Arts council gives new award

Receiving an award is one thing. Having an award invented for you is another.

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri bestowed its first Friends of the Arts Award to Sam Blackwell, arts and leisure editor of the Southeast Missourian newspaper. The award was given during the council's First Friday Opening Reception Friday evening.

"This award was really created with Sam in mind because he is always there covering and supporting every arts event that goes on in the community," said Rebecca Fulgham, executive director of the arts council.

"When I think of how many times I have been thrilled with a performance of the arts, I am just happy that it coincides with the job I do," Blackwell said. "I feel the arts pay back in so many ways that aren't even quantifiable."

Until now, the only award the arts council has given out was the annual Otto Dingeldein award, first presented to Dingeldein in 1975. Dr. Jean and Nona Chapman of Cape Girardeau were awarded the Dingeldein honor earlier this fall. The council plans to present a Friends of the Arts Award annually as well.

The Arts Council of Southeast Missouri was founded by Dingeldein, a metalsmith, in 1961 as the Christian Arts Council of Cape Girardeau, thus making it the oldest arts council in the state. It has since been designated as a regional arts council covering 25 counties in Southeast Missouri by the Missouri Arts Council.

The new award was initiated by Dr. Robert Gifford, a music professor at Southeast Missouri State University and chair of the arts council board of directors.

Helping art by other means

"The Dingeldein award has always leaned toward artists and musicians who have specifically contributed to the arts in that area, but there are a lot of people who support the arts by other means, and I can't think of another person in Southeast Missouri more deserving of this award than Sam Blackwell," Gifford said.

The arts council's mission is to provide a forum for Cape Girardeau area residents to explore, reflect and share in the diversity and excitement of the arts. The council invites lifelong participation and is designed to stimulate the exchange of new ideas, heighten awareness that the arts are for everyone and help build a shared sense of community and purpose.

"If you could imagine life without the arts it would seem to me like such a dead existence," Blackwell said. "They are just the spark in being alive I think, and every one of them. I guess I am most partial to music, but I enjoy other forms of the arts as well."

Blackwell's journalism career started as a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian in the early 1970s. Since then he has written about a range of topics for newspapers in California, New York and Missouri. He has been in his current position for the past seven years.

"Moving around like that brings you in contact with people from so many different backgrounds, and I hope that makes me a better reporter," Blackwell said. "I really support and promote the arts through my job. I am being honored for doing my job."

"I would say he does his job exceptionally well. I think he goes beyond the call of duty," Gifford said.

Recent and upcoming programs offered by the arts council include a Christmas Home Tour with the Lutheran Children and Family Services, an "Arts For Hearts" silent auction to benefit the American Heart Association, a Children's Arts Festival, summer arts classes, monthly gallery exhibits, craft fairs, an ArtsCape street fair and a performance by the St. Louis Brass Quintet.

"I think the arts community here is pretty incredible and has the potential to be far beyond that," Blackwell said. "What it needs is support from the community as a whole."

For more information about the arts council, call 334-9233.

jgosche@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 133