Ordway’s 2019 Sally Awards announced, honoring achievements in the arts
BY KATHY BERDAN
PUBLISHED IN THE PIONEER PRESS ON OCTOBER 1, 2019
—
The Ordway Center for the Performing Arts has announced the recipients of the 27th annual Sally Awards.
The awards, announced in a news release on Tuesday, honor extraordinary achievements in five categories: arts access, arts learning, commitment, initiative and social impact.
Winners will receive their awards and $1,000 each during a ceremony at the Ordway on Nov. 4.
The 2019 Sally Award winners are:
Arts Access: Lakes Area Music Festival in Brainerd, which started in 2009 and brings 190 artists from the top orchestras and opera companies around the world each August to collaborate on chamber music, orchestra, opera and ballet. The festival also has an outreach program for students.
Arts Learning: Monkeybear’s Harmolodic Workshop in Minneapolis, which provides opportunities for Native Americans and people of color to use puppetry to tell stories, through workshops and mentorship.
Commitment: Janis Lane-Ewart, Minneapolis musician, arts administrator, reporter, mentor and advocate who has devoted years of support and cultivation of jazz, artists and equity. She is currently development officer at KBEM, Jazz88.FM.
Initiative: Saymoukda Vongsay, a Minnesota-based Lao-American writer who shares the experiences of refugees in plays, books and poetry. Her plays have been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center and locally by Theater Mu and Theater Unbound.
She has received grants from the Jerome Foundation, Bush Foundation, John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Forecast Public Art, Metropolitan Regional Arts Council and MN State Arts Board.
Social Impact: Author Kao Kalia Yang, who was born in Thailand and grew up in St. Paul, has written two award-winning books, “The Latehomecomer: A Hmong Family Memoir” and “The Song Poet.” Both are winners of Minnesota Book Awards and “Latehomecomer” is being made into an opera. She also has a children’s book and contributed to “What God is Honored Here?: Writings on Miscarriage and Infant Loss By and For Indigenous Women and Women of Color.”
The Sally Awards are named for Sally Ordway Irvine, the force behind the Ordway, which opened in 1985. More than 85 artists have received Sally Awards.