National Museum of the United States Army, 1st Stage Theatre, Reston Town Center Association, Traveling Players Ensemble, and Kelli Schollard-Sincock Honored at Capital One Hall
Fairfax County, VA – ArtsFairfax celebrates the 10th anniversary of the Arts Awards and honors five visionaries for their contributions to arts and culture in our community. The Jinx Hazel Award, ArtsFairfax’s highest honor, will be presented to the National Museum of the United States Army. This year, ArtsFairfax recognizes two awardees with an Arts Education Award, including Tysons-based Traveling Players Ensemble and individual arts educator Kelli Schollard-Sincock. Innovative 1st Stage Theatre will be recognized with the Arts Impact Award, and Reston Town Center Association will receive the Arts Philanthropy Award.
“For ten years, our annual Arts Awards has recognized the creative visionaries who inspire us, engage us, and create transformational change in our communities,” says Linda S. Sullivan, President & CEO of ArtsFairfax. “This year’s honorees exemplify the impact that artists, arts and cultural organizations, and those that support them are making to the future of Fairfax County.”
Tickets are on sale for the Friday, October 15, 2021 event from noon until 2:00 p.m. to be held in Fairfax County’s newest venue, The Atrium at Capital One Hall.
Jinx Hazel Award
The Jinx Hazel Award is ArtsFairfax’s premier award recognizing an individual or organization who has made a contribution to the cultural life of Fairfax County as a whole. Their contribution broadly impacts the County’s future and its 1.2M residents.
National Museum of the United States Army
The new National Museum of the United States Army, opened in 2021, celebrates over 245 years of Army history and personal sacrifice for families across our nation. Soldier’s stories are told through the collection of artifacts, photographic images, video, artists’ renderings, and the designers who bring this history to life. The museum documents an important part of our history and culture, opening the door through first-hand accounts of missions, leadership, and military life. The National Museum of the United States Army is one of our nation’s outstanding new museums and cultural assets, and we are proud to have the museum in Fairfax County.
Arts Impact Award
The Arts Impact Award recognizes an arts organization, program, or activity that has provided a significant opportunity or impact through their transformational programs and individuals served.
1st Stage history is rooted in the early collaboration of educators, artists, and actors to create an organization that bridges educational and professional theatre. Since its founding, 1st Stage has transformed to meet our community’s changing needs and challenges. Through each performance and engagement, 1st Stage demonstrates that great art and culture are the heart and soul of vibrant communities. 1st Stage’s intimate theatre allows audiences to connect with the art and artists through their award-winning productions. Each theatric offering is created with the entire audience in mind, with accessible performances offered to audiences of differing viewing needs. As the only professional theatre in Tysons, 1st Stage serves as a cultural hub for our changing neighborhoods. The Community Conversation program engages in tough conversations and was purposely designed to partner with local organizations to increase audience outreach potential and provide greater depth of storytelling to audiences. Previous conversations have featured faith leaders, social service staff, Sheriff’s office staff, lawyers and criminal justice advocates, educators, and theatre artists.
Arts Education Award
The Arts Education Award recognizes an arts organization or individual arts educator that has provided superlative arts education opportunities, experiences, or training in the arts for youth, adults, and artists.
Traveling Players Ensemble began as an 18-student summer camp before transforming into a robust Northern Virginia powerhouse enrolling over 555 teens and tweens year-round. The Traveling Players program inspires students to delve into self-expression, self-knowledge, self-reliance, problem-solving skills, and an appreciation of life’s challenges and beauty by bringing great theatre into the great outdoors. Led by founder and producing artistic director Jeanne Harrison, Traveling Players strives to engage the diverse communities in Fairfax County and the greater metro area, offering a robust scholarship program to help reduce economic barriers to theatre study. Traveling Players is recognized for their work in helping students explore the gray areas of life’s grand themes of love, loyalty, friendship, and honor through Shakespearean theatre while offering teens a forum for developing their own identities and values.
Kelli Schollard-Sincock is an established interdisciplinary artist whose work with the Fairfax County Sherriff’s office has transformed the lives of current and former inmates. As a volunteer, Ms. Schollard-Sincock provided art classes to inmates at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center (ADC). Her classes were so popular that there was a waiting list of inmates from all ages and backgrounds, many with no prior exposure to art. The program was funded through her efforts to secure donated supplies and Ms. Schollard-Sincock’s unwavering commitment to serve this population in our County. In 2018, the Torpedo Factory Art Center featured inmate’s work in an exhibit called Off the Grid. In the spring of 2019, Ms. Schollard-Sincock expanded her work with inmates by securing grant funds to provide a rented space for former inmates to continue their artistic exploration. In addition to her work with hundreds of inmates, Ms. Schollard-Sincock partnered with the Sherriff’s Office to bring “Paint Night with a Deputy” to 25 at-risk children in an after-school program at a local community center. Ms. Schollard-Sincock is recognized for her unwavering dedication to bring art offerings to an underserved and often forgotten community in Fairfax County.
Arts Philanthropy Award
Arts Philanthropy Award recognizes an individual, corporation, or foundation that has provided leadership funding or long-term monetary support to the arts.
Reston Town Center Association
The Reston Town Center Association (RTCA) is the heart of the Reston community and one of Virginia’s most dynamically growing communities. As the private non-profit that serves as the managing agent for Reston Town Center District, RTCA’s 30-year existence is rooted in seeing arts and culture as key differentiators in creating an exceptional destination. RTCA is known for embracing and promoting the arts and artistic community programming. Since its founding, RTCA has annually assessed its commercial properties to fund the RTCA’s Art Fund, supporting permanent and temporary art/sculpture and cultural programming, including Orbs by RTKL in 1990, Midtown Community Mural by Dana Scheuer in 2013, and A Bird in the Hand by Patrick Dougherty in 2015 recently Buoyant Force by Sue Wrbican among others. RTCA’s community outreach is broad and diverse with nearly $200,000 committed annually to programs including long-time favorites – Summer Concerts on the Town at the Pavilion, now in its 30th year and drawing tens of thousands of people over the summer to the Northern Virginia Fine Arts Festival and much more. RTCA’s community presence is best illustrated through its support of the Tephra Institute of Contemporary Art and its partnerships to bring public art and opportunities to the broader community. RTCA is recognized for its unprecedented support of the arts through community engagement, action, and funding to inspire and transform the lives of residents and visitors.
2021 Sponsors as of 7/19/21
ArtsFairfax thanks early Arts Awards sponsors Reston Community Center, Event Sponsor, and Art Award Sponsors, Federal Realty Investment Trust and McGuireWoods. Sponsorship opportunities are available with more information found at ArtsFairfax.
Tickets
Tables and individual tickets to the 2021 Arts Awards may be purchased at https://artsfairfax.org/arts-awards/ or by contacting artsawards@artsfairfax.org.
About the Arts Awards
ArtsFairfax will present the 10th annual Arts Awards at Capital One Hall, located at 7750 Capital One Tower Road, Tysons, Virginia 22102 on Friday, October 15, 2021, from 12:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Arts Awards bring together the arts community, business community, and civic and elected leaders to celebrate the extraordinary contributions of artists, arts organizations, and the private sector for the support of the arts in Fairfax County, the City of Fairfax, and the City of Falls Church. Each year’s awards luncheon honorees are selected by ArtsFairfax.
Visit ArtsFairfax.org for additional information and follow ArtsFairfax on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter using the hashtag: #ArtsAwards2021.
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