PHOENIX ARTS HERO PROGRAM 2019-2021 SEASON

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2019-20

an arts experience happen It is easy to focus on the lead actor, the baritone soloist or the sculptor who created the piece While the stars of the show are important, so are all the individuals who work behind the scenes to make that result in the show coming together, the art exhibit being unveiled These are the unsung heroes who make the arts of the state of Arizona such a vitally important part of our qualit y of life

C O NG R ATU L AT I O N S

communit y leaders and ON Media staf f selected the eight individuals who represent the mission of this program during the 2021-22 season Salt River Project has graciously been the sponsor of the Phoenix Arts Hero program for the past six years; thank you, SRP! Each month, the chosen Arts Hero is featured in all programs published by ON Media during that month, with a full page article and photo

Submissions have been robust ever y year, giving the committee several candidates from which to choose This year, with the arts reappearing af ter the drought of the pandemic, the 2019-2020 and 2021-22 arts heroes you

The commit te e will b e soliciting nomina tions throughout the se ason. Think ab out some one you know in the communit y who makes the ar ts happ en. Go t o www.onme diaaz.com/our-passion/ t o submit your nomina tion for an ar ts hero this ye ar For

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LINDA

ALVAREZ

Making Things Better by Connecting to Art

Linda Alvarez was a “sculpture kid” in high school, where she personally discovered the power of art to make things better. Art back then was a way to help process things she was thinking and feeling.

Today, Alvarez is focused on helping others connect to art in ways that make things better. That was her goal when she was first hired in 2016 as the Phoenix Art Museum’s teen programs coordinator. It continues in her role as community programs and bilingual interpretation manager at the museum, where for nearly two years she has shown uncommon commitment to meeting the needs of the museum and a broad, diverse community.

For Alvarez, figuring out what to do when norms — no in-person visits, no community events, no standard operations of programs — were smashed to pieces during a pandemic was a lot like throwing pottery.

Empowering the community through arts and culture.

“There’s always a process that you have to go through,” Alvarez says. “I think that’s my approach to arts programming, too. Everything is an iteration of something else. You’re never really starting from scratch.”

Early in the pandemic, Alvarez molded community programs to the realities of social distancing. For example, out of abundant concern about isolation among elders, the Senior Coffee Social art discussion became a virtual event.

Alvarez also responded to another 2020 world event — the murder of George Floyd. She added layers of diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion work to her duties, cochairing a museum task force on those issues.

“She is just such a deeply generous person,” says Nikki DeLeon Martin, the museum’s interim deputy director and chief marketing and external affairs officer. “She really models making decisions that are in the best interests of the museum and the community, and views the outcomes as linked to each other: What’s best for the museum is what’s best for the community.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

Nominate him or her at onmediaaz.com

PHOTO BY JOSHUA GUTIERREZ

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CHRISTOPHER

CANO

Studio program creates stage for young artists to blossom

Christopher Cano calls himself a “go big or go home kind of guy.” A transformative Arizona Opera studio is what happens when he does both.

In 2017, Cano left the Manhattan School of Music, where he taught for 17 years, to become head of music at Arizona Opera and director of the Marion Roose Pullin Arizona Opera Studio. Back home, where he had received his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in piano performance from The University of Arizona, he found the professional opportunity of his dreams.

STUDIO PROGRAM In his freelance work, Cano noticed that young artists often were relegated to minor roles. In his two-season studio program, they participate in at least six shows. By the second season, they own the stage in the manner only people with experience own it.

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“The only way any young artist is going to learn how to do the job is to actually do the job,” Cano says. “It really was imperative to take risks, and

I’m very lucky that I have a team [at Arizona Opera] that understands and appreciates the importance of that.”

Understanding and appreciation are growing. In the last application round, Cano reviewed 552 candidates. The highly competitive program accepted five—three singers, one pianist and one assistant stage director.

SHOWTIME This month, studio artists will showcase their talents in Scenes in the Wittcoff performances in Phoenix and Tucson. Cano was born in the former and raised in the latter.

“To be able to come home and go back to my roots was always something I had hoped would happen,” Cano says. “It’s an incredible journey, and I couldn’t be happier with where we are as a program and where the company is at large.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

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PHOTO BY CLAUDIA JOHNSTONE

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EFRAIN CASILLAS

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Music educator Efrain Casillas reported for work at Tolleson Elementary School District with expertise in classical music, Latin jazz, salsa and merengue. It wasn’t enough.

