CBCA honors businesses and leaders supporting the arts

Here are the 2016 award winners

ColoradoBiz Staff //March 16, 2016//

CBCA honors businesses and leaders supporting the arts

Here are the 2016 award winners

ColoradoBiz Staff //March 16, 2016//

Colorado Business Committee for the Arts (CBCA) announced the winners of the 2016 Business for the Arts Awards at its annual luncheon on March 9. The event honored companies and individuals for their exemplary partnerships and engagement with the arts before a sold-out crowd of more than 700 arts, business and civic leaders at the Seawell Ballroom.

Jane Chu, chair of the National Endowment of the Arts, delivered the keynote address. Guests enjoyed pre-entertainment from Denver Chalk Art Festival and Metropolitan State University of Denver’s The Substitutes Jazz Quartet and the SCFD Polar Bears. Performances from DCPA Theater Company and DeVotchKa, Arvada Center for the Arts and Humanities, Cleo Parker Robinson Dance and Swallow Hill Music provided inspiring and energetic entertainment during the event.

2016 Business for the Arts Awards Winners

These five winners were chosen from 15 finalists and announced during the luncheon:

The Create Award acknowledges an outstanding, for-profit creative business that has made a significant impact on Colorado’s creative economy. The winner: Share Denver is a craft/maker space in Denver’s Park Hill neighborhood that fosters community through shared skills, peer-led workshops and events.

The EY Next Wave Leadership Award honors rising professionals who are leading the future of our cultural community. Recipients must be under the age of 40 as of March 9, 2016. The winner: Will Chan uses the arts to aid in the integration of new immigrants and refugees to Denver. Will promotes the holistic power of the arts as a common language and reflection of our diverse community.

The Impact Award highlights the innovative use of the arts to propel business success, programs that engage employees with creativity and other community activities that support arts and business partnerships. The winner: Illegal Pete’s does more than serve delicious burritos. Through their Starving Artists program and Greater Than Collective record label, they demonstrate a commitment to philanthropy, local music and community partnerships.

The John Madden, Jr. Leadership Award recognizes a business sector individual who has made significant contributions to advancing arts and culture in Colorado. The winner: Former Mayor Bob Murphy has been a leader in the rise of the art, culture and the creative economy across Lakewood.

The Philanthropy Award honors exemplary corporate citizenship and generosity to arts and cultural projects and organizations. The winner:  Crestone Mercantile is a major philanthropic player in this rural community and actively involved in their burgeoning creative district.

This years’ winners received original digital ink-jet photographs by Colorado’s Evan Anderman Photography.

The distinguished judging panel for the 2016 Business for the Arts Awards consisted of:

    Bill Marino, Board Chair, 40 West Arts District & Executive Director, Lakewood-West Colfax Business Improvement District
    Lisa Rigsby Peterson, Executive Director, Lone Tree Arts Center
    Dan Prather, Managing Partner & President, DualDraw & CBCA, Board Member
    Kelly Underell, Deputy Director, Colorado Innovation Network