The Allentown Arts Commission and the City of Allentown will celebrate the extraordinary impact of the arts on Allentown and the broader Lehigh Valley community during the 29th Annual Allentown Arts Ovation Awards ceremony, Tuesday, May 9th from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. The celebration returns to the Renaissance Hotel at PPL Center, the epicenter for the revitalized downtown.
“The Allentown Arts Commission strongly believes that the arts, represented by this year’s honorees, are integral to the continued development of the ongoing renaissance of downtown Allentown, as well as to the development of the entire city,” says Sharon Lee Glassman, Chair of the Allentown Arts Commission. “We are excited to once again honor a group of extraordinary artists and advocates who contribute to making Allentown a cultural destination.”
This year’s event will once again create a celebratory ambience in a cocktail party setting featuring sparkling beverages, tasty hors d’oeuvres, and first rate entertainment. In the tradition of the Oscars and Tony Awards, the event will offer guests a walk on the red carpet and an opportunity to pose for the paparazzi.
“The number of highly qualified nominees has increased each year,” says Glassman. “The intensified competition reflects a new public awareness of the artistic community and the significant role it plays in Allentown.”
ARTS OVATION WINNERS 2017
This year the Allentown Arts Commission will honor 8 recipients in 7 categories and will bestow scholarships in art, music and theatre to students from Allentown’s high schools.
The recipients of this year’s awards are as follows:
Special Recognition for Arts Advocacy Award: The Honorable Senator Patrick M. Browne
Senator Pat Browne was elected by his colleagues in the Senate Republican Caucus to
serve as Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman. The committee, one of the most powerful of the Senate’s standing committees, reviews all legislation for its fiscal impact and plays a crucial role in developing the state budget. Before being elected Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman, Senator Browne served as Senate Majority Whip for the 2011-12 and 2013-14 Legislative Session. Besides serving as Appropriations Committee Chairman, Senator Browne is also a member of three Senate Committees: Education; Finance; and Transportation. He is also a member of the Senate Majority Policy Committee.
Senator Browne is Co-Chair of the bi-partisan, bi-cameral Early Childhood Education Caucus and the Legislative Arts and Culture Caucus. He previously Co-Chaired both the Basic Education Funding Commission and the Special Education Funding Commission. He also serves as a member of the Public Employee Retirement Commission, the board of the Public School Employees’ Retirement System, the Pennsylvania Minority Business Development Authority, Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency and the Legislative Audit Advisory Committee.
Senator Browne was re-elected in November 2014 to his third full term as state Senator for the 16th District, representing constituents in parts of Lehigh County. He was first elected to the Senate in a special election in April 2005 and was re-elected in the fall of 2006 and 2010. Prior to joining the Senate, Senator Browne represented the 131st District for 10 years as a member of the state House of Representatives.
Senator Browne is the author of numerous state laws ranging from child protection legislation to education initiatives to reforming state government. He drafted key portions of Act 120 of 2010 which fundamentally reformed Pennsylvania’s public pension systems and created an independent fiscal office to monitor state spending and the budget process. Senator Browne was instrumental in developing the Pennsylvania Web Accountability and Transparency (PennWATCH) Act, which expanded the public’s access to state spending records by creating and maintaining a searchable, database-driven budget website.
In 2009, Senator Browne crafted the one-of-a-kind, 130-acre Neighborhood Improvement Zone (NIZ) to help revitalize and expand the tax base of the then financially-struggling city of Allentown by permitting tax revenues – except for property taxes – generated by this new development to be put back into projects within the zone to continue and expand the redevelopment efforts. There has already been $1 billion of new development investment in Allentown with another billion dollars expected. More than $3 million in property tax revenues have been generated through the zone for the Allentown School District. The NIZ has already served as a model for economic development in other distressed areas – cities, boroughs and townships – throughout the Commonwealth with the creation of the City Revitalization and Improvement Zones (CRIZ) which affords a similar tax financing program to smaller cities in Pennsylvania.
Senator Browne received a bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Notre Dame and a law degree from Temple University. Prior to his legislative service, he was employed with the accounting firms of Coopers & Lybrand and Price Waterhouse as a tax manager and senior tax associate, respectively. In addition to being a CPA, he is also a member of the Pennsylvania Institute of Certified Public Accountants.
