The Arts Community of Easton, ACE, Announces its Annual Arts Awards.
Tickets are available at Connexions Gallery, 213 Northampton St., Easton for $25
On December 7th, 2008, beginning at 6PM, artists, patrons and friends will gather again to honor partnerships, member contributions and the recipient of ACE's First Annual Scholarship for Fine Arts in the beautiful and historic Bank Street Annex, located at 316 Northampton Street. The annual Arts Awards were begun as a means to recognize contributions that have been made to the community by members of ACE that bring an awareness of the value of art as a means for positive growth and change to the community of Easton and the surrounding area. Over the past several years, many have been honored for their outreach, support and individual contributions.
 Being honored this year is Karl Stirner as the recipient of the Artist of the Year award. Stirner is considered by many to be responsible for the birth of Easton's art community. Born in Germany 84 years ago, Stirner came to the United States at age 4. Early in his professional career he was a drafter, served in WWII during which time he saved $3500.00 and started a machine shop business. Later, he entered the wrought iron business, fabricating railings and soon decided to be more creative, designing and producing modern furniture and sculpture. This led to a teaching position at Tyler School of Art at Temple University, and then Moore College of Art and Swathmore College.
He exhibited a number of times in New York, including at the Museum of Modern Art. For a period of time, Stirner and a friend operated the Stirner/Unangst Gallery at 1000 Madison Avenue. Despite his earlier success, Stirner abandoned his work for a period of twenty years during which time he designed and built a house in Upper Black Eddy, fathered three children and lived a somewhat quiet life. In spite of his time off, he continued to consider himself an artist and when a visit brought renowned artist Brice Marden to his space, a compliment he paid to a small, older piece of Stirner's sculpture sparked the creative inspiration again.
In 1982, Stirner bought a renovated a factory building on Ferry Street. Now known as "The Easton Arts Building", it houses gallery and studio space for himself and other artists, with his home on the third floor. Since his purchase of the building, Stirner has worked tirelessly to promote Easton as an arts community. He became a shepherd of sorts, drawing other artists to live and work within the city, all the while continuing to create and exhibit his own works. Today he continues to produce new work in his vast basement workshop. His passion for the city has not ebbed over the years and he continues to draw artists and other creative souls to the city.
The Patron of the Year award has been reserved for individuals or organizations that have worked quietly to promote and support the Mission Statement of ACE. This year's recipient has been a partner with ACE from it's first meetings. Lafayette College has provided ACE with a place to meet, an advisor to the ACE board of directors and opportunities for members of the Arts Community of Easton to show in it's galleries as part of group and invitational shows. As strong partner of the arts in the Easton community, Lafayette College in recent years has expanded its arts programming into the downtown through their Williams Visual Arts Building (commonly known as the Grossman Gallery) on North Third Street. Through this facility, Lafayette has been able to provide world class exhibitions and performances, as well as establishing an outreach program for Easton and Phillipsburg high school students, to explore their creativity in an academic setting that would otherwise be unavailable to them. Further, Lafayette's Williams Center for the Arts at High and Hamilton Streets has been a constant source for exciting art exhibitions and performances from national and international artists for decades.
This year, ACE is pleased to be able to honor its first recipient of the Arts Community of Easton's Visual Arts Scholarship, Jessica Sturchio. Sturchio graduated from Phillipsburg High School this past Spring and is currently enrolled at Salisbury University in Salisbury Maryland, where she is majoring in Graphic Design. In addition to required general education classes, she is taking several art and graphic design courses that are required of first year attendees to the program. She is finding college to be more of a challenge than high school, but is doing very well academically. This is of little surprise considering her level of community service while still in high school, as well as her level of academic achievement prior to graduation. The Arts Community of Easton is pleased to be able to present this award to Jessica, and looks forward to hearing of her progress throughout the next few years.
Those interested in attending the awards dinner can purchase tickets at Connexions Gallery, located at 213 Northampton Street.
The fee per ticket is $25.00 with the proceeds from the dinner going directly to the ACE Scholarship Fund.
Two $500.00 scholarship recipients will again be chosen at the culmination of the '08-'09 school year; one in visual arts and one in performance art. Recipients must be from the Easton or Phillipsburg Area School District or have that district as their host school district.
More information is available from
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, or contact ACE President, Anthony Marraccini, at 610 250 7627.
Image courtesy of V. Bruneo
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