The Flagstaff Arts Council is proud to announce the official nominees for the 8th annual Viola Awards Gala taking place on Saturday, March 5, 2016 at the High Country Conference Center in Flagstaff. The Viola Awards are Flagstaff’s Oscars for the arts. Celebrating excellence in the arts and sciences, the Viola Awards recognize artists, educators, organizations and leaders who make positive contributions to the arts and sciences in Flagstaff.
Forty-nine nominees were selected in eight different categories for contributions made in 2016. A panel of forty-one artists, educators, past Viola Award winners, and professionals in the field selected the nominees from many more submitted to the Arts Council by community members over the past year. Some previous Viola Award winners are amongst this year’s nominees: Joe Maniglia, Mike Levin, Joe Cornett, Flagstaff Symphony Orchestra, Tow’rs, Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy, Linda Sutera, and Kevin Schindler. Mike Levin, 2016 Arts Educator nominee and 2015 Viola Award winner in the Performing Arts, is the only individual to have been nominated for a Viola Award every year since the event began in 2009.
At the Gala event, the Arts Council will honor Charly Spining. He is receiving the Viola Legacy Award, which recognizes Lifetime Contribution to the Arts. Spining is a musician, educator and one of the founding Board members of the Flagstaff Light Opera Company. The restaurant in downtown Flagstaff at the Weatherford Hotel is named after him.
To learn more about the Viola Awards, visit the Viola Awards section of our website.
Tickets for the Gala event are now on sale using the buttons below or by calling 928-779-2300. Individual tickets are $60.00. Table sponsorships are also available.
2016 Official Viola Award Nominees
Excellence in the Visual Arts
Bryan David Griffith: Broken Equilibrium
Sky Black & Mural Mice: Sound of Flight
John Sherman: Plight of the Condor
Michael Collier & Rose Houk: Dispassionate Landscapes
David Dawangyumptewa & Debra Edgerton: Echoes & Undercurrents
Excellence in Storytelling
Holt Hamilton: Legends From the Sky
Linda Sutera & Ann Cummins: 2015 Northern Arizona Playwriting Showcase
Kevin Schindler: The View from Mars Hill
2015 Columnists: Letter from Home series
Jane Armstrong & Christopher Taylor: Aphasia: Neurological Disorder in Text & Image
Excellence in Arts Education
Excellence in Science Education
Excellence in the Performing Arts
NAU Lyric Theater: Trouble in Tahiti
Flagstaff Symphony, Master Chorale, Shrine of the Ages & Flagstaff Youth Chorale: Carmina Burana
Muskellunge: Preying or Praying
Flagstaff Arts & Leadership Academy: Godspell
NAU Theater: The School for Lies
Emerging Artist
Leadership
Business for the Arts
See many of these nominees in action at the Viola Award Nominee Showcase at the Orpheum Theater on February 4, 2016. Performances will include scenes from The Full Monty and Godspell, and a set from Tow’rs. More acts to be announced soon.
