o o h b s rd
a w a
0acbž 0RTb
We proudly introduce this year’s roster of Boho Award winners, leaders in our arts community, visionaries one and all By Gretchen Giles
C
he Boho Awards, now in their 12th year, are among our editorial team’s annual highlights. When considering which people and institutions in the North Bay have most contributed to the rich cultural life we share, it is a regular pleasure to simply survey the vast field from which we can draw. There are so many deserving individuals and groups doing good work in the arts that this is a delicious burden. Careful to choose from all three counties, we like to mix up our picks, from the solitary teacher who has touched hundreds of lives but may not be known to a larger audience, to those professional houses that bring droves through their doors each week. Over the past decade, we’ve built a solid roster of winners, a growing list that truly reflects a deep devotion to utilizing the arts to enrich all of our lives.
This year, we ask you to help us celebrate the achievements of five winners. Promoter Laurie Schaeffer has brought pleasure and thoughtfulness to thousands of concert-goers a handful at a time with her innovative house concert series currently on at the intimate and private Studio E facility. Artists Patrick Amiot and Brigitte Laurent have turned all of Sebastopol’s Florence Avenue into an outdoor art gallery while raising thousands of dollars for area schools. Margie Belrose has been teaching dance and theater to students since the early 1960s, gradually transforming her San Rafael space, a former church, into an arts sanctuary that thrums with dinner theater and children’s activities. Amy Pinto and Brent Lindsay of the Imaginist Theatre Collective reach across language lines to include the Latino community while serving kids and families and
anyone interested in provocative stagecraft. Arts facilitator Anne Trinca has ensured that there’s more to do in Napa than just eat and drink, starting with the post-feminist Pearl Necklace zine she helped produce, through the brick-and-mortar sizzle of the Nest and continuing now with a virtual spot for Napa County residents interested in DIY culture, craft and fine art to congregate. These folks rock. We fete our winners this year on Wednesday, Oct. 21, in a free reception that is open to the public at the Hopmonk Tavern (230 Petaluma Ave., Sebastopol), from 5:30pm to 7pm. Please consider joining us and staying on for the free, all-ages North Bay Music Awards (NORBAYs) event that follows. This is a stellar night for the arts, and we’re so honored to help ref lect all of this work and wisdom to you. See you at the Hopmonk!
'+
THE BOHEMIAN
10.14.09-10.20.09
25