The Arts Council in Buffalo & Erie County and their co-presenters the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and M&T Bank will present the 23rd Annual Arts Awards on March 20, 2009 at the Adams Mark Hotel in downtown Buffalo. This signature event recognizes excellence, innovation, contributions and achievement in the Western New York arts and cultural community. George Osborne and Artpark will receive the ‘Trailblazer’ award recognizing demonstrated leadership and progressive thinking that has contributed to organizational improvement.  Tickets for the annual Art Awards Event are available on-line at www.artsbuffalo.org  or call 716.856.7520.

Artpark has seen an amazing resurgence in programming and popularity over the past seven years.  Working in a licensed agreement with the office of New York State Parks, Artpark & Company has been the exclusive programming agent at the ‘Earl W. Brydges Artpark’ since 1997. Artpark’s 2008 Season drew more than 230,000 visitors to scheduled events with the potential for over 250,000 more who traversed the park over the course of the summer! This 174% attendance increase over the last six seasons is unmatched by any other Western New York cultural attraction.  Artpark patrons come from across Erie and Niagara counties, Southern Ontario and beyond. 

Artpark’s well-rounded, family-oriented summer schedule of entertainment includes musical and dance productions, big band shows, jazz performances, free “Tuesday in the Park” and “Wednesdays on the Gorge” concerts, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual Summerfest residency, summer art gallery exhibitions by the Buffalo Society of Artists, and an abundance of children’s art camps and arts-intensive activities.  Artpark has garnered three consecutive awards for “Best Outdoor Music Series/ Venue in Western New York” by Buffalo Spree (2006, 2007, 2008). Designated a National Historic Landmark in 1998, Artpark’s 150 acre landscape includes a plethora of historic sites including a 3,000 year old Hopewellian Indian Burial Mound, the birthplace of the Portage, Joncaire’s Trading Post, remnants of the Oak Hill Mansion, the Great Gorge Railway and more

Artpark President George Osborne has been working professionally in the field for more than 40 years, that past nine of which have been spent as the president of Artpark & Company, Inc., the not-for-profit organization responsible for the programming, operations and marketing of Artpark in Historic Lewiston, New York.  Mr. Osborne has previously held positions as general director of the Connecticut Opera, the Hartford Ballet, the Hartford Chamber Orchestra, the Lyric Theater of Memphis, Opera Memphis and Ballet South.  He served as chairman of the Hartford Commission on Cultural Affairs, the Advisory Council to the Connecticut Commission on the Arts, and the Tennessee Arts Commission.  An American Leadership Forum Senior Fellow, Osborne was a Fulbright Scholar to Rome, Italy and holds degrees from Oklahoma City University and Indiana University.

Since taking the helm of Artpark & Company, Inc. in the autumn of 1999, George has helped revive a performing and visual arts curriculum on the brink of financial collapse and a programming schedule bordering on general obscurity to once again attaining a position at the forefront of Buffalo-Niagara’s cutting-edge, imaginative cultural organizations.  Thanks to his keen business sense and innovative programs, Artpark attendance has increased every season during his and is now drawing close to a quarter million visitors for scheduled summer events.

From a programming perspective, one could safely ascertain that no other individual has been as important in the revitalization and development of Artpark’s incredibly well-rounded seasonal schedule of events.  Osborne’s vision to attract patrons back to Artpark led to the creation of a weekly, free outdoor concert series in a previously unused section of the park.  That series, which inventively combines prominent musical acts, hands-on art for families, and an amazing vista of the Niagara River Gorge, has matured into Artpark’s signature event, with 140,000-plus people attending 13 Tuesday night concerts last summer, and its revenues and exposure have permitted Artpark to increase the quality and occurrences of major musical productions, enriching children’s creative activities, and working visual artists in the park, and has sprouted an additional weekly, free series in the park.

George Osborne, who launched his career in the arts as an opera singer, has an enthusiastic understanding of the importance of collaboration in the ever-changing marketplace of non-profit culturals.  His influence was instrumental to the 2004 return of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra’s yearly summer Artpark residency, and his willingness and foresight have fostered Artpark partnerships with several other Buffalo-Niagara arts organizations such as WNED’s Great Guitar Festival, the Historic Lewiston Jazz Festival, and the Buffalo Society of Artists – whose works are now displayed in an gallery adjacent to the venue’s Mainstage Theater that formerly housed a park store until Osborne conceived the idea to transform it into a useable art space.

The park’s newfound popularity has been instrumental in securing financial appropriations from New York State Parks and the New York State Assembly Delegation, which are earmarked for the first facility rehabilitations in the venue’s 35-year existence.  Artpark’s Mainstage Theater underwent several structural repairs prior to last summer including the replacement of a leaking roof, upgraded theatrical lighting, and a complete renovation of the three-decade-old stage.  Improvements slated to be completed for 2009 are underscored by new, padded theater seats, and also feature a freshly painted interior with a contemporary ambience and brand new draperies adorning the facility’s majestic walls.  Artpark & Company, Inc. is also nearing the implementation stages of a complete redesign of the venue’s Outdoor Amphitheater, home to the weekly concerts.

Artpark’s 2009 Anniversary Season will be unveiled in May (www.artpark.net).