Yuma muses to be honored Wednesday

The city of Yuma Arts and Culture Commission will host the 2010 Tribute of the Muses Awards from 6 to 8 p.m. Wednesday at the Yuma Art Center, 254 S. Main St.

The winner of the award, chosen from a group of 10 nominees, will be announced at the event.

The finalists are Tom and Nita Alspach, Dawn Atherton, Bill Butler, John Leo Dallabetta, John A. Dallabetta, Amanda Hurtado Dallabetta, Natacha and Paul Dannenberg, Teri Ingram, Holly Hendrick-Jones, Joe Medina, Dr. Michael Miller and Larry Yanez.

“The Tribute of the Muses is our yearly thank-you to local artists or arts supporters who work hard behind the scenes to support the arts and advocate the arts – be the cheerleader of the arts out there in the community,” said Rex Ijams, arts and culture program manager for the Yuma Art Center.

“It is important to honor those folks out in the community who are muses because they often work behind the scenes and without thanks or recognition from the community as a whole. They are very important. They are the volunteers, the donors, the people who show up at events or put on exhibits. It is so wonderful to have those folks out there.”

It is important to recognize those in the community who give of themselves to help others succeed in the many fields of arts,” Ijams said.

“This is our way to say thank you for being out there. Thank you for all the hard work that you do. Thank you for the advocacy and the support. It is really appreciated by the Art Center and all the small nonprofit groups of artists out there who really need help to continue to do art because is it hard enough as it is in this economy.”

• Tom Alspach hosted several Renaissance Fairs with his father, mainly on the library lawn of the Heritage Library, as well as concerts on Indian Hill at the Catholic mission church and the Yuma Quartermaster Depot. They also started a choral group called Concert Chorale and sang Bach, Handel, Mozart, Schubert and Poulenc. That group was disbanded after Arizona Western College was built.

• Dawn Atherton has volunteered and helped to support the Yuma Heritage Festival block parties, the Electric Light Parade and Yuma's rodeo parades. She also created and choreographed the first ever Hip-Hop Dance Festival and owns and operates Dawn's Dance Studio.

• Bill Butler is a member of the Yuma Film Commission, the ad hoc Public Art Committee for the city of Yuma, and member and past president of the Yuma Fine Arts Association.

• John Leo Dallabetta (now deceased) taught music at Post Elementary and Fourth Avenue Junior High before taking over the music program at Yuma High School until he died in the summer of 1964. While at YHS, John L. developed a jazz band and convinced the school administration to add jazz band as a core music class, becoming the first school in the state to recognize jazz as a virtual part of the American heritage in music curriculum.

• John A. Dallabetta (John L's son) has been teaching and contributing to the arts for the past 40 years, many of them as band director at YHS, and was recognized for his many accomplishments by his peers with the O.M. Hartsell Award, the highest music award given in Arizona.

• Amanda Hurtado Dallabetta (John A's daughter-in-law) graduated summa cum laude, was the principal trumpet player for NAU's concert and jazz bands and took over as the band director at YHS in 2004.

• Natacha and Paul Dannenberg have volunteered to help with the Yuma Fine Arts Association for several years.

• Teri Ingram contributes her time, talent, skill and finances to support the arts and took over for Dorothy Young of Heritage Festivals and the Electric Light Parade after Young died. Ingram is a member of the ad hoc Public Art Committee for the city of Yuma, the Yuma Fine Arts Association and a Grad Night coordinator.

• Holly Hendrick-Jones has been teaching art for seven years and has had successful exhibits as a stand-alone artist. She is an active member of the Yuma Area Art Educators Association and the North End Artists Co-op.

• Joe Medina has been teaching black-and-white darkroom photography at YHS and AWC for the past five years and has participated in showcasing his students' artwork in the Art Center's upstairs young/emerging artist gallery space and annual ARTbeat exhibit.

• Dr. Michael Miller moved to Yuma in 1990 to teach English, literature and creative writing at Northern Arizona University-Yuma, where he relaunched the student newspaper as an online publication.

• Larry Yanez volunteers at the Yuma Art Center for the Yuma Fine Arts Association and handles the installation of all art exhibits at the galleries. He also designed a lighting plan for the central gallery and now resets the lights for each new exhibit to meet the needs of each new show. He is also a member of the Yuma Fine Arts Association.

For more information about the event, call 373-5202.