PENNSYLVANIA COUNCIL ON THE ARTS AWARDS THREE DELAWARE COUNTY ARTISTS AND RADNOR TOWNSHIP WITH GRANTS

HARRISBURG,February 6, 2002 - - Senator Connie Williams (D-Montgomery/Delaware) today announced that the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts approved awards for three individual creative artists as well as a grant for Radnor Township which has allocated the entirety of its grant to the Wayne Arts Center.

The following three artists each received $5,000 grants:

Alison Hicks (Griefenstein), of Havertown, has published fiction and poetry in The Ledge, Pinyon, The Wooster Review, Peregrine, and nonfiction in The Progressive and The Bryn Mawr Alumnae Bulletin. Ms. Hicks looks forward to using her Individual Arts grant to support the completion of a book-length collection of creative non-fiction.

Barbara Lynch Kriegsmann, of Radnor, is a creative fiction writer whose story, Without an Echo, won the Philadelphia City Paper’s 2000 award in January 2001. It was the first story she submitted to any publication. In addition, her story, Timekeeping, is included in the spring 2002 issue of The Peralta Press, a literary magazine. Ms. Kriegsmann most often writes about the immigrant experience and its effect on family and following generations which is inspired by her own family’s Irish roots. The grant will allow her to work with other published writers, streamline her home office, and allow her time to focus exclusively on her fiction writing.

William E. Williams, of Haverford, makes photographs steeped in history, often picturing sites whose role in history is in danger of being lost or forgotten. A professor of Fine Arts at Haverford College and a 1997 Pew Fellowship winner, Williams has had solo exhibitions at Smith College and the Butler Institute of American Art among other venues. His work is in the collections of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Brooklyn Museum, the Baltimore Museum of Art, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Radnor Township received a pass-through grant of $3450 to be used to support the Wayne Art Center which was established in 1930 as the first art center on the Main Line. The approach to art instruction at the Wayne Art Center is interdisciplinary carrying out its mission by providing instruction in all phases of fine arts, selective crafts, music and drama, with particular attention to the visual arts. The Center offers exhibitions, performances and special events for artists and crafts people of the greater Main Line area and outreach instructional programs for persons with special needs.

Last year, more than 4,000 students registered for more than 400 classes and workshops, and more than 1,500 children enrolled in the Center's Summer Art Camp. The Wayne Arts Center serves students form the Greater Main Line area, including Delaware, Chester and Montgomery counties.

The grant will be used by the Wayne Arts Center to help fund outreach programming and to cover the costs of special community activities in Radnor Township.