Jackson, Miss. — Feb. 1, 2018 — The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) will honor five outstanding contributors to Mississippi arts at the 30th annual Governor’s Arts Awards. This event spotlights Mississippi’s rich cultural resources and honors those who make a lasting impact on the state through their vision and creativity. This year’s event will be especially notable, because it takes place during MAC’s 50th anniversary.

The awards ceremony will take place at the Old Capitol Museum in downtown Jackson on Thursday, Feb. 8, 2018, at 6 p.m., and a public reception at 4:30 p.m. will precede the ceremony. These events are free of charge and open to the public. Doors will open at 5 p.m. for public seating, which is limited.

The 2018 recipients and awards are as follows:

Steve Azar – Governor’s Choice Award

David Keary – Leadership in Performing Arts

Joe Overstreet – Excellence in Visual Art

V. A. Patterson – Community Arts Leader

Yoknapatawpha Arts Council – Arts in Community

“These five recipients have not only experienced great success in their respective fields, but each recipient has, in their own way, worked to effect positive change, using the power of the arts to make our state and nation a more colorful, expressive and just place to live,” said Malcolm White, executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission. “We are excited to honor these worthy recipients in a milestone year for the arts in Mississippi, the 50^th anniversary of MAC’s founding and the 30^th anniversary of the Governor’s Arts Awards.”

The awards are presented to individuals and organizations for outstanding work in visual, literary, and performing arts, as well as community development through the arts and arts patronage. Recipients do not have to reside in Mississippi, but they must have significant ties to the state through some years of residency.

Each year’s poster for the Governor’s Arts Awards celebrates the artistic heritage of Mississippi. This year’s poster features art by 2010 Governor’s Arts Awards recipient, Wyatt Waters. State of the Art (2017) pays artful tribute to Mississippi’s New State Capitol, where the Mississippi Arts Commission came into being half a century ago. Image use is courtesy of the Wyatt Waters Gallery in celebration of MAC’s 50^th anniversary.

The emcee for the ceremony will be Mississippi’s Poet Laureate, acclaimed author, and Professor of English at the University of Mississippi, Beth Ann Fennelly of Oxford, Miss.

About the Recipients

Steve Azar is the official Music and Cultural Ambassador of Mississippi as well as a hit songwriter, recording artist, music producer, golfer and philanthropist. Describing his music as “Delta Soul,” the title track from his debut album Waitin’ On Joe went to #1 on Country Music Television, and from the same album, the hit single “I Don’t Have To Be Me (‘Til Monday)” received three Million-Air awards from BMI. The single is one of the top five most played songs of the past decade on country radio. Azar is also founder of the Mighty Mississippi Music Festival, the Delta Soul Celebrity Golf Tournament and the Steve Azar St. Cecilia Foundation, a charitable corporation.

David Keary was the first male dancer hired for the Jackson Ballet by Thalia Mara, founder of the USA International Ballet Competition. In 1978, Keary was invited to join the New York City Ballet where he danced professionally for many years and learned from the masters of American ballet. After returning to Jackson to pursue a law degree, Keary served on the board of Jackson Ballet, and in 1994, he became artistic director of the organization, now Ballet Mississippi. Since then, Keary has led the growth of Ballet Mississippi from 25 to more than 300 students, staged seasonal productions such as The Nutcracker, taught classes for USA International Ballet Competition competitors and watched former students go on to dance in prestigious programs around the nation.

Joe Overstreet is a painter, arts promoter and activist with an accomplished career spanning more than 60 years. Born in rural Conehatta, Miss., Overstreet has spent much of his life and career in New York and California. He is most recognized for his 1960s protest paintings such as Strange Fruit and The New Aunt Jemima, a piece which has been referred to as a national icon of the Civil Rights Movement. A series from his later work called Meridian Fields incorporates steel wire cloth and is based on his childhood experience of looking at the world through the screen door of his grandparent’s house in Meridian, Miss. His piece The Basket Makers is now on display at the Mississippi Museum of Art as part of a bicentennial exhibition Picturing Mississippi, 1817-2017: Land of Plenty, Pain and Promise.

V. A. Bookhart Patterson is a Jackson, Miss. native and was the first curator for the Manship House museum, former executive director of the Craftsmen’s Guild of Mississippi and former executive director of Very Special Arts Mississippi. She worked for many years in the museum field and spent her entire career promoting the arts in Mississippi. Patterson continues to volunteer with many community and arts organizations today. As executive director for Very Special Arts Mississippi, she worked with artists with disabilities to master their skills. One of her major accomplishments was bringing artwork into schools where students would receive up to 12 hours of instruction with an artist.

Yoknapatawpha Arts Council has enriched the Oxford and Lafayette County community with arts events and programming for more than four decades. The council offers 320 days of arts programming annually, reaching 90,000 people each year. Its signature events include monthly “art crawls,” the Art-er Limits Fringe Festival and the Fiber Festival. The council has also created a sculpture trail with 19 works as well as a program connecting artists with business professionals to help artists sustain, market, and manage their craft as a business. In recognition of the effectiveness of its professional development program for artists, YAC received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts in 2016.

Contact:  Anna Ehrgott, Communications Director | communications@arts.ms.gov | (601) 359-6546