To connect with students who have strong cultural ties to Mexico, the Puerto Rico-born Casillas learned mariachi. He had a hunch that teaching it would fuel students’ interest in all forms of music, which would deliver the well-known benefits of exposing children to the arts.

Under Casillas’ leadership of nearly a decade, TESD mariachi and marching bands have performed multiple times at Disneyland and in the Fiesta Bowl parade. The mariachi band has twice won the Community Choice Award at the Tucson International Mariachi Conference.

In 2018, Casillas received Chicanos Por La Causa’s Esperanza Latino Teacher Award. In 2020, he was one of the Country Music Association Foundation Music Teachers of Excellence, which honors educators for their dedication and impact on the lives of students and the communities they serve. Casillas learned about the award during a guest appearance on “The Kelly Clarkson Show.”

Casillas calls the hard work of 12hour days teaching music classes and overseeing before- and after-school practices “living the dream.”

“Some of these kids, you teach them the basics and then you see how well they play,” Casillas said. “Some of the instruments that I’m not super good at, you see those kids become better than me. That’s amazing. I love it.”

Some former students are now professional mariachi musicians. Others are in college studying music; a few now assist him with his work at TESD.

“They’re coming back,” Casillas said. “A lot of them are invested in the community; so, they want to work in the community and help the kids.”

Casillas told Kelly Clarkson that his motto -- the message he delivers to students -- is “Achieve in excellence.” He leads by example.

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

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VALERIE BONTRAGER

Following adventure down the rabbit hole

The allure of scientific adventure led Valerie Bontrager to The Phoenix Symphony. There was the promise of rabbit holes.

Five years later, the Symphony’s director of education and community engagement is still in discovery mode. She carries hopes that many of the 125,000 children and adults the Symphony reaches through programs she oversees will dig deeper, too.

LIFE - LONG LEARNING Bontrager has no music background beyond her high school band program. But she has a life-long interest in learning, which has led to a 20-year career at informal education institutions, including the Arizona Science Center and the Arizona Challenger Space Center.

“The thing I love about informal education is that it offers a lot of different ways you can get involved in a topic,” Bontrager says. “When you find your interest in it, you get really motivated. I love that hook that takes us down the rabbit hole.”

And so, of course, a job posting seeking someone with experience in quasi-experimental science research and the ability to apply nontraditional programs in schools caught her eye. The hook was the Symphony.

LIFE - ALTERING PROGRAMS

Bontrager helps keep wheels turning on potentially life-altering programs. One is an Alzheimer’s study that tracks the impact of live music by measuring stress markers in saliva and a musician-assisted STEM education program in partnership with schools. The study is showing that stress levels go down and remain low for musicians, patients and caregivers.

This is in addition to traditional field trips and assembly programs. In January, more than 10,000 school children will visit Symphony Hall. Bontrager has personal knowledge that these experiences last a lifetime.

“If (students) learn the skills to research and follow their passion, they feel empowered by having their own motivation,” Bontrager says. “They’re figuring out their own interests. And then we’ve got life-long learners, and we have an interesting society.”

That’s a rabbit hole large enough for all of us.

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

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MICHAEL FOCARETO

Tickets are his mission

If you had told Michael Focareto 12 years ago he would be CEO of a nonprofit with a commanding presence in the world of ticketed events, it would not have computed. Veteran Tickets Foundation was not on his radar.

But when you look at the smooth design and operations of Vet Tix, it is everything a Focareto-led project would be. Vet Tix is what happens when an information-systems engineer with military DNA and a habit of helping feels strongly about waste and recycling.

“It’s my passion,” Focareto says. “I never thought it would be this. I just stepped into it.”

EMPTY SEATS It’s been forward march since 2008 when the Navy veteran attended the Super Bowl and noticed empty seats near him. Tickets unused. What a waste, he thought, but also what an opportunity to fill those seats with people who deserve some enjoyment. Imagine all the tickets military veterans and those currently serving would gladly use if they had access. Imagine the community benefit of fuller houses.

Through an ingenious online platform, the foundation has helped 1.3 million registered “Vet Tixers” score nearly 8 million donated and purchased tickets to more than 92,000 events, ranging from ballet to bull riding. Users pay only a small delivery fee.

