Pollak Prize Quote of the Day!

"You were soooooooo good!"
- Mandy Moore, pop singer and star of HBO's Entourage
talking to Harry Kollatz, Jr, Master of Ceremonies

Last night I collected myself and the arsenal of remedies I am taking for whatever strain of crud that's been draining into my bronchial system. I knew it would be a well worth the effort since it was the tenth anniversary of the awards ceremony for the Theresa Pollak Prize for Excellence in the Arts.

Several friends and colleagues were award recipients and then of course my better half, the Harryman, was the M.C.

I sat in the back row to avoid interrupting the show with my coughing and it proved to be the best place to take in the spectacle of artists being moved by the rare opportunity to watch other Richmond artists receive accolades.

My two favorite responses to Harry's "suave"* introductions were Jerry Donato's and Johnny Hott's. When Jerry was asked if he had anything to say he simply said "no." After the standing ovation he and Joan Gaustad received for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts he was probably speechless. Joan nearly swallowed her words with emotion.

When Johnny Hott accepted his award for Excellence as a Vocalist/Instrumentalist he walked on stage with with his lovely, if tearful, six year old daughter Odessa and said he didn't know if he would be the musician he is today or be part of the Richmond music scene if it weren't for his friend Bryan. These two acceptances both brought tears to my eyes which quickly evolved to laughter with Mr. K's laser wit. He was "on" last night and it added another level of joy to a beautiful evening at the Singleton Performing Arts Center.

The complete list of the award recipients for the
Theresa Pollak Award for Excellence in the Arts:

Photography: Georgianne Stinnett
Vocalist/Instrumentalist: Johnny Hott
Fine Art: Jack Wax
Dance: Pam Turner
Enemble: Modern Groove Syndicate **
Film: Sonali Gulati
Lifetime Achievement: Gerald Donato and Joan Gaustad
Emerging Artist: Colleen Curran
Applied Arts: Karl Green
Theatre: Richmond Shakespeare Theatre
Words: Laura Browder


The artful graphic above and the description of the Pollak Prize below are from the Richmond Magazine website:

This is Theresa Pollak posing for her bat mitzvah portrait at Temple Beth Ahabah on Franklin Street in 1913. A born and raised Richmonder, she had a full life ahead of her.

Pollak established in 1928 what evolved into Virginia Commonwealth University’s School of the Arts, where she taught for 41 years. During the 1930s she founded the art program at the University of Richmond, her alma mater (she graduated from Westhampton College, now part of the University of Richmond, in 1921). Pollak’s work was often shown in exhibits and collections, and she was a lifelong student. In 1958, she enrolled in the Art Students’ League of New York and learned from abstract expressionist Hans Hofmann. Pollak died in September 2002 at the age of 103. In 1998, Richmond magazine introduced the honors named for her. Several past recipients are no longer among us: jazz violinist and educator Joe Kennedy Jr.; artist, mentor and professor Richard Carlyon; theater director Ernie McClintock and actor Mary Sue Carroll. Three Pollaks were posthumous, those for artist Esther Elizabeth Motts, editorial cartoonist Jeff MacNelly and musical enthusiast and broadcaster Eric E. Stanley. Perhaps no one honoree was more influential than Carlyon, himself a student of Pollak. He recalled in 2001, “One valuable lesson I learned from Ms. Pollak was that you can’t feign seriousness in the pursuit of art.” Or, in the words of Roger Carroll, the 2006 Vocalist honoree, “There ain’t nobody lyin’ up in here.”

*Harry's comments as described by award recipient Laura Browder
** The pianist for Modern Groove Syndicate is Mandy Moore's beau