WS Chronicle

The Arts Council of Winston-Salem & Forsyth County has announced the winners of its four annual awards. President and CEO Randy Eaddy said, “Each year, countless individuals and organizations contribute to the vitality and diversity of the arts in our community. It is always a highlight of The Arts Council’s year to recognize and celebrate some of them in a special way by granting our Annual Awards.”

The Arts Council Award. The Arts Council Award recognizes an individual who exhibits a significant commitment to volunteer service and has made a lasting impact on the Winston-Salem and Forsyth County arts community. The 2020 recipient is Dr. Dale Pollock, a retired professor and former dean of the School of Filmmaking at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts. 

Pollack’s extensive volunteer service over the course of his long career, and beyond it, has influenced the lives of hundreds of inspiring film industry participants and helped to shape and deepen the community’s appreciation of filmmaking and love for the “big screen.” Pollock was instrumental in bringing the RiverRun International Festival to Winston-Salem in 2002 and subsequently helping to lead its emergence as one of the premier cultural events in the state and region. He still serves as an emeritus member of RiverRun’s Board of Directors.  

The Arts Educator Excellence Award. The Arts Educator Excellence Award recognizes an educator or teaching artist who has enriched the education of the community’s youth and inspired the next generation of artists, patrons and other creative individuals. The 2020 recipient is Dr. Rachel Watson, a musician as well as an educator, and currently senior director of education, engagement and inclusion for the Winston-Salem Symphony. 

Watson taught music in the Winston-Salem/Forsyth County School System for 15 years, serving as the orchestra director at Mount Tabor High School and Jefferson Middle School. She has been instrumental in the Winston-Salem Symphony’s P.L.A.Y. (Piedmont Learning Academy for Youth) program, which emphasizes teaching the whole child – i.e., head, heart and hands. Indicative of her commitment, Watson learned Spanish in order to enhance her ability to extend the impact of the P.L.A.Y. program. She also led the adaption of the program’s curriculum to provide online lessons when COVID-19 disrupted in-person lessons. 

The R. Philip Hanes, Jr. Young Leader Award. The R. Philip Hanes, Jr. Young Leader Award recognizes an individual under 40 years old whose time, talent and energy have furthered the mission of supporting and promoting the arts in the community, leaving a legacy of service for future leaders and for the future of the arts. The 2020 recipient is Magalie Yacinthe, an entrepreneur, arts and equity advocate, and community leader. Yasinthe’s volunteer community service is wide ranging, notwithstanding the demands of running her own business. She is the communications and marketing chair of Winston-Salem Delta Fine Arts and a member of the City/County’s Public Art Commission’s Fourth Street Public Art Committee. Yacinthe is part of the volunteer organizing group for the Winston-Salem Portrait Project, which will be officially unveiled in April 2021 and is one of the city’s largest public art projects. She has also worked with the University of North Carolina School of the Arts’ Kenan Institute for the Arts and the National Black Theatre Festival and served as arts & letters chair for the local alumnae chapter of Delta Sigma Theta.

The Arts-Integrated Workplace Award. The Arts-Integrated Workplace Award recognizes a local company or other business for its exemplary efforts to integrate the arts into its organizational culture and the lives of its employees. The 2020 recipient is Hanesbrands, a stalwart supporter of the arts in this community.

Hanesbrands is the archetype of a company that both supports the arts itself and promotes and facilitates appreciation for the arts within its work environment. In addition to its magnanimous financial support to numerous arts organizations for many years, Hanesbrands has encouraged its employees to embrace, support and participate in the arts. 

Hanesbrands sponsors annual visual art contests and talent shows for its employees. Hanesbrands also hosts an annual arts fair that introduces employees to various arts and cultural organizations in the community to promote awareness, attendance at arts events and volunteerism that includes service on the governing bodies of arts organizations.

Hanesbrands’ longstanding special support of The Arts Council is manifested in numerous ways on The Arts Council’s campus at the Milton Rhodes Center for the Arts – via the Hanesbrands Theatre and otherwise – and by its proactive promotion of its employees’ workplace campaign that supports The Arts Council’s annual Community Fund for the Arts campaigns.

Winston-Salem, known as the “City of Arts & Innovation,” and Forsyth County have an arts community that enriches the lives of area residents every day and accounts in large part for the recognition they continue to receive as a great place to live, learn, work and play. Forsyth County’s non-profit arts industry supports more than 5,500 full time equivalent jobs; accounts for more than $129 million in resident household income; and generates more than $14.8 million in local and state tax revenues.