|
|---|
Arts Awards |
| From the Anguilla Local News - Site Map. |
|
|
|---|
Arts Awards |
| From the Anguilla Local News - Site Map. |
The first annual Arts Awards Banquet was held on February 7, 1998 at the Anguilla Great House. Three awards were given that night, for Community Service, Artist of the Year, and Theatre Arts.
Audrey Brooks was winner of the Community Service Award.
Those who have met Audrey know that she is full of life
and enthusiasm.
This sense of youthfullness, coupled with good health and commitment to serving her community, has made Audrey Brooks into one of the most effective community service volunteers in Anguilla. Her involvement in the work of non-governmental organizations has been considerable over the years. She is President of 'Friends of the Hospital', Treasurer of the National Council of Women, member of the Soroptomist Club and the Women's Craft Group, and has been an active member of the Family Planning Association.Since retiring from the Public Service in 1991 as a Librarian, she has been a stalwart of voluntary service and support to the Pharmacy at the Hospital and the Special Education Department of the high school where you will find her two days a week helping students enhance their reading skills and overcome learning difficulties.
Michael "Dumpa" Martin is winner of the Artist of
the Year Award for his Caribbean folk-ballad entitled
"I Must Come Back to Anguilla". Dumpa is a very well known
musician on the steel pan and can heard somewhere in
Anguilla almost every day of the week. Read
our earlier news story.
Since the early 1980's when Michael Martin (aka Dumpa) came to Anguilla from his native Antigua, the people of the island came out and followed him like the Pied Piper. Natives and visitors alike flocked to Johnno's and danced to the sounds of Dumpa's steel pan...Dumpa is now pursuing a life-long passion in teaching children the magic of the steel pan in Anguilla's schools. This easy-going husband and father of two is more than a "magic-pan man", he is also a composer, arranger and songwriter, an artist of pre-eminence who works tirelessly at his craft.
Farrah Banks is winner of the Theatre Arts Award, for her
work in numerous productions of the Sunshine Theatre Company. This
Company began in Anguilla nine years ago, with Felix Fleming as
the driving force, and has produced 26 major plays since then.
Farrah Banks association with Sunshine Theatre began in 1990, but her first onstage appearance did not come until 1992 when she appeared as Marilyn in The Master of Carnival... Her patience and her ability to grasp and follow directions without the benefit of previous theatrical training was remarkable. Although she was thought to be too young for the part, she auditioned and was chosen to play the role of a Catholic Nun in A Dance in the Dark and what make-up and costume couldn't do, she made up for with her talents. The character of Mother St.Justin have as a glimpse of what Farrah had to offer the theatre.For the past three years Farrah has been working as a radio announcer at Radio Anguilla and is pursuing a career in communications. During this time she took a course in Radio Production Techniques at the University of the West Indies in Jamaica, while still finding time to partially satisfy her passions for the stage and watching the West Indies cricket team play in the region.
These awards were sponsored by the Sunshine Theatre Company and are intended to become an annual event. The company is in the process of raising funds for a permanent theatre building in Anguilla.
Revised: February 19, 1998