Helen Coburn Meier and Tim Meier today released the names of their 13th Arts Achievement Awards. Their Foundation recognizes Chicago-based artists in mid-career who push the artistic envelope.
The 2018 awardees are composer/conductor Renee Baker, sculptor Eric Lindsey, and painter Scott Stack.
Renee Baker – Ms. Baker is founding music director and conductor of the internationally acclaimed Chicago Modern Orchestra Project (CMOP), a polystylistic orchestral organization that grew from the plums of classical music, as well as jazz. Her compositions are crafted from her many talents with carefully constructed environments that also allow indeterminacy, experimentalism, classicism, subjectivity, and objective interpretations to co-exist. Intense but rewarding for both performer and listener/viewer, all parties are cast into unknown roles upon encounter, to be radically inside a temporary environment of limitless inhabitation. Helen Meier says: “Renee thrills and unsettles. She tries to unsettle the world.” For more information, see http://www.reneebakercomposer.net.
Eric Lindsey – In 1977, Eric accepted a position as a sculptor’s apprentice to Daniel Lowery at his studio in O’Fallon, Illinois, learning mold making, woodcarving, clay, metal casting, and iron forging. Discovering stone working after arriving in Chicago was the only natural next step. After meeting Isamu Noguchi, he felt determined to combine elements of all of these materials to create a singular body of work that became “something it already was.” Helen says Eric’s “mastery of stone, with a touch of iron to open our eyes, is determinedly seductive. I like your unpredictability.” For more information, see http://www.lindseystudioartworks.net/.
Scott Stack – The Chicago Cultural Center recently exhibited a celebrated showing of Scott’s paintings “that challenge our perceptual capabilities as well as defy conventional categories and operations of abstract and representational traditions in modern painting.” Scott’s work engages the viewer to search for a way to make sense of the pattern we are seeing. Scott’s work has been exhibited throughout the Midwest and New York.Tim says, “His work pulled me onto the canvas and then on a journey into the depth of the painting. Levels of meaning appear as you study his work.” For more information, see www.scottstack.com
The Meier Achievement Award
The 2018 Meier Achievement Award recognizes past work of mid-career arts professionals with checks for $40,000. There are no applications, no project to submit, and no outcome measurements. This follows Tim Meier’s directive, “No strings.” For more information, see www.meierfoundation.org.
Past Recipients:
Jim Lasko, founding Artistic Director, Redmoon Theatre
James Bohnen, cofounder & former Artistic Director, Remy Bumppo Theatre
Meade Palidofsky, founder & Artistic Director, StoryCatchers Theatre
Patti McKenny, poet, librettist/lyricist, Founder of Chicago Musical Theatre Works
John Eskola, tenor, cabaret artist
Mark Messing, composer, founder of Mucca Pazzo gypsy marching band & Lullaby Project
PJ Powers, founder & Artistic Director, TimeLine Theatre
Michael Patrick Thornton, founder & Artistic Director, Gift Theater
Homer Hans Bryant, Director, Chicago Multi-Cultural Dance Center
Elizabeth Doyle, composer, cabaret artist
Hallie Gordon, director, Steppenwolf Theatre for Young Adults
James Ginsburg, classical musical producer, Cedille Records
Terry Karpowicz, sculptor
Miroslaw Rogala, multi-media artist
Molly Shanahan, choreographer, Mad Shak company
Wesley Kimler, painter
Jeff Kowalkowski, new music composer
Nick Sandys, director/actor/fight choreographer, Artistic Director, Remy Bumppo Theatre
Mindy Rose Schwartz, sculptor
Bernard Williams, painter/sculptor
Jack Zimmerman, storyteller
Sean Graney, playwright
Rob Mazurek, electro-acoustic composer, cornetist, improviser and visual artist
Julia Miller, sound artist, guitarist, improvisor, composer, visual artist, curator and educator
Simone Muench, poet
Chris Newman, sculptor
Donald Noon, sculptor
Damon Locks, visual artist and musician
James Morrow, dancer and choreographer
Dan Ramirez, painter
Eric Stephenson, sculptor
Stephen Burns, artistic director and conductor, Fulcrum Point
Stacy Garrop, composer
Ayako Kato, dancer and choreographer
Tim Anderson, painter
Chris Bradley, sculptor
Chloe Jensen, choreographer and artistic director, Aerial Dance Chicago
Jill King, sculpter