Governor's Awards recognition shared online on Arts Day in Pierre

Arts South Dakota and the South Dakota Arts Council are celebrating the 25th biennial Governor’s Awards in the Arts with online ceremonies Tuesday, February 10, 2021. The biennial awards presentation honors the achievements of South Dakota’s artists, educators and arts supporters statewide. Governor’s Award recipients are selected from nominations submitted in five categories reflecting the work of professional artists and arts educators, and the support of individuals, businesses and organizations that encompass South Dakota’s arts community, including an award recognizing outstanding support of the arts to Native Nations with lands in South Dakota.

This year’s online ceremony includes a message from Governor Kristi Noem and a video spotlight of each of the award recipients, with photographic examples of their contributions to the South Dakota creative environment. Also posted as part of the celebration will be artwork from the winners of the first Governor’s Student Art Competition. Arts Advocacy Day at the Legislature includes the presentation of arts information and a copy of Arts Alive to elected officials and legislators and floor announcements celebrating South Dakota’s arts in both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

An additional feature of this year’s Arts Day is an online professional development webinar with Lori L. Jacobwith, an internationally recognized master storyteller and fundraising culture change expert. Jacobwith’s workshop, Expand your reach, engage your board, will precede the prerecorded awards celebration.

Recipients of this year’s awards:

John Lopez,Lemmon, for Distinction in Creative Achievement

The Pat and Dale Larson Family, Brookings, for Outstanding Support of the Arts by an Individual

John Banasiak, Vermillion, for Outstanding Service in Arts Education

Brookings Arts Council, Brookings, for Outstanding Support of the Arts by an Organization or Business

Cloud Horse Art Institute, Kyle, for Outstanding Support of the Arts to Native Nations with Lands in South Dakota.

John Lopez

The recipient of this year’s Distinction in Creative Achievement award, sculptor John Lopez, is the product of a place—the Grand River in northwestern South Dakota. Lopez grew up on a ranch in Standing Rock Reservation before studying art at Northern State University and Black Hills State University, and apprenticing with Dale Lamphere. John now makes his home in Lemmon, where he has opened the Kokomo gallery displaying not only his own art, but also works from community artists and visiting artists from around the world.

The Lopez résumé includes commissioned work on display around the globe, including sculptures in Dubai and Monaco, and pieces sought after for private collections. He began his career working with bronze, and his works are on display all over South Dakota, including twelve of the presidents for the City of Presidents Project in Rapid City and other regional locations of historical significance. He later found new inspiration creating sculptures from scrap metal. Taking things the modern world has discarded and pronounced outdated, Lopez thoughtfully considers them and sees their history and inherent value. He incorporates and transforms these collected objects into works of value and international popularity.

This year’s recipient of the Governor’s Award for Outstanding Support of the Arts by an Individual is The Pat and Dale Larson Family in recognition of their vision and exceptional, unwavering generosity, a lifetime of influence on fine and performing artists and for their clear goal of encouraging residents throughout the state of South Dakota to support and enjoy the arts. The Larson family was integral in the original efforts in Brookings to provide a performing arts center for the benefit of all the community. Their early leadership in 1999 helped leverage a partnership with South Dakota State University, the Brookings School District and the City of Brookings that enabled the construction of a concert hall and studio theater, the Larson Memorial Concert Hall.

Following the 2003 opening of the Performing Arts Center at South Dakota State University, conversations began about the construction of a comprehensive facility for the benefit of the region’s performers and audiences—the Oscar Larson Performing Arts Center at South Dakota State University. The facility’s Founders Recital Hall and the Oscar Larson Theatre are home to SDSU’s theater program and the Miss South Dakota Pageant, among other events. The expansion had a price tag of $50 million, and the lead investment came from the Larson family with additional significant gifts from daughters Bridget, Carmelle and Maree. The Larson family foundation continues to provide exceptional assistance throughout South Dakota for fine and performing arts, social services programs, education and basic human needs.

John Banasiak

Chosen for his Outstanding Service in Arts Education, John Banasiak has been a resident artist and educator in South Dakota since arriving as a professor of photography at the University of South Dakota in 1980. During his 40 years in South Dakota, he has taught and inspired thousands of students through his photography classes, exhibited his work in over 300 exhibitions, published in numerous national periodicals and received over 100 grants and awards—including several from the South Dakota Arts Council. His distinctive teaching has been recognized with the USD Knutson Distinguished Faculty Award and the USD President’s Research Excellence Award—the highest award for research leading to curriculum inclusion at USD. In 2003, he received a Sierra Club grant to document the grasslands of South Dakota with his photography.

Banasiak’s own photographs play an integral role in his teaching. He has always been mindful of getting his art into juried exhibitions at the local and national level and his work has been displayed in over 30 different U.S. states and countries around the world. One of the most prestigious collections which includes Banasiak is the Hallmark Photographic Collection, spanning the history of photography from 1839 to present day and including works by artists such as Dorothea Lange, Alfred Stieglitz and Andy Warhol.

This year’s recipient for Outstanding Support of the Arts by an Organization or Business is the Brookings Art Council. This nonprofit goes above and beyond to support the arts in South Dakota and the entire Brookings community. During its 43 years of operation, the Brookings Arts Council has proven its commitment to individuals and creativity in all forms. The organization lives by its mission statement—encouraging community connections through the arts by providing a supportive environment for awareness, appreciation and participation.

Access to the arts for everyone is a key focus for the Brookings Arts Council. Their free art classes and scholarships open the doors to artists at all levels and the Art Factory, a twice weekly class, provides access for adults from Advance, a private nonprofit organization that supports more than 115 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Warrior’s Rock is a program designed for veterans and is free for all who have served. Artist support from the Brookings Arts Council is active, responsive, collaborative and giving, recognizing the work and life of the artist. The organization funded supplies for two murals during the summer of 2020, bringing an attitude of “how can we help you make art happen” to a variety of projects.

During the pandemic, the Brookings Arts Council has continued to ensure access to art through virtual alternatives, including going out of their way to deliver art supplies all over Brookings and to surrounding communities. The organization also provided vital support through their social media channels to businesses and the entire community.

Recipient of the award for Outstanding Support of the Arts to Native Nations with Lands in South Dakota, Cloud Horse Art Institute was founded in 2001 to build individual human assets as well as community and tribal assets. In the nomadic life of the Lakota People, children acquired the technology necessary for a barter economy, learning specialized skills in making things that would be useful and attractive to others. Their products—perhaps bows, drums or quilled war robes—had a trade value and could help sustain a family.

There are still many Lakota crafts being made and sold to tourists, but the bedrock tribal arts, like hide painting and porcupine quillwork— so important to maintain a culture—were being learned by very few people. Cloud Horse has offered workshops in the traditional Lakota arts of quillwork, beadwork, tipi construction, quilting, hide tanning and metal jewelry making, as well as more contemporary arts. Cloud Horse acquired a small Head Start campus in Kyle which is being renovated as an arts facility teaching traditional arts and language and hosting the only reservation film school in the U.S. The film school has created three films picked up for worldwide viewing on the new Heritage Broadcast Network, starting this year.

Teaching the Lakota language is a vital Cloud Horse initiative. Tilda Long Soldier St. Pierre, founder and Cloud Horse president, is the only arts leader in South Dakota fluent in both oral and written Lakota. She also serves as the kindergarten Lakota Immersion teacher for Our Lady of Lourdes school in a team-supported effort to enhance fluency in young Lakota children. Cloud Horse Art Institute is making a difference every day in the Native community.