The Arts & Cultural Council Honors 2009 Awards Recipients

By Carlet Cleare

Rochester, NY –
The Arts and Cultural Council for Greater Rochester held its 26th Annual Arts Awards luncheon Thursday.

County and state officials, as well as members of the arts community, gathered at the Hyatt Hotel in downtown Rochester.

The Council honored six individuals and organizations. One of which is former WXXI-FM classical music host Simon Pontin who received the Lifetime Achievement Award.

While humbly accepting his honor, Pontin says there is one accomplishment he's proud of.

"The one thing that I fought very hard for was the calendar, which is now run by the Arts and Cultural Council," Pontin says. "The calendar evolved out of my being pretty lazy, in general. I used to have to assemble all the news releases that came in, put them into a book and make them into some intelligential form. I talked the Arts and Cultural Council into putting it onto a Web site so now they are accessible by everyone."

Pontin was the host of WXXI's Sunshine Show for more than 30 years. He retired in May.

The other award categories were for literary and performing artists, organization, special recognition and champion of the Arts.

An election committee selects award recipients each year.

Other honorees include the Little Theatre for Organization, Nazareth College Arts Center for Special Recognition, Betty Strasenburgh for Champion of the Arts, William Heyen for Literary Artist and Darren and Heather Stevenson were awarded for Performing Artists

The Arts and Cultural Council's mission is to develop, promote and strengthen the cultural industry.