Salem State to Honor Five Distinguished Artists with Lifetime Awards and Nine Outstanding Students at its Annual Creativity Awards

The 36th Annual Creativity Awards will take place at Salem State University on Monday, May 15 at 7 pm. The evening celebrates the artistic accomplishments of select students across five academic disciplines: art + design, creative writing, dance, music, and theatre. Student honorees are: Mark Katz, art + design; JD Debris and Amanda Mark, creative writing; Kayleigh Cyr and Kelsey Blanchette, dance; Gary Hanson and Stephanie Lento, music; and Ryan Blaney and Krystal Hernandez, theatre. The nine students were nominated by their department faculty for this distinction, the top award in the arts presented by the university.

Traditionally, the Creativity Awards also include the presentation of a Lifetime Achievement in the Arts award to an artist who has made significant contributions to the creative and performing arts throughout their career. In celebration of the opening of the Sophia Gordon Center, this year's event will honor five distinguished artists. 

2017 Lifetime Achievement Honorees

Jon Sarkin is a self-taught artist whose work is influenced by popular culture, comics, literature, and music. The neurological effects of a stroke in 1989 led him to be a wildly prolific artist and this experience has been the subject of numerous publications and documentaries, including The New Yorker, The New York Times, the Discovery Channel and the BBC. He has exhibited his work in the United States and Europe.

Gail Mazur’s poems have been widely anthologized and her collection “They Can’t Take That Away from Me” was a 2001 National Book Award finalist. She founded the Blacksmith House Poetry Series in Harvard Square in 1973. It became a center of poetry life, bringing national and international writers to read in a lively informal atmosphere. Blacksmith House continues today as a place that, according to Mazur, “insists on bringing poetry into the world.”

Peter DiMuro is the executive director of the Dance Complex in Cambridge as well as the Artistic Director of PeterDiMuro/Public Displays of Motion. He has woven a career as a performer, choreographer, director, teacher and arts engager, touring and teaching internationally, including serving as artistic director of Liz Lerman Dance Exchange. He was named a White House Millenial Artist in 2000.

Robert Honeysucker is recognized internationally for his brilliant opera, concert and recital performances. His voice has inspired critical acclaim as he has delighted audiences in performances of over 40 opera roles in the United States and around the world. His appearances as soloist with major orchestras are notable for the range of repertoire he has sung. He is a member of Videmus and co-founder of the Jubliee Trio which presents American art songs, including those of under-performed African American composers.

Tina Packer is the founding artistic director of Shakespeare & Company in Lenox, Massachusetts. She has directed most of Shakespeare’s plays, acted in eight of them and taught the whole canon at over thirty colleges in the US. As an author she has shared the power of Shakespeare from children, “Tales from Shakespeare” to business leaders with  Power Plays: Shakespeare’s Lessons in Leadership and Management.” Her acting and directing has taken her to theatres and academic institutions all over the world in Shakespearean and non-Shakespearean roles. Her original play, “Women of Will” has been supported by both the Guggenheim and Bunting fellowships.

 This event is by invitation only.