ALL ABOUT TICKETS “Our mission is tickets,” Focareto says. “We get donated tickets; plus we spend 100 percent of every dollar donated to us on tickets. It makes a complete circle.”

The circle is growing. In response to donors, Vet Tix added 1st Tix in 2018 for first responders. It’s anticipating a connection to the Tessitura Network, similar to partnerships with Live Nation and Ticketmaster, to tap into more arts and culture events.

Focareto sees a future where Vet Tix distributes 1 million tickets monthly. He’s confident partners and donors will help his organization reach that goal. And where from there? “Unstoppable,” he says.

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

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RITA HAMILTON

Linking libraries to the arts

Phoenix librarian Rita Hamilton has spent her entire career putting edifying materials into the hands of people who want and need them. There is a science to it, and she has mastered it.

But there is also an art to it. Thankfully, she has mastered that, too. One example is her work to link libraries to arts and cultural institutions and experiences.

LIBRARIES AND THE ARTS

“Libraries and supporting the arts and culture go hand in hand,” Hamilton says. “It’s enhancing people’s appreciation of literature, the arts and all the cultural things that the community can offer, which helps better your education, your knowledge of life and of mankind.”

It’s because of Hamilton that Culture Pass, a program that allows library users to check out passes to free admission to museums and artistic performances, took root in Phoenix. Hamilton was inspired to launch Culture Pass after attending a conference in Minnesota in 2008 where she learned about a Twin Cities

program, Metropolitan Library Service Agency’s smARTpass. The program is in keeping with the transformation libraries have made from being passive resources to active ones.

CULTURE PASS

Culture Pass has experienced tremendous growth since the nonprofit Act One took charge and expanded it to Tucson and Sedona. In the Valley, Act One partners with 51 libraries, more than a dozen attraction arts partners and 19 performance arts partners.

“People wait outside before we open just to come in and get that Culture Pass,” Hamilton says. “It affords lowerincome folks a chance to partake, as well, and I think that’s one of the biggest facets. It can equalize access to very important institutions—the arts organizations. There is a win-win for all of us and for the community.”

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DAVID

HEMPHILL

Activism through the Arts

Time is relative for Black Theatre Troupe. The more things have changed over its 51-year history of activist theater, the more they stayed the same.

No one knows that better than David Hemphill, who has been the company’s executive director for 27 years. He has felt a connection to it since before the New York City native moved to Arizona in 1980.

Now, Hemphill’s hand — guided by a warm heart, a business mind and a commitment to do what success required, including acting and even mopping floors — is guiding the future of one of the nation’s longest-running black theater companies.

“(Black Theatre Troupe) was started to answer some tough questions,” Hemphill says. “That was one of the things that attracted me to the company — the base of activism. It spoke to me a lot because of my involvement in civil rights.”

Helen K. Mason founded the company in 1970 in response to social turbulence across the nation. Fast-forward 50 years to the so-called national reckoning on racial injustice.

“It was very, very upsetting,” Hemphill says. “I don’t know how else to explain it. It just made my heart sink that we were at that point again. … But on the other hand, our mission was staring me right in the face again.”

COVID-19 essentially stopped time for live theater in 2020. That was the year Black Theatre Troupe was to celebrate its golden anniversary in grand style. Productions planned for its 50th year are featured this season. Nothing has changed.

“What I call activism is illuminating our culture, even if we do it with a musical,” Hemphill says. “Just as long as we connect with people, and illustrate the power and the beauty of the African-American culture, I think that we’re being activists.”

Congratulations, David!

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PHOTO BY CHRIS LOOMIS PHOTOGRAPHY

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BRANDON LEE

Of all the incredible highlights of Brandon Lee’s life during the past 18 months, the most difficult thing for him to comprehend is the most tangible: people love the former TV news anchor’s artwork enough to buy it and display it.

“Something I created? I still can’t wrap my head around it,” Lee says.

But all the other mind-boggling things that put Lee in a unique space where art meets mental health make perfect sense to him — from experiencing suicidal depths of despair, to introducing himself to fluid art and becoming buzzworthy good at it, to quitting a prime journalism job midcontract to establish an art therapy program that grew three times larger than his original goal in a matter of months.

It is all meant to be, Lee says, with a conviction that reveals a contagious delight about finding his life’s purpose.

Art Of Our Soul grew from an epiphany, Lee says. The studio program he developed last year helps people heal trauma and addiction through the creative process.

