JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Five Mississippi cultural treasures will be recognized with a Governor’s Arts Award next February in a ceremony that’ll have at least two honorees - Lane Chapel Quintet and hit country songwriter Craig Wiseman - sharing their talents with a home crowd.
The recently announced 2015 recipients are: Wiseman, originally from Hattiesburg and now in Nashville; Mississippi State University Riley Center for Education & Performing Arts in Meridian; documentary producer Chesney Blankenstein Doyle of Natchez; photographer Maude Schuyler Clay of Sumner; Lane Chapel Quintet of Tupelo.
The ceremony will be held at 6 p.m. Feb. 19 at the Belhaven University Center for the Performing Arts Concert Hall. Jim Dees, host of Thacker Mountain Radio Show, will serve as the master of ceremonies. The Mississippi Arts Commission coordinates the awards.
Wiseman, three-time recipient of the ASCAP Songwriter of the Year Award and a Grammy winner for Best Country Song, has also snapped up CMA and ACM Song of the Year awards, and, in 2009, Nashville Songwriters Association International’s Songwriter of the Decade honor.
Among Wiseman’s more than 300 cuts, 100 charted singles and 19 No. 1 hits is “Live Like You Were Dying” (with Tim Nichols), recorded by Tim McGraw and also the title of Wiseman’s 2004 best-selling book. Dolly Parton, Kenny Chesney, Faith Hill and LeAnn Rimes are among those who’ve recorded his songs.
The MSU Riley Center is a jewel box opera house whose $25 million restoration/renovation into a multi-faceted center that draws conferences, meetings and performers such as B.B. King, Lyle Lovett, Trisha Yearwood, Wynton Marsalis and blues icon Buddy Guy to downtown Meridian.
Its spotlight focus on America’s musical heritage goes beyond the stage; “Sparkle & Twang,” a display of highlights from Marty Stuart’s country music memorabilia collection, drew visitors to the center’s large exhibit hall. MSU president Mark E. Keenum called it “a treasure” in the region.
“As we grow MSU-Meridian’s vital Riley Campus, winning the Governor’s Award ranks as a tremendous honor for both the Riley Foundation and our university,” Keenum said. “This prestigious award underscores the great value of MSU’s partnership with the foundation.”
Documentary producer Doyle, “stunned” at the honor, was struck, too, that people beyond viewers and workmates were thinking about her work on the public television series “Great Museums,” ’’and in such a meaningful way,” she said.
“At the time we created ’Great Museums’ in 1997, there was no museum-driven programming on television,” and even now, theirs is the only ongoing TV series focusing on the world of the museum. Her goal is to keep viewers engaged and zero in on “that Eureka moment” of new information that’ll stick with them.
Clay, whose photography books “Delta Land” and “Delta Dogs” have chronicled her home turf in atmospheric black and white, called the recognition “a real big honor for me,” and a continuation of Mississippi’s support of her work and for the arts.
“I feel I’m bound to give a true record of the Delta,” she said of pictures that’ve been lauded for finding the poetry in the languorous landscape.
Her next book, “Mississippi History,” due out in fall 2015, is a collection of low-light color portraits of Mississippians, 1980-2005, with a foreword by Richard Ford.
“Aw man, I’m so flabbergasted,” Rob Barnes, leader of the Lane Chapel Quintet since the death of his cousin and quintet founder Charles Richardson in 2001, said of the group’s coming award.
What began as a gospel group first organized in 1976, branched out to include R&B and jazz, sometimes performing as A Touch of Harmony. Barnes, who “can sing all the parts,” he said, is proud to share one supporter’s label of “ambassador” for the group that’s taken its harmonies to festivals, competitions and community gatherings throughout the state and across the country. Listen up for “Ain’t Too Proud to Beg” at the February ceremony.
The five 2015 honorees were selected from 21 nominations.
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Information from: The Clarion-Ledger, https://www.clarionledger.com
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