Last night, January 31st, I had the pleasure of volunteering at the 2011 Icky Awards! This is a very fun night that is filled with glamour and culture. ICCA is the Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance. The ICCA is an alliance of over 150 cultural organizations in the Easter Iowa Corridor of Linn, Johnson, and nine adjacent counties. The mission of ICCA is to promote varied cultural activities of its partner organizations and to nurture a sustainable cultural community. ICCA works to ensure that community members and visitors to the corridor have access to relevant information about cultural opportunities. ICCA's core values are awareness (promoting opportunities to engage in arts and culture), cooperation (working to create thoughtful collaborations between organizations and individuals), equity (focusing on serving all partners, regardless of size or budget, in an equitable manner), influence (serving as a voice for the creative community), and stewardship (creating thoughtfully planned opportunities for engagement between partners.)
The Icky Honors were created to honor excellence in innovation in the programming and events of ICCA partners. The Ickys are not to honor the best of an specific category; rather, the Ickys are to honor and showcase those that have created something unique and unexpected over the past year.
The Icky itself was designed by Tom Newport and each one is different and unique being hand-carved and crafted. The different categories of Icky awards include Dance Programming, Children's Programming, Visual Arts Exhibit/Programming, Music Programming, Locally Produced Festival, History Exhibit/Programming, Educational Programming, Theatre Programming, ICCA Collaborative, and Reaching Out. The Larry Eckholt Award was given to Mark C. Ginsberg and the Cultural Advocate Award to James Kern.
The event was beautiful and it was great to see the arts and culture so alive in Eastern Iowa. This organization is very important to me in all that it does for my platform - The Importance of Music Education. Music and Cultural activities are accessible because of this organization. Schools, communities, and students need to be aware of these cultural opportunities to see why a complete Music Education is necessary in the educational plan of our community, state, and nation's youth. Thank you ICCA for keeping the love of music and culture alive!
Here is a picture of me with the statue of the BIG Icky. Each winner was given an Icky of their own that looked just like this one! I helped by ushering, giving out programs, and helping award winners to the stage. It was a wonderful event.
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