Lee knows a lot about trauma. He is open about being sexually abused as a child, and about his struggles with drug addiction, including a relapse in November 2020. His growing public presence in mental health advocacy draws heavily on those experiences and direct knowledge about the healing power of art.

“Artwork hits your soul in so many different ways that you get lost in the moment and that’s where true healing begins,” Lee says. “When you look at programs that get cut from schools, the first programs that always get cut are the arts. But what people need to understand is that the arts should never be cut from any aspect of our lives. … The arts are a huge part of the pie that helps one with their entire healing.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

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ALLAN E. NAPLAN

Director taps into early experiences to enrich Musicfest

Allan E. Naplan’s life in arts has the shape of an hourglass. At one end is a childhood enriched by opportunities to explore a variety of art forms and drill deeply into understanding music. At the other end is Arizona Musicfest with its eclectic programming and wide range of customer experiences.

EARLY EXPERIENCES

At a granular level, each end of the hourglass informs the other. Childhood experiences that satisfied a “ravenous appetite” for the arts shift naturally in time to stewardship of Musicfest, a north Scottsdale organization Naplan has led since 2013. Inspiration behind Naplan’s work reaches back through the ages to childhood experiences that included exposure to dance, visual arts and, as the son of an excellent music teacher, classical music.

Before becoming executive director and producing director at Musicfest, Naplan spent 20 years focused only on opera as a performer and then as an administrator, a role that allowed him to do public engagement he believes is essential for the health of the arts and communities.

ENRICHING PROGRAMS

Today, Naplan leads an organization that satisfies his artistic interests and impacts the community. He created two new programs that engage and enrich: The Music of Arizona, which celebrates the state’s multicultural heritage with a performing ensemble that looks like Arizona, and Music Alive!, which is a series of community programs—lectures, movies, book club—to enhance the Musicfest customer experience.

Arizona Musicfest supports young musicians, offers arts enrichment for school children and broadly and deeply serves a growing, dedicated customer base. More than 30,000 people attended 28 performances during the 2019-20 festival season. Musicfest education programs will reach more than 6,000 students.

Naplan sees room to grow. It’s just a matter of time.

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LOWELL PICKETT

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Well, of course the artistic director of the Musical Instruments Museum would say that. Pickett has a deeply sourced knowledge of universal truths about music. It helps him produce a performance schedule that makes music originating from near and far a part of our lives.

Pickett’s love for music began in his childhood home in Minnesota, where his mother, a cellist, gave music lessons. Highlights along the path to founding the renown Dakota Jazz Club include opening a record store and renting an armory for concerts. With friends, he started a production company that did film projects in the arts community. He was chairman of the Minnesota Arts Commission.

All of that led to MIM, a place he finds magical.

“I think the museum is the most extraordinary place I’ve ever seen related to music,” Pickett says.

At MIM, which features musical instruments from some 200 nations, Pickett books master artists to complement exhibits. “Because of the quality of the theater, and the quality of that museum, my feeling

is that the greatest musicians in the world should play there,” he says.

Good music happens everywhere. Pickett says there is plenty of it in Arizona, which is why he works to ensure local talent is in the performance schedule at MIM. Never was that attention to MIM’s backyard more important than when the pandemic hurt musicians’ livelihoods. Pickett spearheaded special concerts featuring local artists.

Despite knowing the importance of music to our lives, Pickett believes we underestimate its power. “Music”, he says, “creates bridges; people with divergent views can sit together and enjoy the same performance”.

Today, clearly, we need bridges.

“Some say sports are unifying,” Pickett says. “No, not in the same way as music. In sports somebody wins; somebody loses. But with music, nobody loses.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

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“We all love music,” Lowell Pickett says.

“Music is a part of our lives.”

TOM

RAFFAELI

Learning about cities through arts institutions

Tom Raffaeli makes tours of Phoenix arts and culture institutions remarkable experiences with his encyclopedic knowledge and infectious enthusiasm. Truth be told, he is quite the institution himself.

Before ground broke at Herberger Theater Center, Raffaeli was a fixture. He was one of the founding associates, a group of volunteers who gave time and treasure to support the center. More than 30 years later he still delights in giving tours and building on his legacy of support.

COMMUNITY ENGAGEMENT

“I think the key, especially for older folks like myself, is to inspire people to get involved, to contribute, to donate, to do whatever they can to keep the vitality of life in a city like Phoenix, or a country like this country, or a state like Arizona, going in a very positive way,” Raffaeli says.

