By Greg C. Truax, Publisher
Tampa Bay Business for Culture & the Arts has selected the winners of its Charlie Hounchell Art Stars Scholarships for 2018, according to TBBCA.
The scholarship program is named for the late Charlie Hounchell, who started the program and is a past president of TBBCA. Over the past 10 years, TBBCA has awarded financial tuition assistance for higher education in the arts to more than 60 Tampa Bay area students. This year’s six scholarships total $15,000.
The scholarship winners are: Theatre – Noa Friedman, 12th grade, Howard W. Blake High School; Literary Arts – Jaimar Alvarez, 12th grade, Howard W. Blake High School; Dance – Samantha Frost, 12th grade, Howard W. Blake High School; Instrumental Music – David Mason, 12th grade, Pinellas County Center for the Arts, Gibbs High School; Vocal Music – Taylor Aronson, 12th grade, Pinellas County Center for the Arts, Gibbs High School; Visual Arts – James Pursley, 11th grade, Keystone Prep High School.
“This year’s high school winners, some of the most promising and talented young artists and performers in the Tampa Bay area, were selected on the basis of talent and merit by a distinguished panel of judges who are professionals and experts in their fields,” said TBBCA Executive Director Susana Weymouth.
The judges will introduce the scholarship recipients who will showcase their talents at the Charlie Hounchell Art Stars Scholarships Awards Ceremony sponsored by Carolyn Wilson, The Wilson Co. The public is invited by RSVP to susanaweymouth@tbbca.org to the 6 p.m. event on May 17 at The Vault, 611 N Franklin Street, Tampa.
The 2018 panel of judges were: Theatre – Eugenie Bondurant, singer, television and film actor and instructor; Literary Arts – Lisa Unger, award-winning New York Times and internationally best-selling author; Dance – Helen Hansen French; Juilliard graduate, choreographer and dancer, and founder of dance collectives; Instrumental Music –Paul Wilborn, director of The Palladium, band leader and instrumentalist; Vocal Music – Dawne Eubanks, classical soloist and voice instructor at Eckerd College and Pinellas County Center for the Arts at Gibbs High School; and Visual Arts –Joanna Robotham, curator for Modern and Contemporary Art, Tampa Museum of Art.
Tampa Bay Businesses for Culture & the Arts, a nonprofit organization founded in 1989, is one of 11 national Business Committees for the Arts, part of the private sector network and national “pARTnership” Movement of Americans for the Arts. TBBCA is an umbrella organization that unites businesses and individuals across the greater Tampa Bay area to champion arts education, arts and culture for a prosperous community based on the philosophy that “the arts are good for business and business is good for the arts.”
TBBCA programs are funded mainly by contributions from local businesses. For more information, go to the TBBCA web site.
Susana Weymouth/Photo by David R. Wheeler