Ruth Winett and Bob Dodd Honored at 6th Annual Framingham Cultural Council Awards

The Framingham Cultural Council held its sixth annual awards reception on May12 at the Amazing Things Arts Center. Mary-Ann Stadtler- Chester, a Cultural Council member, was the Master of Ceremonies and gave certificates to those who were awarded grants for 2014.

Of these grants, 27 are for artistic projects and activities in Framingham and 
five provide subsidies for school-aged children to attend cultural field trips. The grants are forexhibits, festivals, concerts, short-term artist residencies, performances in schools, workshops, and lectures.

The Contributor of the Year Award was given to Ruth Winett, President of the Framingham Library Foundation. She has been the driving force in raising funds for the new McAuliffe Branch Library. She was a leader in working to get funds from the Massachusetts Board of Library Commissioners which led do the approval by Town Meeting to fund the land purchase and building construction for a new branch library in Nobscot. She has organized many events to get community support and funds for the new library. These efforts have enabled the foundation to raise more than $500,000 toward the goal of raising $600,000.

Bob Dodd, a trustee of the Framingham Library, was give a Special Recognition Award in appreciation for his exemplary works in arranging for Framingham library concerts and film programs. He is also instrumental in organizing the evening LifeLong Learning Lecture Series and the daytime Adventures in LifeLong Learning program in conjunction with Framingham State University and the library staff.

The Framingham Cultural Council awarded the third Bill Collins Memorial Scholarshipto Sara Goulart, a senior at the Learning Center for the Deaf in Framingham.

She was selected for this award based on her portrait Birdy made using color pencils and her essay about her visit to the sister school for the deaf in China. Her reference described her worldly interest, her desire to connect with others, and her leadership qualities. She will be furthering her education at the National Technical Institute for the Deaf, a college of Rochester Institute of Technology.
 
The Bill Collins Memorial Scholarship is given in memory of artist Bill Collins whose talents as a graphic artist were used by numerous organizations in Framingham. He was a member and supporter of the Framingham Cultural Council, the Framingham Artists’ Guild, and a volunteer assistant to art teachers at the Hemenway Elementary School. 

Entertainment during the evening included excerpt from upcoming threater perofrmance of Shrek by Metrowest Performing Arts Center students, musical selections by a few players from the Metrowest Symphony, and a spiritual song rendition from the FCC chair, Nandi Varris. In addition, three students from the Potter Road School read poems they wrote after visiting the DeCordova Museum.

The Framingham Cultural Council is part of a network of 329 Local Cultural Councils serving all 351 cities and towns in the Commonwealth. The LCC Program is the largest grassroots cultural funding network in the nation, supporting thousands of community-based projects in the arts, sciences and humanities every year. The state legislature provides an annual appropriation to the Massachusetts Cultural Council, a state agency, which then allocates funds to each community.

Additional funding came from Bose Corporation, MutualOne Charitable 
Foundation, and the Middlesex Savings Bank Charitable Foundation.

The members of the Framingham Cultural Council are: Nandi Varris, Chair; Inga Synnestvedt, Vice-Chair; Joel Winett, Clerk; Rita Collins, Treasurer; Cindy Camuso, Diane Hartung, Judith Levine and Mary-Ann Stadtler Chester.