In addition to his Herberger support, Raffaeli gives tours of Trinity Cathedral and volunteers at its on-site Olney Gallery. He also helped preserve the OrpheumTheatre.

WORLD PERSPECTIVE

“Before establishing roots in Phoenix in 1974, Raffaeli lived all over the world, a consequence of his father’s military career. He developed the habit of getting to know cities by visiting cultural institutions—the opera houses in Germany, the cathedrals in Italy, the theaters of New York.

Travel, particularly by ship, remains an important part of his retirement life. He goes to appreciate the world, but he’s always glad to return to Phoenix, a place he wants to inspire others to love.

“You have many opportunities and many ways to get involved,” Raffaeli says. “Do it. It will make you a better person, and it will make that place better and everything that surrounds it better.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

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PHOTO BY MARK METTES JR.

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JEN ROGERS

An artist for artists

Listen to the president and CEO of the Phoenix Chorale explain with uncommon sincerity who she is, what she does and why. The word hero never comes up.

But just by being herself, Rogers is an artist doing heroic work for artists. Her service to organizations like The Nash and Phoenix Girls Choir and her avant-garde approach to nonprofit leadership make her a unique asset in the Valley arts and culture scene.

Rogers joined the Phoenix Chorale staff in 2008 after a few years at The Phoenix Symphony Orchestra, where she honed her exceptional marketing skills. Those skills serve her calling to help artists.

ARTISTIC DEVELOPMENT While studying saxophone and music education at Northern Arizona University, she watched talented people in Flagstaff’s live music scene struggle for subsistence. She embraced artistic development as a strategy to help. Today, that means working passionately to raise the profile of some of the most extraordinary artists she knows.

“I’m still in awe of what they do on stage,” Rogers says of the Phoenix Chorale.

“When you have voices in harmony singing together,” she adds, “the way that they blend together, the sound just washes over you. There’s something really special and particularly human about choir music.”

THE BUSINESS OF ART Rogers, who became choir president and CEO in 2016, aspires to make the business side as exceptional as the Grammy-winning artistic side of the organization. So far, her efforts have boosted ticket sales, increased digital audience and created national buzz with an open, innovative search for an artistic director that produced Christopher Gabbitas, who debuts this month in that position.

Listen to Lynne Traverse, Phoenix Chorale board chair, describe Rogers as the “best of the best.”

“She has proven herself on so many levels,” Traverse says. “The [arts heroes] who are on these pages are people I want to be excited about, and I’m very excited about Jen.”

Do you know an Arts Hero? Someone who works tirelessly to strengthen, improve and enhance the arts in our community?

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CAROLYN SEDLAK

An Energizer Bunny

Carolyn Sedlak’s colleagues at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts don’t call her the Energizer Bunny for nothing.

The lead house manager’s batteries are always full when it comes to ensuring things run smoothly for patrons. That’s the way it has been for 31 years.

“We could not imagine our Center operationing without her,” Scottsdale Arts President CEO Gerd Wuestemann wrote in nominating Sedlak for Arts Hero honors. “We’ve watched Carolyn evolve and constantly overcome many changes and challenges. … Her amazing energy and sense of humor is what all of us here at Scottsdale Arts love about her.”

Sedlak started as a volunteer at the center in 1991. Three years later she became an assistant house manager. As lead house manager, she oversees a staff of seven employees and a volunteer corps of about 130 people. The job is part logistics, parts hospitality, and a mix of whatever else is needed to ensure patrons get in and out of the center safely.

Until her relationship with the center began, attending performances wasn’t

a normal part of a life filled with family, work, and an active social life. “My horizons weren’t very broad,” she says.

Her horizons today?

“So much brighter,” Sedlak says. “I have seen so many performances and different ways things are done. … Yeah, I’m old, but I still like to learn and still like to see. It’s always changing.”

Change is good. So, apparently, is continuity. For years, playing bunco and poker, being the long-time treasurer of a retiree association, and volunteering as an usher at ASU Gammage Auditorium, among other things, have been constants in her life.

At 80 and proud of it, there’s no talk of Sedlak ending her long run at the center. Her plan is to keep going and going and …

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DOUG SYDNOR

Architect, artist, historian and author

—a true arts champion

Doug Sydnor lives a life with no seams. There’s virtually no line between professional and volunteer work. There’s no divide in his views of the past, present and future. There’s no separation in his mind between arts, culture and community.

