celebrating 15 years of keeping the arts in business
January 27, 2005
Rhodes-on-the-Pawtuxet
Cranston, RI
Master of Ceremonies:
Margie O'Brien, NBC 10
Performances by:
• Sugar Ray and the Bluetones • Feminist Voices: a chorus of women • Gamm Theatre • Tim O'Keefe (Cozy Music) •
Scenic Design:
GLAD WORKS - graphics
ioLabs, Inc. - production
Porsche McGovern - lighting
Frank Mullin - photography
2005 Encore Honorees
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The Encore Award
John Palumbo - RI Monthly
John J. Palumbo is a native Rhode Islander and has spent his entire professional career in the state in the marketing, communications and media field. He is a graduate of the University of Rhode Island and has taught public relations and advertising at Rhode Island College and the Rhode Island School of Design as an adjunct faculty member.
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Small Business Award
John Chan - Chan's of Woonsocket
Chan's Fine Oriental Dining has been serving Woonsocket patrons since 1905, introducing the community to its unique oriental delicacies. In 1965, Ben F. Chan purchased the then New Shanghai Restaurant and nine years later the Chan family refurbished the original dinign area, chanign the name to Chan's Fine Oriental Dining. In 1986, the restaurant doubled in size to offer jazz, blues, folk, cabaert and comedy performances to their customers.
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Individual Achievement Award
Ricardo Pitts-Wiley
Ricardo Pitts-Wiley is an accomplished actor, director, playwright and composer. In January of 2003 he and his wife Bernadet formed Mixed Magic Theatre & Cultural Events, a non-profit arts organization, dedicated to presenting a diversity of cultural and ethnic images and ideas on the stage. Mr. Pitts-Wiley currently serves as the company's Artistic Director. He has also founded two other theater companies, The Human Eye Ensemble in San Diego and the Art Ship Project in Providence, and has been Artist in Residence at the University of Rhode Island and Long Island University at Southampton, where he directed and taught acting.
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Special Recognition Award
Erminio Pinque - BIG NAZO
Erminio Pinque is the founder and director of BIG NAZO, an international touring group and Creature-Making studio based in Providence, RI that blends a variety of mask, puppet, performance and visual styles with live music and audience interaction. He and his troupe have designed, constructed and animated original characters for countless state productions, parades, TV projects, and festivals throughout the United States and overseas. In addition to performing throughout Rhode Island and representing Providence at international festivals around the world, Mr. Pinque and BIG NAZO form creative collaborations with the local community and students through internships at the BIG NAZO LAB in downtown Providence. He is a part-time faculty member at the Rhode Island School of Design in the Film/Video Department, where he teaches a course in Creature Creation, and he conducts mask-making, mural, and video Artist-in-Residency workshops throughpout Rhode Island and New England.
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BVA of the Year Award
John Ayers
John Ayers retired in 2000 after nearly 30 years of operating business experience with two Fortune 500 companies. The majority of his career was with AlliedSignal Corporation (now Honeywell) in the Fram and Bendix divisions, where he rose to Vice President of Marketing and later to General Manager of the Bendix division in North America, also serving as Vice President and General Manager of the European Aftermarket Operations in Paris. Much of his corporate career involved various aspects of Organization Development and Change Management, proving himself a leader in implementing change, improving operating and organizational effectiveness and efficiency, and in raising customer and employee satisfaction. He is now active in board development work with various non-profit organizations and is an active consultant for A&BC/RI's Business Volunteers for the Arts program.
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Arts Advocate Award
Dominique Alfandre
Dominique Alfandre moved to Newport, RI in 1982 when the Island Moving Co. was first forming. First as a board member and then as a paid manager, she worked with the dance company for the next twenty-two years, currently as Executive Director. During this time she helped found the RI Dance Consortium, an association of local arts councils, and the Arts & Cultural Alliance of Newport County, which she now chairs. She has also worked as a consultant with Janice Kissinger in Non Profit Advisory Services, and has offered counsel to many fledgling arts organizations. She serves on the boards of Island Arts, Rhode Island Citizens for the Arts, and the Newport Performing Arts Center.
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Jabez Gorham Award
Tony Estrella - Gamm Theatre
The Sandra Feinstein-Gamm Theatre was founded in 1984 by seven members of the graduating class of Trinity Rep Conservatory as Alias Stage, an artistic collective based in an abandoned mill building in Olneyville. In 1993 the group moved to the Jewelry District, and to a more formally structured organization with an active board of directors. Five years later, the theater accepted a naming gift from the Feinstein Family Trust in honor of the late actress and arts supporter Sandra Gamm. In 2003 the organization made the bold move to an annex of Pawtucket's historic National Guard Armory, where it is positioned for a promising future as lead tenant of an emerging non-profit performing arts and education center. Now in its 20th season, the Gamm Theatre is thriving with over 1,000 subscribers and a sustained reputation for the quality of its acting and for its provocative and engaging productions. Tony Estrella, The Gamm's current Artistic Director, was born in Pawtucket and has worked professionally as an actor throughout New England. He has been an actor and director with The Gamm for the past seven seasons, and also teaches acting and script analysis at the University of Rhode Island, where he has been on the theater faculty for seven years.
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To see a list of all Encore Award Honorees 1991-present,
click here.
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