Arts Alliance Honors Members of the Community
from the New Britain Herald, June 5, 2010
NEW BRITAIN — The Greater New Britain Arts Alliance honored organizations and individuals who are significant contributors to the arts in central Connecticut before nearly 100 Alliance members and friends Thursday.
Mayor Timothy Stewart presented Klingberg Family Centers with the Alliance Special Recognition of a Non-arts Organization Award for outstanding contribution to the arts. Stewart said Klingberg is well known in the community for its exceptional work with troubled youth, though the extent to which it promotes artistic activities among its students is not so well appreciated.
“Many Klingberg children come from deprived circumstances,” Stewart said. “Many have suffered frightening abuse [from] those who were supposed to take care of them. The arts allow these children to experience their own goodness, creativity, uniqueness and feel good about who they are and what they can do.”
Bill Millerick, president of the New Britain Chamber of Commerce, presented the Arts Organization of 2010 Award to the New Britain Museum of American Art. Millerick referenced how the museum was both “visionary and practical. It was visionary of the New Britain industrialists of 1903 to think that New Britain needed an art museum, but they were also very practical by deciding to focus on American art.”
Millerick said today the museum as one of the most comprehensive collections of American art. Its new building has attracted attention to the institution and its activities.
“With over 4,000 members, over 600 volunteers, and an annual operating budget approaching $3 million, the New Britain Museum of American Art contributes significantly to the local economy,” he said. “Even more, the museum contributes to the perception of our area as a positive place where people want to live, work and recreate.”
Stephen Hard, Alliance executive director, presented the 2010 Individual Contribution to the Arts award to Don Courtemanche. Currently downtown district director in Springfield, Mass., Courtemanche served in the same capacity here for nearly a decade.
“Courtemanche had a hand in virtually everything positive that is transforming our city,” said Hard.
Hard added that Courtemanche had opened the Downtown Visitors Center and a few years later turned the conference room into the Downtown Gallery. He praised Courtemanche’s interest in the artist housing project and how he stuck with it through 10 years of problems.
“When construction of the housing units was finally completed, marketing of the units to artists was stalled,” Hard said. “Don filled the units with artists in two months.”
The Public Servant of the Year Award went to John Cusano, community development coordinator with the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism. Since Cusano was unable to attend the ceremony Karen Senich, executive director of the commission, accepted for him.
Maura O’Shea, president of the Alliance and deputy director of the Museum of American Art, made the presentation. She said Cusano had “changed the cultural landscape in Connecticut. He established a Peer Advisor Network as a low-cost consulting service for arts organizations that remains the only decentralized program in the nation and has successfully increased the delivery of consulting support to arts organizations in Connecticut by over 600 percent.”
To loud applause and cheers, Anne Pilla, Trinity-on-Main’s executive director, announced Joan Morgan as the Unsung Hero for 2010.
“Everyone knows Joan,” said Pilla.
Pilla said Morgan doesn’t simply attend things but supports multiple organizations in multiple ways. “Joan does not get a lot of recognition because she focuses on the small stuff,” Pilla said. “She does a lot of little things for a lot of organizations rather than a few big gestures.”
