The Spark Awards have always been about more than a single moment of recognition. Over the years, the Spark Awards have helped shine a light on the many different people, ideas, and contributions that make Western New York’s creative community so unique.
This year, as we celebrate a new generation of Spark Awardees, we’re taking a moment to look back at a few of the people who have been part of that story. Honored in different years and across different categories, these three awardees represent the evolving, interconnected nature of our region’s arts and cultural community.
Thembi Duncan
2021 Arts Integration Awardee
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Duncan gets police recruits on their feet to demonstrate how certain movements can change the perception of who they are.
“I can’t emphasize enough how a teaching artist can make change from inside institutions if they are willing to imagine new ways of applying their art form. I took the principles of theatre and applied them to public service, but I didn’t do it in a vacuum. Twenty hours of nighttime ride-alongs in the city, along with interviews with officers and law enforcement leadership, helped me improve the program so that we were able to train all graduating cadets coming out of the academy for four years. It truly was a collective effort to improve community policing in an innovative way.”
University Heights Arts Association
2016 Rising Star Awardee
Lawrence Kinney and Mary Ouimette-Kinney, Co-founders of the University Heights Arts Association Accepting their Spark Award.
The UHAA Team celebrating their win at the 2016 Spark Awards.
“The beauty of the WNY arts community is that there is room for new ideas and new voices. Support from the Arts Services Inc. through conversations, workshops–and a Spark award–has made them an indispensable asset in our journey over the last 13 years.
The Spark award was a nod from the ASI and the established art professionals who comprise it that we were moving in a direction that was useful, and there continues to be a place for us.”
Lynn Marinelli
2014 Advocate for the Cultural Sector
Lynn Marinelli alongside regional arts and culture organization representatives at the Erie County Legislature.
Marinelli standing in solidarity with regional Union Actors.
“I proudly accept this inaugural award on behalf of those who may not have been blessed with God-given artistic talent or any king’s ransom for philanthropy, yet proudly promote and advocate for the arts!
I vow to continue to advocated—in good times and in budget-crisis bad times—to keep public investment in the arts.”