Join HOTA celebration tonight

By Barb Van Atta

The public is invited today (Nov. 1) to celebrate the recipients of the Broome County Arts Council’s Heart of the Arts and Lifetime Achievement Awards. The ninth annual presentation ceremony and celebration will begin at 6:30 p.m. in BCAC’s gallery space adjacent to its office on the fifth floor of Stephens Square, 81 State St., Binghamton. The theme of this free community celebration is “The Arts Connect … .” For more information, call the arts council at 723-4620 or e-mail information@bcartscouncil.com.

HOTA winners Deemie, Sall take arts to the streets

By Barb Van Atta

Winners of the ninth annual Broome County Arts Council’s Heart of the Arts (HOTA) and Lifetime Achievement Awards were announced Wednesday (Oct. 17). Here’s a closer look at Julie Deemie and Ron Sall, the recipients of HOTA awards honoring recent significant contributions to the arts in Broome County:

Four named as Heart of the Arts winners

By Barb Van Atta

To be at the heart of the arts does not necessarily mean you are a creator of art. You also can be a person who brings artistic creations to your community. Winners of the ninth annual Broome County Arts Council’s Heart of the Arts and Lifetime Achievement Awards spend at least part of their time behind the scenes, helping make those essential connections between artists and their audiences.

HOTA Celebration is Thursday

Just a quick reminder that the Broome County Arts Council’s 2011 Heart of the Arts Awards Celebration will be held at 6:30 p.m. Thursday (Sept. 29)  in the recital hall of The Forum, 236 Washington St., Binghamton.

Roberson, TCO and S.T.A.R. leaders honored with HOTA awards

By Barb Van Atta

In a year that saw financial upheaval for even the nation’s most prestigious arts organizations, the Broome County Arts Council’s annual Heart of the Arts awards are going to people who have had the courage  to guide established groups in new directions and the vision to launch new opportunities for artists and arts lovers in our community.

Three HOTA awards are granted every year. The 2011 recipients, announced today (Sept. 21) at a press conference at the BCAC office, are: Terry McDonald, executive director of the Roberson Museum & Science Center in Binghamton; Reed Smith, general director of Tri-Cities Opera, and, jointly, the founders of S.T.A.R. (Southern Tier Actors Read), Judy McMahon and Heidi Weeks. (See following article about Lifetime Achievement honoree Lance G. Hill.)

Lifetime Achievement spotlight shines on concert halls’ ‘man in the shadows,’ Lance Hill

By Barb Van Atta

To pop music, it is Billy Joel, but in the Broome County classical community, the true piano man is Lance G. Hill, who has been a tuner and technician for more than 50 years. Hill, also the host WPEL-FM’s weekly broadcast Music and the Artist, is the 2011 recipient of the Broome County Arts Council’s 2011 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Share your thoughts with HOTA honorees

Do you have a story to tell about Heart of the Arts Awards honorees Lou Ligouri, Pam Ondrusek and Billy Carroll or about  Lifetime Achievement Award honoree Pokey Crocker? Please share it here. You also can use this space to offer your congratulations to the BCAC’s “Class of 2010.”

Discovery Center’s Crocker to be honored for lifetime of achievement

The first that Margaret S. “Pokey” Crocker knew of her nomination for the Broome County Arts Council’s Heart of the Arts Award for Lifetime Achievement was when she got the phone call saying that the 2010 award was hers.

 “This thing blew me away,” said the executive director of The Discovery Center of the Southern Tier. “I said, ‘What do you mean? Me? Why?’

“And then I started to cry.”

Carroll, Ligouri, Ondrusek named 2010 HOTA Honorees

One came to the arts through his career, another changed careers to commit to the arts, a third juggles a career and arts volunteering, but all three 2010 Heart of the Arts Awards honorees have enriched the cultural landscape of Broome County.

At a press conference this morning (Oct. 1) at the Broome County Arts Council’s downtown Binghamton office, council Executive Director Sharon Ball and board chairman Fred Xlander announced that this year’s HOTA Awards will go to veteran union stagehand William “Billy” Carroll; Lou Ligouri, executive director of the Endicott Performing Arts Center, and Pam Ondrusek, president of the board of directors of S.R.O. Productions III. Also nominated were René Neville, artistic director of Dance Stories, and DJ and children’s entertainer Johnny Only.

BAMirror asked each honoree how he or she got into the arts, and why.

Profile: 2010 Heart of the Arts Award nominee Johnny Only

Solo or part of a troupe, onstage or behind the scenes, paid or volunteer, each of the five 2010 Heart of the Arts Award nominees gives 100 percent to the bright and varied world of arts and entertainment in Broome County. All this week BAMirror will be providing biographical background about  the nominees.  We’re also offering you an opportunity to congratulate the nominees and to share a story or two. Today we feature DJ and children’s entertainer Johnny Only.