Born and raised in Allentown, Senator Browne attended Allentown Central Catholic High School. He resides in Allentown with his wife, Heather, and son, Alex. Throughout his career, Senator Browne has been a stalwart advocate for the arts. A number of arts organizations and institutions credit his diligence in advocacy for their ability to attract the attention of foundation and government grant possibilities to secure funding.
Outstanding Achievement in Performing Arts: Dennis Razze
Dennis Razze is originally from Wilmington, Delaware where he attended Salesianum High School run by the Oblates of St. Francis de Sales. He is an alumnus of DeSales University’s theatre program where he studied under Father Jerry Schubert. Razze received an MFA in Directing from Wayne State University and did his doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Austin. Previous to becoming a faculty member at DeSales in 1984, he taught at the University of Texas and at American University in Washington, D.C. Mr. Razze was named the Associate Artistic Director of the Pennsylvania Shakespeare Festival in 2003 and in 2010 became chair of the Theatre Program at DeSales. Mr. Razze was a founding member of PSF and has acted or directed in every season since it began in 1992. Mr. Razze has directed the nine highest attended PSF productions including Les Miserables, West Side Story, The Taming of the Shrew, Twelfth Night, Fiddler on the Roof, My Fair Lady, and 1776. He received Certificates of Merit from the American College Theatre Festival for his Act One productions of Oklahoma! and The Music Man. In 2003 he directed The Music Man at the Zoellner Center at Lehigh University with the Lehigh Symphony orchestra conducted by Paul Chou. Besides directing and acting, Mr. Razze has composed music for numerous theatrical productions including Mark My Word, The Silver Skates, As You Like It, Twelfth Night, Cyrano de Bergerac, The Taming of the Shrew, The Tempest, and Romeo and Juliet. With his cousin Kevin Scott, he co-composed The Gift, a Mass for choir and orchestra. Mr. Razze can be seen in the music video of The Clash’s hit song Rock the Casbah playing the Rabbi.
Outstanding Service Award: Nelvin Vos
Nelvin Vos received his B.A. in English from Calvin College, an M.A. in English from
the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in religion and the arts (an interdisciplinary program) from the University of Chicago. During the 60’s, Dr. Vos served as the President and editor of “Christianity and Literature.” From 1965 – 2000, he was a professor of English at Muhlenberg College where he served as the chair of the English Department, founded the Department of Theatre, and was Vice-President and Dean of the college. From 1967 – 2015 Mr. Vos rose from an Elected Fellow, to President, and ultimately Executive Director of the Society for the Arts, Religion and Contemporary Culture.
Mr. Vos has published several books on theatre, including Drama of Comedy: Victim and Victor (1966), Versions of the Absurd Theater: Ionesco and Albee (1968), The Great Pendulum of Becoming: Images in Modern Drama (1980), and Inter-Actions: Relationships of Religion and Drama (2009).
Since 2008, Mr. Vos has been actively involved with the Arts at St. John’s, which has a rich heritage of quality music, featuring outstanding organs concerts and partnering with the Bach Choir, the Allentown Symphony, and the Allentown Band. Since 2011, he has also worked diligently on “Arts and Access,” a joint initiative between the Partnership for a Disability Friendly Community and the Lehigh Valley Arts Council to provide information and training for arts organizations to become more accessible to persons with disabilities.
Outstanding Achievement in Visual Arts: Jill Odegaard
Jill Odegaard is an artist who engages the public through her work as she involves communities to participate in the dialogue and making of art work. As Professor and Chair of the Art Department at Cedar Crest College, she holds a BFA from Minnesota State University – Moorhead, MN and an MFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design, Minneapolis, MN. Her studio practice explores the tactile nature of design through the use of textiles, handmade paper and other mixed media. Jill lives in Allentown with her husband, Brian Wiggins, and their two children.
