Arts education and jazz recurring themes at Governor’s Awards

Chester and Msiba Ann Grundy were accepting the top honor at the Governor’s Awards in in the Arts for their contributions to the cultural life of Lexington and the University of Kentucky, when Chester asked his wife to give an example of their efforts.

Ann recounted the story of Michael Cruse, a 16-year-old trumpeter who got a ticket to a concert by Wynton Marsalis, one of many musicians the Grundys brought to Lexington through the Spotlight Jazz series and other efforts.

Michael waited after the concert to meet Marsalis, who proceeded to give him an hour-long trumpet lesson ending with the assignment to learn “Happy Birthday” in every key. The experience propelled Cruse to the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music where he is finishing his trumpet performance studies and preparing to go to graduate school, likely at one of the prominent northeastern conservatories.

“Michael could not have gone into a store and bought this experience,” Ann Grundy said. “It could only happen in the world of art, where tenacity, creativity and a gracious chance encounter with a master artist reigned supreme.”

Chester Grundy elaborated, “Think about the fact that Michael’s experience with great teaching and a fateful meeting with his musical idol have set him on a path to bring beauty to the world through music. I don’t know about you, but I cannot imagine a greater calling or a more important vocation.

“Art nourishes the souls of our children, and reveals to them the deepest levels of their humanity.”

The story brought full circle a theme of youth and arts education that had percolated through the ceremony Friday. It started during Gov. Matt Bevins’ opening comments at his first Governor’s Awards ceremony to education award winner Miles Osland’s students singing his praises to home movies of national award winner Wendy Whelan dancing while growing up in Louisville to the Grundy’s reflections on exposing students to some of the greatest talents in the world.

Bevin opened asking how many in the audience had children and talked about how we see in children, “the capacity of the human mind to be creative, to be inventive.”

He talked about the importance of artistic skills in business and other endeavors across the commonwealth and returned to the educational theme, describing a clay elephant one of his sons had made that struck him as very clever.

“I was struck by the opportunity given to a young person that could take them who knows where,” said Bevin, who posed for photographs with each recipient.

Some students commented on the guidance of University of Kentucky saxophone professor Miles Osland, who received the education award.

“I’d like to thank all of my students past, present and future; they really are my lifeblood,” said Osland, whose honor along with the Grundys lent an undercurrent of jazz to the day.

The video introduction for Louisville native Wendy Whelan, who has enjoyed more than three decades with the New York City Ballet, included grainy, scratchy home movies of her as a student dancer in Kentucky. In her remarks, Whelan recalled that the last time she was in Frankfort was 40 years ago, when she was 9, with Louisville Ballet on a “Nutcracker” tour.

“That was the time that I realized that dance was my vocation,” Whelan said, “it would be something that I wanted to be involved in the rest of my life.”

Versailles glass artist Guy Kemper, whose works have included major installations for Alltech, accepted the artist award. “Love is at the heart of my work, and I hope that quality is evident.”

The Hindman Dulcimer Project received the folk heritage award, continuing the tradition of making fine instruments in the Knott County town, and the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing received the government award. Also receiving honors were Paducah Life Magazine, which received the media award, and Owensboro Health, which received the business award.

Notably absent, though not discussed in the course of the event, was the Affrilachian Poets, which declined the community arts award citing differences with Bevin on a number of issues, including education funding.

After the ceremony, Chester Grundy said he respected that decision and found himself in solidarity with the group’s position.

“It made me do some soul searching,” Grundy said, adding that he and his wife concluded that the honor did highlight the work and its goals and, “I don’t see it as Matt Bevin’s award. It’s the Office of the Governor and the Arts Council.”

Lori Meadows, executive director of the Kentucky Arts Council, which adminsters the awards, was seeing the program through its second change of administrations in her tenure.

“You work with each governor’s staff and say, ‘This is what we do,’” Meadows said after the ceremony. “Through each administration, they have been very supportive to the Governor’s Awards in the Arts.”

This story was originally published October 21, 2016 at 4:10 PM with the headline "Arts education and jazz recurring themes at Governor’s Awards."