Annual awards celebration will be held on June 19, 2010 in Providence

PROVIDENCE, RI – Trinity Repertory Company announced today that the legendary Liza Minnelli will be honored as the recipient of the 2010 Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts and Jazz impresario George Wein will be awarded the Pell Award for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts. Artist Umberto “Bert” Crenca will receive the 2010 Rhode Island Pell Award for Excellence in the Arts at the 14th annual Pell Awards Gala. 

The Pell Awards Gala will be held on Saturday evening, June 19, 2010 from 6:00 PM to 10:00 PM at the historic Sharpe Building at the Foundry Complex in Providence. The annual fundraising event will be co-chaired by Mary and Ellicott Wright and Michael and Bonnye Young. Individual tickets are $500 and $1,000; corporate sponsorships are available. Proceeds from ticket sales benefit Trinity Rep’s artistic and educational programs. For more information and reservations, contact Trinity Rep at (401) 453-9237.

Artistic Director Curt Columbus said, “We could not be more delighted to present the 2010 Pell Award for Lifetime Achievement in the Arts to Liza Minnelli, star of stage and screen. Her passion for the arts and brilliant career continue to inspire thousands of artists, and her philanthropic efforts dedicated to education and AIDS research are equally commendable. I find it exceptionally fitting in light of the fact that we kicked off this year's season with Cabaret, that we will close the season in celebration of the one actress whose iconic performance in Cabaret continues to thrill generation after generation.” 

Columbus speaks highly of this year's honoree for Outstanding Leadership in the Arts: “The incomparable George Wein has had a profound impact on local and national music landscape through his work as a musician, advocate, producer, and organizer. George has brought emerging artists to national attention, celebrated the diversity of American folk and jazz music and has set the standard of excellence for outdoor music festivals with his Newport Jazz and Newport Folk Festivals.”

On the choice for this year’s local award recipient, Columbus states, "Rhode Island Pell Award honoree Bert Crenca is probably best known for his work as the co-founder and leader of AS220, which stands today as one most innovative and successful arts organizations in the nation. But we are pleased to shift the focus to the man himself and honor Crenca with this award in recognition of his exemplary achievements as a visual and performing artist. It was as an artist first and foremost that Crenca first created AS220's mission, fueled by his personal belief that art should be cultivated in an unjuried and uncensored space. It is Crenca's artistic vision and often controversial body of work that has helped to create a passionate dialogue within our community today."

Now in their second decade, the Pell Awards were established to honor Senator Claiborne Pell and recognize artistic excellence in Rhode Island and on the national level. Pell, who passed away last year, worked throughout his career to support the arts and provide new opportunities for artists. He sponsored the landmark legislation that established the National Endowments for the Arts and Humanities in 1965, and chaired the Senate Education and Arts subcommittee. He also served a four-year term on the board of Trinity Repertory Company.

Liza Minnelli was born on March 12, 1946, in Los Angeles, California to the actress/singer Judy Garland and Vincente Minnelli, the film director responsible for such classics as Meet Me in St. Louis and An American in Paris. She began her career at a very early age, co-starring with her mother in the movie In the Good Old Summertime in 1949.  At the age of 10, Liza hosted the first-ever TV broadcast of The Wizard of Oz, reaching a viewing audience of about 45 million people. By the time she was 19, she had landed the lead role in Flora, the Red Menace.  This Broadway performance won her a Tony for Best Actress in a musical.  In 1967 she went on to star in several films that showcased her superb acting abilities (Charlie Bubbles, The Sterile Cuckoo, and Tell Me That You Love Me, Junie Moon).  In 1972, her movie career peaked when she played Sally Bowles in Cabaret. The film won eight Oscars, including Best Actress for Liza.  The role also earned her a Golden Globe and a British Film Academy Award.  The unqualified success of Cabaret put Liza on the covers of Time and Newsweek in the same week.

