Governor's arts award recipients named for 2009

The Wisconsin Foundation for the Arts has announced the 2009 recipients of the Governor's Awards in Support of the Arts. Governor Jim and First Lady Jessica Doyle will host a ceremony at the Executive Residence in Madison on Thursday, October 22, to present the Awards.

Honored in the "Individual Leadership" category are Lane and Linda Ware of Wausau. Selected in the"Arts Organization" category is the Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation, Bill Haberman, President, Milwaukee. And Hudson Hospital, Marian Furlong, President and Chief Executive Officer, Hudson, is recognized in the "Corporate/Business" category. A special Governor’s Award honors innovation and diversity of First Wave Spoken Word Learning Community (UW-Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiative), Willie Ney, Executive Director.

Lane and Linda Ware are honored for more than three decades of leadership supporting the arts in Wausau and statewide, offering their time, financial resources, insights and energies on multiple boards. They stepped into leadership roles at crucial turning points in the development of the arts in North Central Wisconsin.

In the 1970s, Lane Ware presided over the founding of the Wausau Area Performing Arts Foundation and the establishment of its Artists in the Schools program and United Performing Arts Fund, both of which continue to this day. Linda Ware led the Wausau Area Performing Arts Foundation through its transformation into the management company for the Grand Theater and served on the Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin Humanities Board, plus the Poet Laureate Commission.

The Richard and Ethel Herzfeld Foundation is well known for grants in arts, culture and education in the Milwaukee area. Herzfeld Foundation has a strong commitment to support arts and culture through a variety of capital, operating, program and arts education grants totaling more than $17 million since 1997. Bill Haberman, president, and Carmen Haberman, vice president, provide a "hands-on" approach to grant making. For nearly a decade through its Arts in Education program the Foundation has provided access for Milwaukee students to participate in a variety of art forms at recognized arts institutions.

Hudson Hospital is recognized for its Healing Arts program, a collaboration between the hospital and The Phipps Center for the Arts. The program's mission is to bring the creative and visual arts to patients, visitors and staff. The 25-bed hospital design gives patient rooms enlarged windows positioned to allow a clear view of nature from the beds. Outside each window is an original mosaic birdfeeder created to welcome birds from all seasons. "Healing art" adorns the walls. Outdoor healing garden landscaping wraps around the main door allowing visitors to experience healing before entering the building. An outdoor labyrinth welcomes the walker to a life journey through reflection along the pathway.

A special Governor’s Award salutes the cutting-edge, artistic First Wave Spoken Word Learning Community in the UW-Madison Office of Multicultural Arts Initiative (OMAI). First Wave, which attracts students from across the United States, is the only university program in the country centered on spoken word poetry and hip-hop culture. The program captures the aesthetic and intense cultural identity of the urban experience, highlighting and promoting this emerging art form. Now in its third year, First Wave brings 15 full-scholarship freshmen from diverse backgrounds to the UW each year.

Each recipient of the 2009 Governor's Award will receive a gift of original art, in addition to a personal citation signed by the Governor. This year, the artwork to be awarded celebrates the Hmong tradition of fiber art with paj ntaub (reverse appliqué flower cloth) and story cloth (embroidered pictorial narrative explaining the Hmong experience). Nationally recognized artist Xao Yang Lee of Sheboygan is practicing the art form and teaching successor generations.

The Wisconsin Foundation for the Arts presents the annual event, with major sponsorship this year from We Energies through the Wisconsin Energy Corporation Foundation and the Wisconsin Arts Board. Honorary Chair of this year's Governor's Awards ceremony is Ruth DeYoung Kohler of Sheboygan. In 1997, Ruth Kohler was honored for her "spark of inspiration and fuel of tireless effort" expanding Sheboygan's John Michael Kohler Art Center and generosity broadening artistic opportunities in eastern Wisconsin. A former member of the Wisconsin Arts Board, Kohler also served on panels of the National Endowment for the Arts.