August 17, 2020
When it looked as if the decades-old annual Celebration of Art Exhibit and Awards ceremony would not take place this year, creative minds joined together to come up with an alternative for students in the desert foothills. You’ll find the story below.
EDUCATION & COMMUNITY SERVICES, CCUSD
in partnership withou’ll fi
SONORAN ARTS LEAGUE
CELEBRATION OF ART AGAINST THE ODDS
Celebration of Art, Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center.
By Vickilyn Hussey
Photos by Elaine Adrian
For student artists, the school year was supposed to conclude with well-deserved award recognition and an enthusiastic celebration with the 41st Annual Jeff Cross Memorial Award Ceremony and the 24th Sonoran Arts League Art Incentive Award at the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center. Visual art teachers had chosen students to receive the award. The Sonoran Arts League’s Youth Art Committee had purchased the art supplies traditionally presented to the participants. And the Harmony Hollow Metal Works had sent the Jeff Cross Memorial Bell for the honoree, and funds to cover the Certificates and Ribbons.
However, due to Coronavirus restrictions which limited interactions and required physical distancing, the Celebration of Art Exhibit and Awards ceremony on April 16, 2020 was cancelled. “But the story isn’t over yet! It has a miraculous ending because of innovative thinking and generous contributions from our community,” said event organizer Elaine Adrian, Special Projects, Education and Community Services.
2015 Celebration of Art Exhibit, Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center.
Celebration of Art is one of only a few events in the desert foothills with a long history. It was started in 1979 by the Cross family in honor of Cave Creek artist Jeff Cross. The Cross family gave the Cave Creek Craft Counsel, a precursor to Sonoran Arts League (SAL), the responsibility of choosing an outstanding art student from the area to receive the award. Education and Community Services, an independent department of the Cave Creek Unified School District (CCUSD) that provides year-round child care, classes, camps and extracur-ricular activities, joined in years later to provide the Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center as the exhibition and award ceremony venue.
“Members of the Youth Art Committee and ECS really missed the Celebration of Art art exhibition and awards ceremony, especially the opportunity to give these awards to the gifted student artists,” explained Robin Ray of the Youth Arts Committee. “They hoped the awards ceremony could be rescheduled. But eventually, they faced the real possibility of canceling the entire event and prepared to store the art supplies and certificates until next year. However, canceling this long-established awards ceremony was unthinkable!” And they came up with a solution.
“Since the supplies had already been purchased, Youth Art Committee member Sarah Burns came up with the idea of mailing the art supplies to the student’s. The committee thought this was a great way to save the celebration,” Ray said, describing how the com-mittee saved the day. “Sarah personally purchased boxes, Jim and Judy Bruce delivered the art supplies to Sarah’s home and Sarah enlisted her home bound college kids. And they filled 109 boxes!”
Celebration of Art, Cactus Shadows Fine Arts Center
“In the meantime, other Youth Art members were busy, collecting the names and mailing addresses of the students and producing a postcard for the art teachers to write to each of their students. The award boxes also contained a personalized folder with several in-spiring messages, including a personal note from their art teacher, a list of all of the award winners, a letter from the Sonoran Arts League Youth Art Committee’s Judy Bruce, a note from ECS Director Gina Durbin, a certificate of excellence and a ribbon from the Jeff Cross Memorial, plus a note from CCUSD Superintendent Debbi Burdick.
Included in each folder was a list of free Sonoran Arts League art classes sponsored by Kiwanis.” And that’s not all, according to Ray, “The Youth Art Committee worked with Mike, our local UPS Store owner, and together they donated the cost of shipping the supplies directly to the student’s home, a donation of $1,200!”
“While the Celebration of Art awards ceremony may not have been the extensive art exhi-bition and celebration that we have had in the past, students were honored according to the new normal of the coronavirus regulations,” said Adrian. “We hope to be back to normal next year!”
Recent Comments