Missouri Classical Music News and Notes

Missouri Citizens for the Arts (MCA) will host its Annual Meeting and Arts Advocacy Award Reception on Wednesday, June 20, 2007 in St. Louis, Missouri. This event will kick off MCA's 28th year of successful advocacy on behalf of the arts in Missouri by honoring Sharon Beshore of Joplin and the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education with the 2007 Arts Advocacy Award. MCA will also present the Frederick H. Laas Memorial Award, paying tribute to our much missed, long-time board member Fred Laas. Kimberly Gavin Anderson of Bonne Terre will be this year's Fred Laas Memorial Award recipient. The honorees have consistently risen to the urgent call to support the arts and education, giving a voice to creative expression and motivating others to follow in their footsteps.

Annually, MCA presents its Arts Advocacy Award to individuals, arts organizations, and businesses that promote public funding for Missouri's arts industry on a sustained basis and with measurable results. This year we recognize Sharon Beshore for her leadership and invaluable support in helping secure an additional $4.5 million for the arts in Missouri this legislative session, bringing total arts funding for the 2008 fiscal year to $8.3 million. Beshore has served Missourians for many years with her tireless and successful advocacy work, helping gain public funding for the arts through relationship building with legislators. She worked closely with MCA leaders and Missouri citizens this year to effectively educate the legislature in regard to Missouri arts needs. Beshore is a well-known philanthropist and enthusiastic community volunteer whose widespread support for the arts can be felt statewide. For the last eight years, she has been an active board member of George A. Spiva Center for the Arts, Joplin, serving as president in 2004-06 and vice-president, 2000-2004. She also served as a board member of the Missouri Southern International Piano Competition, Joplin, from 1992 to 1996. In 2004, she joined the Board of Missouri Citizens for the Arts and in October 2005 was appointed by Governor Matt Blunt to the Missouri Arts Council. Generously donating both time and financial contributions, Beshore has served Missouri's arts industry by focusing on improving public funding for the arts.

The second recipient of the 2007 Arts Advocacy Award is the Missouri Alliance for Arts Education. The Alliance is a statewide member organization comprised of arts educator organizations. It is an impressive collaboration of four educator organizations that span all disciplines of the arts including the Missouri Art Education Association, the Missouri Dance Educators Organization, Missouri Thespians and the Speech and Theatre Association of Missouri as well as other organizations including the Missouri Arts Council, the Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies, Missouri Citizens for the Arts, the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and the Missouri Fine Arts Academy. The Alliance's mission is to develop and implement a statewide comprehensive arts education plan with a goal of making the arts a basic part of education for all Missourians. One way they are focusing on their mission is by organizing an annual Missouri Fine Arts Education Day at the state Capitol to educate elected officials about the importance of implementing the Fine Arts MAP testing. Just three years old, the event is a huge success, drawing students, educators and parents from all areas of the state to Jefferson City to showcase the importance of access to arts education in schools. The impact of this day, with organized exhibitions of student art, multiple performances of music, dance and theater and hundreds of participants visiting with their state legislators is truly remarkable in raising the visibility of the importance of arts education in Missouri's schools.

The Frederick H. Laas Memorial Award celebrates individuals who carry on the great tradition of providing artistic opportunities and education to all people, the goal so embodied in Fred Laas' commitment to the arts in Missouri. Award recipient Kimberly Gavin Anderson of Bonne Terre has made a tremendous impact on inclusive arts education and accessibility throughout her career. As the Director and co-owner of Ballet Arts Center in Farmington for over 26 years, Gavin Anderson oversees all aspects of the dancers' training, working as a teacher, herself, and working closely with teachers in each of the disciplines of dance that they teach. Over 200 students are involved in community performances, competition teams and participate in annual recitals. Her teaching accomplishments include the founding and directing of the local Nutcracker Ballet Company, teaching dance at Mineral Area College for the Upward Bound Program as well as choreographer of countless musicals for the Mineral Area College theater department. As founder of Young Peoples Performing Arts Theater and later Artistic Director, Gavin Anderson enables dancers of all ages from all over Southeast Missouri to participate in a large-scale semi- professional production. Gavin Anderson has been a recipient of a Resolution from the Missouri House of Representatives acknowledging her outstanding work in the arts community and this year MCA is proud to salute her with this special award in memory of the late Fred Laas.

In addition to honoring the recipients of the Arts Advocacy and Fred Laas Awards, members of Missouri Citizens for the Arts hold their Annual Meeting to elect directors and approve the arts advocacy agenda to educate elected officials in the upcoming legislative session. The general public is invited to attend this meeting, which begins at 4:00 pm in the Anheuser-Busch Performance Hall at the Touhill Performing Arts Center on the University of Missouri- St. Louis campus. The awards presentation and reception begin at 6:00 pm at the Lee Theatre at the Touhill Performing Arts Center.

For registration information, call Missouri Citizens for the Arts at (314) 383-6644.

Founded in 1980, Missouri Citizens for the Arts is a statewide organization that promotes the whole of Missouri's arts industry to public and private sectors. This non-partisan, grassroots organization's work supports the arts by addressing public issues on both the state and federal levels. By uniting members on issues of mutual concern and representing these concerns to elected officials and public agencies whose actions affect the industry, MCA seeks to secure a stable and growing base of public financial support for the arts and to ensure access to the arts for all Missourians