Outstanding Teacher of the Arts: Jon Roylance
Jon Roylance has worked as an artist and educator in the Lehigh Valley for over 35 years. After graduating from William Allen High School, he attended Elmira College and received a degree in Studio Art and Art Education. Jon then went to the University of Denver to earn his MFA in Ceramics with a minor in sculpture, working with noted ceramic artist Maynard Tischler. Coming back to Allentown in 1980 he began his teaching career at the Centennial School of Lehigh University as an art specialist. Subsequent teaching positions included the Bethlehem School District, where he taught at Northeast Middle School, and his present position as instructor at William Allen High School-working in the Allentown Academy of the Arts where he focuses on three dimensional art. He is also the chairman of the Arts Department. Many of his students have gone on to successful careers in the arts, including such positions as graphic designers, architects, industrial designers, educators, illustrators, and ceramic artists. Jon has consistently produced functional and sculptural pottery work from his own studio through all the years of his teaching career and has participated in many shows in the area. He lives in Allentown with his wife, Mary, and has a son, Ben, currently a graduate student in creative writing.
Emerging Artist Award: August Fegley and Oakes Fegley
August Fegley has been performing on stage and film for the past eight years. She first performed at the Civic Theatre of Allentown in the 2009 production of A Christmas Carol, as Bertie Fezziwig. And while no stranger to film (she has been in Hannah Henri, Samuel’s Game, and Wild Birds, among others), her heart is on the stage. August has sung, danced, and acted at many theaters and venues in the Allentown area, as well as regionally at the Bucks County Playhouse (Really Rosie) and in New York City (Voices From the Ladder). She has worked with the Muhlenberg Summer Theatre (The Music Man), the Allentown Public Theatre (Blackbird), the Eclectic Theatre Company (Children’s Hour, Ladies Alive), and at the Lehigh Valley Charter High School for the Arts (Evita, and where she is currently rehearsing for the spring production of Hair).
She has always loved returning to the Civic Theatre of Allentown to work with and learn from William Sanders. At Civic, she has performed in Annie Jr, Suessical Jr, Alice in Wonderland Jr, The Addams Family, Follies in Concert, Gypsy, and The Sound of Music. This past fall, August gave a powerful performance as the titular role in Carrie: The Musical, for which she received the 2017 ABE Award for Best Actress in a Musical (Lehigh Valley Press).
Oakes Fegley was seen in theaters worldwide this year as “Pete” in Walt Disney Studios’ Pete’s Dragon opposite Bryce Dallas Howard and Robert Redford. He recently completed work on his second starring role in a feature film as Ben in Wonderstruck. Based on a novel by Brian Selznick and directed by Todd Haynes, the film also stars Julianne Moore, Michelle Williams and Millicent Simmonds. Prior to Pete’s Dragon, Oakes co-starred with Michelle Monaghan and Ron Livingston in Fort Bliss, directed by Claudia Myers, and he appeared in This Is Where I Leave You, directed by Shawn Levy, as Jason Bateman’s younger self in flashback. On television, he had a recurring role as “Young Eli Thompson,” Nucky’s little brother on the HBO hit series Boardwalk Empire, and he also recurred as “Gabriel” the avatar to the evil force “Samaritan” in Person of Interest (CBS). Oakes’ love for acting started on local stages near his home in Allentown, including Arts Quest, Bucks County Playhouse, and Civic Theatre of Allentown. He also performed in the Two River Theater production of On Borrowed Time for Oscar-winning actor and director Joel Grey.
Outstanding Achievement in Literary Arts: Shane Bercaw
Shane Burcaw is the co-founder of Laughing At My Nightmare, Inc., an organization dedicated to teaching people how humor can help them overcome their challenges, while also providing vital equipment to people living with muscular dystrophy. Shane is an award-winning author, Emmy-winning producer, and writer of a blog with more than 600,000 followers. In his (very rare) free time, he enjoys traveling, eating mashed potatoes, and spending time with his family and girlfriend.
The entire community is invited to celebrate these honorees at the Arts Ovation Award Reception, Tuesday, May 9 from 5:30pm to 7:30pm at the Renaissance Hotel, Seventh & Hamilton streets in Allentown. Tickets to the event are $60 per person and are available on Civic Theatre’s website at www.CivicTheatre.com/ArtsOvation or at the 19th Street Theatre Box Office or by sending a check directly to Arts Ovation (via Susan Rutt, 1852 South Wood Street, Allentown, PA 18103). Questions and inquiries can be directed to Arts Commission Chair Sharon Glassman at slogcivicstar@gmail.com.
The Commission is also seeking sponsorships for the event ranging from $500-$2500. For more information on how to support the Arts Ovation Awards, please contact Jane Heft at jane@citycenterlehighvalley.com.