help raise funds, adjudicate and manage the competitions, and nurture the program.

Founded in 1992, the Cincinnati Arts Association (CAA) is a not-for-profit organization that oversees the programming and management of two of the Tri-state’s finest performing arts venues – the Aronoff Center for the Arts and Music Hall – and is dedicated to supporting performing and visual arts. Each year, CAA presents a diverse schedule of events; serves upwards of 600,000 people in its venues; features the work of talented local, regional, and national artists in the Weston Art Gallery (located in the Aronoff Center); and supports the work of more than one dozen resident companies. Since the inception of its acclaimed arts education programs in 1995, CAA has reached more than 1.3 million students.