Film festivals. Galleries. Multiple orchestras in a town of only 100,000. There isn’t much argument against the fact that Boulder is an arts city.
But when Bill Obermeir, executive director at the Dairy Center of the Arts looked around town, there was something big he thought was missing: recognition.
“As near as I know, there hasn’t been previously in Boulder any kind of recognition of people that have made any kind of significant contribution to the arts,” he says. “The Dairy Center thought it was appropriate to do that. So we came up with the Dairy Center Honors, which we modeled after the Kennedy Center Honors.”
For those unacquainted few, the Kennedy Center Honors are an annual mega-swanky event held in our nation’s capital since the Carter Administration, which has honored everyone from Fred Astaire to Led Zeppelin (any artists its board feels have significantly contributed to society) with a top-notch black tie swankfest, packed with all-star tributes.
That means Boulder is going to do red carpets, surprise performances, fancy champagne; the works. And it’s all going down 6:30 p.m., Wednesday, Sept. 3 at The Dairy Center’s performance space.
It took nine months of work to put the Dairy Center Honors together, and Obermeir says it will be an annual event from here on out.
Things started with collecting nominations online. Those nominations were then given to a panel of local arts experts — not necessarily practitioners — to pick the eight honorees.
“What we were looking for was if you took this individual out of Boulder’s history, would there be a vacuum,” says Obermeir.
Those that made the cut are Ballet Arts founder Barbara Demaree, Upstart Crow Theatre Company founder Richard Bell, University of Colorado Boulder art instructor Richard Bell, EcoArts founding director Marda Kirn and Robin and Kathy Beeck, the founders of the Boulder International Film Festival. There will also be a special Business Supporter Award given to The Millstone Evans Group of Raymond James and a Humanitarian Award given to Stephanie Rudy, who Obermeir describes as the hardest working local arts organization volunteer around.
“Here are some people that are making the community better,” says Obermeir. “[Honoring them] is important because it inspires more people to follow the example they’ve set and it raises the level of commitment to the arts in Boulder.”
For their efforts, the honorees will be wined, dined, serenaded and generally celebrated.
“They also get — for commemorative purposes — a medal that was hand-crafted by a local artist named Cha Cha,” says Obermeir.
The program should be both entertaining and inspiring for all that attend, he adds.
Of course, Boulder is decidedly smaller than the country as a whole, so staging a local awards show modeled after a national show is not without perils. But Obermeir is unconcerned.
“Obviously, we’re a local level, so the scope of impact is more who has had an impact on the local level like those folks [Kennedy Center Nominees] have had an impact on the national level,” he says.
As for longevity in a smaller market: Obermeir says that based off the number of nominations they got in the first year, there is plenty of steam to keep the honors rolling on an annual basis.
“There are a lot of people behind the scenes as well as in front of the scenes that are making a huge impact on this community,” he says. “We’re going to be able to pay recognition to a lot of people that otherwise wouldn’t get it, but really deserve it.”
The first-ever Dairy Center Honors will be going down Wednesday, Sept. 3. Tickets and more information about the honorees is available at www. TheDairy.org.
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