Photographers Tariq Mohamed and Abdi Roble, arts advocate and author Donn Vickers and broadcaster and actor Chuck White have been named winners of the 2006 Arts Freedom Awards by the South Side Settlement House and Huntington Bank.
They will be honored at the annual Arts Freedom Celebration beginning at 5:30 p.m. next Sunday in the Columbus Museum of Art, 480 E. Broad St. The event is a benefit for the settlement house.
Mohamed and Roble have documented the challenges facing Somali refugees in Columbus. An exhibition of their work — The Somali Diaspora — was shown in June 2005 at the Ohio Arts Council’s Riffe Gallery.
Vickers, former executive director of the Thurber House, is an author as well as founder of the Jefferson Center for the Arts. A longtime arts advocate, he is an expert in the activities of nonprofit organizations, especially boards of trustees.
An actor and singer, White is best-known as a broadcaster for WBNS-TV (Channel 10). He is former public-affairs director for the station.
The South Side Settlement House is a 106-year-old nonprofit agency committed to "creating a community of culture and concern rooted in economic and social justice," according to Executive Director Mari Sunami.
Its programs include child care, camping, teen groups and family counseling.
The Arts Freedom Awards program, in its sixth year, was "created to celebrate artists who, through their life’s work, have impacted the human condition in central Ohio," Sunami said.
"All of these artists represent the best of what central Ohio has to offer in terms of generosity and commitment to giving, in its most meaningful sense."
Winners are selected by a panel of judges made up of professionals in the arts community.
Proceeds from the celebration will help support an endowment fund for the settlement house.
"I don’t believe there is any other award ceremony that recognizes the work and lives of central Ohio artists quite like . . . the Arts Freedom Awards," said Nannette V. Maciejunes, executive director of the Columbus Museum of Art.
For more information about the South Side Settlement House or the awards event, call 614-444-9869.
Source: Columbus Dispatch, Oct. 8, 2006