Liza also starred in the first concert ever filmed live for television in 1972. Liza with a Z produced a Top 20 album and won the Emmy for Outstanding Single Program.  It has been released in recent years as a DVD.  Liza went on to appear opposite Robert DeNiro in the musical New York, New York, directed by Martin Scorsese, in 1977.  In 1981, she co-starred with Dudley Moore in the movie Arthur, going on to make the sequel Arthur 2 in 1988.  Liza added a second Golden Globe to her already impressive list of awards in 1985 with her performance in A Time to Live, a made-for-TV movie.  In 1989, she produced an album with Britain’s Pet Shop Boys called Results that was a huge hit all over Europe. In 1997, Liza took over from an ailing Julie Andrews in Broadway’s Victor/Victoria.  Andrews had to leave the show to undergo vocal cord surgery, which was not completely successful.  Liza later underwent the identical surgical procedure and made a full recovery.

Liza returned to the stage in December 1999 to pay tribute to her father in a show called Minnelli on Minnelli at New York’s Palace Theater. Shortly after the CD of Minnelli on Minnelli was released in February 2000, Liza was hospitalized for encephalitis.  The prognosis was grim:  she was told that she would never walk, talk, dance or sing again. But Liza’s incredible will, determination and relentless hard work proved them wrong, and by June 2002, she was back on stage at the Beacon Theater in New York.  Her triumphant comeback CD entitled Liza’s Back! was released in October 2002 and she was seen as Lucille Austero on TV's critically acclaimed Arrested Development.

In 2008 Liza returned to Broadway with Liza's at the Palace... which went on to win the Tony Award for Best Special Theatrical Event. It's Liza's fourth Tony. She recreated the show at the MGM Grand, where her performance was filmed for a public television special and a DVD. The show's cast recording was nominated for a Grammy Award.  Liza continues her extraordinary music career with ongoing concert tours in the US and Europe, as well as releasing a new album.

Jazz impresario George Wein is considered to be as much a legend as his festivals. Through his company (now called New Festival Productions, LLC), he has spearheaded hundreds of music events annually since 1954 when he produced the first Newport Jazz Festival – an event that started the festival era. Five years later, Wein and folk icon Pete Seeger founded the Newport Folk Festival where the two music giants celebrated 50 years of folk with 15,000 fans in August 2009.  

At 84, Wein has as much creative fuel as he did when he started the Newport festivals and advanced the concept of live music. He pioneered the idea of sponsor association with music events, beginning with The Schlitz Salute to Jazz and the Kool Jazz Festival. His company went on to produce titled events for JVC, Mellon Bank, Verizon, Essence, Ben & Jerry’s and others.  He continues that tradition with the CareFusion Newport Jazz Festival and CareFusion Jazz Festival New York. 

As a result of his diverse contributions to jazz and world culture, Wein has been honored by heads of state, educational institutions and leading publications. In 2005, he was recognized with a Jazz Masters award as Jazz Advocate by the National Endowment for the Arts.  In addition, honors and awards have been bestowed upon him by Presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter, the governments of France and Chile, AARP, the Studio Museum in Harlem, New York Urban League, National Music Council, Pratt Institute, DownBeat magazine, The Jewish Advocate, Saint Peter's Jazz Ministry, WBGO/Jazz 88, Symphony Space and other organizations around the world. Mr. Wein was inducted into the Rhode Island Heritage Hall of Fame for his contributions to the musical heritage of the State of Rhode Island. He is a member of the Collegium of Distinguished Alumni of Boston University and is the recipient of the Centennial Medallion Citation from the Hampton Institute as well as honorary degrees from the Berklee College of Music, Rhode Island College of Music, Five Towns College and North Carolina Central. Mr. Wein is a lifetime Honorary Trustee of Carnegie Hall and a member of the Board of Trustees at Jazz at Lincoln Center.

Mr. Wein’s autobiography, Myself Among Others: A Life in Music, which chronicles his life in jazz, was recognized by the Jazz Journalists Association as 2004’s best book about jazz.  The Jazz Journalists also named Wein Events Producer of the Year in 2009. In addition to his life in jazz, Mr. Wein has a long history of involvement with philanthropy and the arts, including the establishment of the Joyce and George Wein Chair of African American Studies at Boston University and the Alexander Family Endowed Scholarship Fund at Simmons College. 

