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The Indiana Daily Student

arts

Governor's Arts Awards announce recipients

The Governor’s Arts Awards had taken place every two years since 1973.

However, last year they were delayed to coincide with Indiana’s bicentennial and the Indiana Arts Commission’s 50th anniversary.

The awards will be presented April 9 at a ceremony at Butler University in Indianapolis, according to a press release from Indiana Arts Commission.

Earlier in March, the final recipients of the awards were announced.

This year’s recipients include Jim Davis, Wes Montgomery and Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds.

Davis, who was born in 1945 in Marion, Indiana, turned the drawings of cats he made as a bedridden child into the ubiquitous “Garfield” comics.

Davis also adapted his comics to television and won three Primetime Emmy Awards in the process.

In 2004 and 2006, the comics were adapted to feature films, with Bill Murray voicing the cat.

Montgomery, an influential jazz guitarist, was born in Indianapolis in 1923 and died there in 1968.

Earlier this year, Resonance Records released “One Night in Indy.”

It is a previously unreleased recording of Montgomery performing in 1959 in Indianapolis.

Edmonds, also an Indianapolis native, has worked as a writer and producer of artists including Whitney Houston, Beyoncé and Madonna in addition to his solo work.

He was nominated for a 2016 Grammy award as a writer on Jazmine Sullivan’s song “Let it Burn.”

The American Pianists Association, Robert and Ellen Haan, David Hochoy and Dance Kaleidoscope will also receive awards.

The Governor’s Arts Awards were created in 1973 as a collaboration between the IAC and the Office of the Governor.

The awards are given to individuals, communities and corporations for achievements and contributions to the arts in Indiana, according to the IAC 
website.

Each year, the IAC commissons an Indiana artist to design the awards.

This year, the awards will be designed and created by Daren Redman.

Redman is a textile artist from Nashville, Indiana.

The recipients are chosen by a panel of Indiana’s arts, education, business, public and private sectors.

The recipients are selected based on their whole body of work and the cultural effect it has had on a community, national or international level, according to the website.

Tickets for the awards ceremony are $20 for the public and $10 for students.

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