ICCA Board President - Recognition Congratulations
Congratulations, Mark!
As president of the Iowa Cultural Corridor Alliance Board of Directors, I am very pleased to let you know that you have been chosen to receive the 2010 Larry Eckholt Award. The award is presented annually to a south corridor-area community member in tribute and celebration of Larry Eckholt's lifelong dedication to arts and culture. Voted on by the ICCA Board, it honors a community member/leader who exemplifies Larry's passion, commitment, and advocacy to the cultural vitality of the Corridor. (A brief bio of Larry is below.) Past honorees include Dottie Ray, June Braverman, Bob Goodfellow, and Dan Brown.
Your dedication to supporting and enriching the cultural fabric of the Iowa City area clearly meets - and even exceeds - the criteria for this award, Mark. This is a very well-deserved recognition.
Your award will be formally presented during ICCA's annual meeting and "Icky Recognition Program" on Monday, Jan. 31, at the Englert Theatre in Iowa City. Abby Ballain, Executive Director, and I will be in touch with additional details nearer the date.
Happiest of Holiday Wishes!
Marcia Hughes
President
ICCA Board of Directors
Who was Larry Eckholt?
Lawrence "Larry" Eckholt was the Development Director for the Iowa City Public Library at the time of his death at the age of 56 in January 2002. In 1969 he came to Iowa City as a reporter for the Des Moines Register acting as their Iowa City Bureau until 1977 when he became the University of Iowa Foundation's Director of Development for the Iowa Center for the Arts, which includes Hancher Auditorium. He left Iowa City briefly in the late 1980s to work as a fund raiser for two other prominent Midwestern arts institutions, returning in Iowa City to be the Library's Development Director in 1993.
While at the UI Foundation Larry was responsible for fundraising for all the University of Iowa arts programs, including the Museum of Art, Hancher Auditorium, the School of Music and Art and Art History, the Writer's Workshop, the Department of Theater Arts, Dance, Film and Broadcasting, the Iowa Press and the University's radio stations. He initiated efforts, which raised funds for the Iowa Dance Residency program, and worked to establish a long-term relationship with the Joffrey Ballet.
The arts were central to Larry's private as well as his professional life. He was Past President of the Iowa Arts Festival and an advocate and supporter of the Iowa City Jazz Festival. He was a member of the Iowa Citizens for the Arts, co-founder of Dance Focus, guest lecturer for the UI English Dept. and served on the Iowa City Design Review Commission and the Downtown Association. He was a passionate promoter, a tireless worker, a knowledgeable critic and a lover of the arts in their many dimensions.
At the time of his death an editorial in the Iowa City Press Citizen mourned his passing with these words: "Artists pass through our city. Performances come and go. Good ones give us joy or trigger some pain in us that makes us remember them for many years. But it is the work of those behind the artists, the ones who build the foundation, the stage upon which they stand, who leave behind a legacy of the arts."
Marcia Hughes
Community Relations Supervisor
Cedar Rapids Community Schools
