SHIVELBINE GETS DINGELDEIN AWARD

Leland "Freck" Shivelbine, a supporter of music in the region for more than 50 years, is the 1998 recipient of the Otto Dingeldein Award.

The award is given annually by the Arts Council of Southeast Missouri to a person making an outstanding contribution to the arts in the region.

Marge Sullivan, a member of the Arts Council board, presented the award to Shivelbine Friday night before a packed house at the organization's new headquarters at 119 Independence. The winner is not announced before the official presentation.

"I'm overwhelmed like the Academy Award winners," Shivelbine said. "I really don't know what to say.

He said he knew Dingeldein and praised the Arts Council's work to continue what the metalsmith started. "I'm looking for great things to happen to the arts in the area," Shivelbine said.

The occasion also served as a grand opening for the Arts Council's two galleries and as an opening reception for two new shows: one of work by Dingeldein, the Arts Council founder, and his students; and another by University of Iowa metalsmiths Dean Spencer and Sean Doyle.

Spencer, the studio coordinator at the School of Art and Art History at the University of Iowa, created the silver chalice presented to Shivelbine.

Former winners of the award, first given in 1976, received a plaque, but Arts Council Executive Director Greg Jones said future recipients will be given a work of metal sculpture to honor the spirit of the organization's founder.

The chalice, in fact, is a soft-hammered hollowwork similar to pieces Dingeldein created. It was donated by Spencer, with jeweler C.P. McGinty providing the silver.

The piece is insured for $1,250.

Shivelbine, owner of the music store he founded with his late brother, Bill, was a trumpet player who belonged to the now-defunct Golden Troopers Drum and Bugle Corps in younger days and also the Cape Girardeau Municipal Band. He has exerted an influence on young musicians throughout the area and has worked with band directors to assure that students who want instruments can get them.

He also has been a sponsor of musical activities at the university and helped bring the "Nutcracker" ballet here.

Shivelbine has helped bring jazz artists to town, providing monetary support so ticket prices could be reduced.

He helped raise funds to build the Capaha Park Band Shell and is on the city's mural committee.

He served on the Arts Council board for three years prior to this year.

The Dingeldein work in the show was collected by Dr. Dan Cotner and was loaned to the Arts Council by various people and organizations. They include Dora A. Kearney, Mrs. Harry Naeter, the Cape Girardeau Public Library, James G. Haman, Tom Neumeyer, Louis Launhardt, Westminster Presbyterian Church, St. Andrew Lutheran Church, Jeanette Davis, Lloyd Ervin, Jayson Jewelers -- Ervin's Metalsmith's Inc., the Southeast Missouri State University Museum and Dr. Jenny Strayer.

Previous recipients of the Dingeldein Award are Marge Suedekum, Jake Wells, Dan Cotner, Jean Bell Mosley, Aileen Lorberg, Jack and Betty Palsgrove, Wendy Rust, Ruth Knote, Grant Lund, James Parker, Miki Gudermuth, Francis Crowley, Judith Crow, Carol Horst, Don and Beverly Strohmeyer, Bill and Jan Chamberlain, Nick Leist, John Wiseman, Bill Needle and Ann Abbott.