Professors Win Art Prize

Out of the four Cleveland Arts Prize winners awarded for 1999, Oberlin can claim two as their own. Theater and Dance Department Chair Nusha Martynuk was given the first dance prize since 1995. English Department Professor David Young was honored for his most recent books, including Seasoning, A Poet's Year: With Seasonal Recipes. The Women's City Club of Cleveland and the Cleveland Women's City Club Foundation, who sponsor the Arts Prize, call the award "an annual celebration of creative achievement."

Martynuk was given the award in honor of her lifetime achievement. She has been an artist in residence in the Ohio Arts Council's Artist in Education and she has received three fellowships for choreography by the Ohio Arts Council. In addition to performing in nationally-recognized dance troupes, Martynuk manages Partners/Martynuk/McAdams Dance with her husband, Carter McAdams.

Martynuk said she was awarded the Arts prize for "creating a substantial body of work and sustaining that" throughout her career. For Martynuk, the Arts prize was especially sweet, since recognition on a local level has been hard to come by. "It's hard to be a prophet in your own town. It's almost easier to be admired from a distance," she said.

For Professor David Young, the Arts prize symbolizes more than being respected for his poetry. The award is not just a prize offered to one individual. It represents the recognition of Oberlin College as a viable creative outlet. According to Young, it is about Cleveland acknowledging that "we're a part of the greater Cleveland art scene." Like Martynuk, Young was pleased to be praised on the local level. "Since I'm a bio-regionalist in my writing, recognition of my work is very gratifying," he said.

Martynuk and Young are not the only prize winners with connections to Oberlin College. Prize winner Dr. Margaret Brouwer OC'62 and Special Citation winner Majorie Witt Johnson OC'35 also represented Oberlin.

Martynuk, Young and the other award winners will be recognized at a ceremony on Tuesday, Sept. 21 at the Cleveland Museum of Art.