The Homer Council on the Arts holds the Community Arts Awards each year to celebrate the talented artists who call Homer home and their contributions to the community. The council announced this year's recipients late last month, marking nearly two decades since its first awards ceremony.
Seven Homer residents were nominated by their peers and received art awards this year — from visual and musical artists to teachers and business owners.
Cathy Stingley, a Homer resident and current president of the Pier One Theatre Board of Directors, received the Mary Langham Volunteer of the Year Award.
In addition to supporting the visual arts through Pier One and hosting weekly musical jam sessions, Stingley volunteers wherever she can in the local art scene. She said volunteerism has made her own life much richer.
"I really encourage anyone who has that capacity to volunteer to reach out," Stingley said. "Not only to Homer Council on the Arts but to the many nonprofits in town that can certainly use help.”
Krista Etzwiler is a retired teacher who recently started teaching art in the council's ceramics studio. She received the Jill Berryman Art Educator Award for her more than 25 years of teaching art in the community.
Etzwiler said she incorporates visual arts into her classrooms because of the positive impact it has on students.
"It takes someone who is passionate about the arts, you have to put so much into making that happen," she said. "But the output of energy is far surpassed by the energy that you get in return by the joy that it brings. So that's the reason I keep wanting to be involved in arts education.”
You can find the full list of Community Art Award recipients on HCOA's website.
