Celebrate the Arts awards recognized at First Friday Art Trail

The 2023 Celebrate the Arts awards were presented May 5 at the LHUCA Plaza Stage, during the First Friday Art Trail.

Upe Flueckiger was presented the LHUCA Catalyst Award.

Swiss-American Urs Peter “Upe” Flueckiger, was born in Herzogenbuchsee, Switzerland. He is a full professor and serves as dean of the Huckabee College of Architecture. He also maintains his architectural practice in Lubbock. Prior to 1998 he worked for several architectural firms including the office of Mario Botta in Lugano, Switzerland, and the office of David Rockwell (Rockwellgroup) in New York City. His design and research interests are economical ecological housing, minimalism in architecture, design build, and modernism in the 20th century to the present. He is the author of the book: “Donald Judd, Architecture in Marfa Texas, How much House?”

Dr. Christopher J. Smith was presented with the William D. Kerns Award for the Performing Arts.

Smith is professor and chair of Musicology and founding director of the Vernacular Music Center at the Texas Tech University School of Music. He has a bachelor’s from the University of Massachusetts at Boston and a master’s in music, and a doctorate in Musicology from the Indiana University School of Music.

In addition to the Vernacular Music Center, he directs the Roots Music Institute and served as faculty adviser for the Tech Irish Set-Dancers, Caprock English Country Dancers, and Caprock Morris Border dance team. He is the author of “Dancing Revolution: Bodies, Space, and Sound in American Cultural History” (Illinois, 2019), as well as countless scholarly articles and book chapters. In addition, he records and tours internationally with multiple ensembles.

Shannon & William Cannings received the William D. Kerns Award for the Visual Arts.

Shannon Cannings serves as a professor of practice in studio art at Texas Tech. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in painting from Tyler School of Art, Temple University, and a Master of Fine Arts in painting from Syracuse University. She has an extensive exhibition record that includes numerous solo exhibitions and more than 50 juried and invitational exhibitions throughout the United States.

Shannon is known for her pop-inspired paintings that render the sweetness of childhood with a sour note in which she engages viewers to explore the complexities of a gun culture that has become more and more pervasive in everyday America.

William Cannings is a professor of sculpture at Texas Tech. He received a BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University and an MFA from Syracuse University. He exhibits frequently across the United States including in New York, Miami, New Mexico, and Texas, and his works are seen publicly in numerous permanent collections.

William works in an innovative process that masters three of the four classical elements of nature: steel, heat and air. Each of his finished sculptures appears buoyant despite its heavy material, creating a dichotomy of hard and soft, weightlessness and heft.