Broad views and deep-seated habits of civic engagement are why so many pockets of seemingly disparate arts and culture organizations have benefitted from Sydnor putting his whole self into work on their behalf.

ARTS CHAMPION For more than 40 years, Sydnor, an architect and an artist (there’s no seam here either), has supported the arts in Arizona. He has served in leadership roles in 20 arts or cultural organizations, including Scottsdale Arts, Phoenix Art Museum and Scottsdale Sister Cities Association, where he oversees the Young Artists and Authors Showcase. He was an early champion for the “percent for the arts” movement to set aside about 1 percent of mostly municipal projects’ budgets for public art.

“You can’t take it for granted,” Sydnor says of the arts. “You have to really be aware of it and support it. Otherwise you may lose it one day.”

PAST MEETS PRESENT Sydnor knows what he’s talking about regarding loss. His name is well-known in historic preservation circles.

In addition to wearing architect and artist hats, Sydnor is an author. He has written books on architecture, and he writes a column about notable architects in Arizona Contractor & Community magazine.

“I am what some may describe as a very contemporary architect,” Sydnor says. “Despite caring about architectural history, in all of the work that I’ve done, I’ve tried to push what is an innovative, fresh way of tackling a problem.”

Some of that thinking, with an eye toward the future, shows up in art compositions that, as he describes, bleed off the canvas—suggesting images that carry on indefinitely.

Of course. No edges. No seams.

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JUDITH WOLF

Artist reveals the creativity in every child

Twenty-two years ago, Judith Wolf arrived in Phoenix and immediately set about releasing her creativity on the arts and culture scene.

Her first touch was the Phoenix Chorale. Later she would serve several years on the Phoenix Arts and Culture Commission. She has been an Arizona Opera board member for more than 20 years. She was inducted into the Arizona Culinary Hall of Fame in 2015.

THE ARTIST IN EVERYONE But the most impressive piece of Wolf’s creative work in Phoenix is the nonprofit she co-founded in 1998. Young Arts Arizona has the unique mission of teaching and exhibiting the art of challenged children.

As president and CEO of Young Arts, Wolf has led the growth and development of an organization that was founded on the ingenious idea of exhibiting children’s art at multiple venues, such as hospitals and the state Capitol, rather than at one stand-alone gallery. Thousands of children and many millions of visitors have been touched by the Young Arts gallery experience.

Empowering the community through arts and culture.

NEW GALLERY EXPERIENCE Today, Young Arts displays 2,000 pieces of art during more than 100 exhibits

per year at 39 gallery spaces. It operates five teaching programs, has relationships with five school districts and collaborates with other agencies to expose challenged children to the benefits of creating art, although the word “challenged” is loosely defined. As Wolf notes, “Every child is challenged in some way or other.”

Artistic talent is a not a prerequisite for children to participate in the program or to have their work hung for the public to appreciate.

“We’re about creativity and feeling good,” says Wolf, a poet with a doctoral degree in psychology. “When you release creativity, you make art.”

Wolf’s release of creativity – springing from an entrepreneurial spirit, a lifelong relationship with the arts, intellectualism, and compassion –creates a masterwork that is Young Arts Arizona.

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These individuals were nominated and selected by the community for their hard work and dedication to the arts.

CONGRATULATIONS

to the 2019-20 Arts Heroes

...and the 2021-22 Arts Heroes

ON Media thanks SRP for supporting the Phoenix Arts Hero program. To find out more about these Arts Heroes or to nominate the next Arts Hero, please visit: onmediaaz.com/our-passion

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Allan Naplan Arizona MusicFest

Tom Raffaeli Herberger Theater Center

Michael Focareto Vet Tix

Valerie Bontrager The Phoenix Symphony

Christopher Cano Arizona Opera

Doug Sydnor Architect, Artist, Historian and Author

Jen Rogers Phoenix Chorale

Judith Wolf Young Arts Arizona

Rita Hamilton Phoenix City Librarian

Lowell Pickett Musical Instruments Museum

Efrain Casillas Tolleson Elementary School District

Carolyn Sedlak Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts

David Hemphill Black Theatre Troupe

Linda Alvarez Phoenix Art Museum

Brandon Lee Art of Our Soul

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