Business in the Arts Award Artwork Created by George Taylor

September 30, 2010

This year the Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts (MABCA) will celebrate the 24^thAnniversary of its Annual Business in the Arts Awards Luncheon to be held on Thursday, October 28, 2010 at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center at 11:45 am.  This program commends area businesses for their exceptional support of the arts.  In keeping with the theme of business/art partnerships, the awards themselves are works of art created by a local artist.   The Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts (MABCA) is pleased to announce that George Taylor has been selected as the artist for the 24^thBusiness in the Arts Awards, to be held on Thursday, October 28, 2010 at the Renaissance Hotel and Spa at the Convention

Center in downtown Montgomery.  This event is being generously sponsored by Alabama Artificial Limb and Orthopedic Service, Renaissance Hotel and Spa and Wells Fargo. 

The Artist and the Awards

Each year, The Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts (MABCA) presents the Business in the Arts Awards to area businesses that have shown exceptional support for the arts.  The awards themselves are works of art and this year, George Taylor was selected to create the 2010 awards. A Montgomery native, George Jefferson Davis High School, The University of Alabama and earned a B.S. in Accounting in 1989.  After spending an eternity the following autumn with an Atlanta CPA firm, he resigned to pursue his lifelong dream of being an artist.  Further peregrinations took him back to Montgomery, to Boulder, Colorado and again to Atlanta before returning to Montgomery in 1995 to paint the people, places and landscapes that he loves. George says “Like the artists of the Lascaux caves, I am compelled to capture and share emotionally charged images from my life.  I paint exclusively in oils because they have an unequaled feeling of solidity, depth, and chromatic intensity.  Though I do occasionally work from memory, most of my pictures are painted en plein air, because I prefer to be there, in the scene, to select the exact relationships and essences I’m after. As an art history fanatic, I research the issues of my craft endlessly.  The subjects I have chosen are fraught with meanings and associations for me, and their appearance in these paintings is a synthesis of how they look to me and how I feel about them, filtered through the practical constraints of the medium.  To this end, I freely appropriate techniques from many artists, styles, and periods, which technically makes me a post-historical subjective realist.”

MABCA Work

George created 4 wonderful oil paintings painted in the Plein Air style of Montgomery landscapes. 
 

The 2010 Business in the Arts Awards, created by Mr. Taylor, will be on display October 1- October 27, 2010 in the Alabama State Council on the Arts’ Alabama Artists Gallery in the RSA Tower 201 Monroe St. Montgomery, AL.  For more information please call Ashley Ledbetter 334-263-2224. 

Roster of Selected MABCA Artists
2009- Paulette Riley                                     2008- David Keith Braly

2007- John “Jake Wagnon                           2006- Clark Walker                                      

2005- Connie Watts                                      2004-Carol Barksdale-Meredith

2003-Cecily “Cissie” Hulett                         2002- George Allen “Bud” Harris

2001- Dawn Kuykendall (1941-2003)          2000- John Phillips

1999-Elena Aleinikov Kohn                         1998-Terry McKee

1997-Melissa Tubbs                                      1996-Frances Lanier

1995- Donna Jones                                       1994-Jim Gunter

1993-John Phillips                                        1992-Crow & Michaux

1991-Leonard LaRoux                                 1990-Jack DeLoney

1989-Robert Shelton                                     1988-Larry Godwin

    1987-Barbara Gallagher (1933-2006)

2010 Arts in Education Award Artist

The MABCA’s Virginia and Robert S. Weil Arts in Education Award is an award designed to award businesses that support the arts community in an educational manner.  Each year a student’s artwork is chosen as the award.  This year the MABCA selected its Weil Arts in Education artist from the Arts Council of Montgomery’s Senior High annual ACES art contest.  The 2010 Arts in Education Artist is Miss Belle Prosser, a 10^th-grade student studying in the Visual Arts Magnet program at Booker T. Washington High School under the guidance of Mrs. Rachel Dudley. Belle has been dedicated to honing her painting and drawing skills through art programs in the public school system throughout elementary, middle and high school. She has supplemented her training with programs at the Armory Learning Arts Center and AUM Youth College.  Belle has been recognized for her efforts by receiving many ribbons and honors over the past few years.

Fast Facts on the Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts

• The Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts is a not-for-profit organization of business and professional leaders committed to encouraging and developing business involvement with the arts.

• Founded in 1979, the MABCA is the oldest charter affiliate of the national Business Committee for the Arts (BCA.) The national group was founded in 1967 by David Rockefeller and a core of America’s top business leaders. There are currently twelve BCA affiliates across the country.

• The MABCA’s Virginia and Robert S. Weil Arts in Education Award is awarded to a business that has contributed the most to the arts or arts program in some educational way.  This award is named for Mr. Robert S. Weil and his late wife, Mrs. Virginia Weil, long-time supporters of the arts community.  Mr. Weil, of Weil Brothers Cotton, was one of the founding members of the MABCA and served as its Chairman of the Board from 1980-1983.  This year’s recipient is Aronov (Owen Aronov 334-277-1000)

• The Frank Plummer Memorial Arts Award is presented annually at the Business in the Arts Awards Program to a Montgomery area business for long-term support of the arts. The award memorializes Frank A. Plummer, former chairman of First Alabama Bank (now Regions Bank) who was a leading supporter of the arts in central Alabama.  The award, a stainless steel and copper sculpture titled "Convergence", is a visual representation of the interdependency and mutual support of business and the arts. The 2010 recipient is Caddell Construction Co., Inc. (Cathy Caddell334-272-7723).

• For the past twenty-four years, The Montgomery Area Business Committee for the Arts has hosted the Business in the Arts Awards, commending area businesses and individuals for their exceptional support of the arts.  This year’s event will be a luncheon on October 28, 2010 11:45 am at the Renaissance Montgomery Hotel and Spa at the Convention Center in downtown Montgomery.  The cost is $40 per person, $30 for an arts group/ organization and reservations can be made by calling the MABCA office at 334-263-2224.

• 2010 Chairman of the Business in the Arts Awards is Ken Selvaggi, WFSA 12 News 334-288-1212.

• 2010 Chairman of the Board of Directors of the MABCA is Josh Mandell, Summit America 334-954-4458.

• Each year, a local artist is commissioned to create the actual awards that are presented to winning businesses. The 2010 awards were created by George Taylor, 334-264-7041.

Limited edition signed prints of Mr. Taylor’s MABCA work may be purchased for $75 each, $85 matted or $120 framed or Set of 5 prints for $300 or a Set of 5 framed prints for $500 by calling Ashley Ledbetter 334-263-2224.  These items are also available at local stores such as B Barganier, Charleston House, Stonehenge and The Brass Fountain.