Umberto “Bert” Crenca is the founder and Artistic Director of AS220, a non-profit center for the arts in Providence, Rhode Island. AS220 was established in 1985 to provide a local forum and home for the arts that is unjuried and uncensored. The organization maintains thirty two artist live and/or work spaces, four gallery spaces, a print shop, two darkrooms, a technology lab and a stage, and has established a powerful presence in the Downtown Arts and Entertainment District.

Crenca is a visual and performing artist with a long exhibition and performance history. He has been an artist in residence at the New England Center for Contemporary Arts in Brooklyn, Connecticut, where he exhibited. He had four solo shows at AS220, and solo exhibits at the Galleria Del Corso, Latina, Italy, and the Newport Art Museum. Crenca has participated in two-person and group shows at Newport Art Museum, Museum of Art, RISD, and the New York Cultural Center, Real Art Ways of Hartford, Connecticut among others. His work is in the permanent collection of both The Museum of Art at RISD, and the Newport Art Museum. As a member of the Panic Band, he performed in the 2001 Fringe Festival in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Crenca has been committed to the revitalization of Downtown Providence, and plays an important role in community efforts across the region. He served on Providence Mayor Cicilline's Arts Culture and Tourism Advisory Board and on the steering community for the department's Creative Providence cultural assessment and planning initiative. Crenca was an advisor to the LINC Inititive, a national effort to create better support systems for individual artist. He also served on the Providence School Board in January 2005 to December 2008. Currently, Crenca is a member of the advisory board for WRNI, Rhode Island's Public Radio, and sits on the board of Providence's Downtown Improvement District (DID).

In the past two decades, Crenca has been a panelist for the National Endowment for the Arts, The Urban Institute, The Ford Foundation, LEF Foundation, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Massachusetts Cultural Council, Connecticut Council on the Arts, the New England Artists' Trust, and the Creative Cities Summit. He has been a guest speaker and mentor for the Urban Artist Initiative through the Connecticut Council on the Arts, and was a fellow in the Pew Civic Entrepreneur Initiative, and the Rhode Island Foundation. In July 2003, Crenca was awarded a scholarship to attend the Strategic Perspectives in Non-Profit Management course at University of Harvard Business School.

Since 1998, Crenca has spearheaded efforts to bring more meaningful arts education programming to incarcerated youth. In 1999, Crenca established AS220's youth arts program, Broad Street Studio, which continues to serve and support youth transitioning out of state care with arts instruction and professional development at AS220's Empire St. location.  Crenca was a visual art instructor at the Rhode Island Training School, the state's juvenile detention facility from 2000-2004. He has taught visual art to youth aged twelve to eighteen at Urban Collaborative Accelerated Program (UCAP) and New Pride, Providence alternative schools. He was the instructor for Art and Community Building at the Rhode Island School of Design (RISD), and was a mentor for The Metropolitan Regional Career and Technical Center (The Met School), an inner city state operated school in Providence.

Previous Pell Award honorees include Kevin Spacey, Jason Robards, Arthur Miller, Beverly Sills, Stephen Sondheim, Toni Morrison, Robert Redford, Maurice Sendak, Jane Alexander, Ruby Dee and Ossie Davis, Chita Rivera, Olympia Dukakis, and Trinity Rep’s resident acting company.  Since the inception of the Pell Awards in 1997, there have been thirty-six New England and Rhode Island winners, including Senator Pell, Peter Geisser, Consuelo Sherba, Roger Mandle, Howard Ben Tre, Dorothy Jungels, Chris Van Allsburg, Paula Vogel, Eugene Lee, David MacCaulay, Rose Weaver, Thomas Sgouros, Dave McKenna, Maria Spacagna, William Warner, Brian Dennehy, Barbara Meek, Ruth Frisch Dealy, Gretchen Dow Simpson, Dan Butterworth, Virginia Lynch, Toots Zynsky, George Kent, Bob Colonna and Duke Robillard.

PHOTOS:        
Liza Minnelli http://www.trinityrep.com/DownloadDocs/minnelli.jpg

George Wein http://www.trinityrep.com/DownloadDocs/GTW.jpg  (credit: John Abbott)

Umberto “Bert” Crenca http://www.trinityrep.com/DownloadDocs/Bert.jpg