BOFA DC is on a hiatus, but will be back soon!
2008 Awardees
BOFA DC will bestow special honors to area artists and advocates who have made significant creative and community focused contributions to the arts. This year’s honors go to:
Mel and Juanita Hardy, driven by a passion and vision to “advance cultural literacy through the arts”, co-founded Millennium Arts Salon. For the past 8 years, this passion and vision has been realized through a year long thematic program consisting of intimate salon talks and art exhibitions, as well as tours and special events. Through outreach, they have collaborated with prominent Washington-based art institutions, including the David C Driskell Center at the University of Maryland, The Phillips Collection, and Parish Gallery of Georgetown. Mel and Juanita support artists locally and nationally as avid collectors and as members of the Collectors Club of Washington, DC, Inc. Their art advocacy has been powered by individual and shared memberships on several non-profit art boards including the Brandywine Printmaking Workshop in Philadelphia (shared), the University of Maryland University College Art Advisory Board, and ArTrain USA in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
Naima Prevots, Professor Emerita, American University, was Chair of the Department of Performing Arts and Director of Dance. She has sought to support the arts in Washington, D.C. for many years, by serving on various boards and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities and helping young artists. Her honors include: Fulbright and NEH fellowships; 1999: CORD (Outstanding Publication); 2002: Lifetime Achievement Award, Pola Nirenska Committee; 2005: Outstanding Achievement in Dance Education Award, Metro Dance DC. She has worked as performer, choreographer, presenter, critic, administrator and educator.
James Larry Frazier is one of Washington’s leading advocates for African and African American arts. He was a founding board member of the African Continuum Theatre Coalition (ACTCo), the founding coordinator of Vision Collective, Inc. (the first sponsor of Holiday Expo), and served as board chair of the African Continuum Theatre Company. Frazier was the founder of the Anacostia Museum Leadership Circle Committee for Research and Conservation and serves on the Museum’s Advisory Board. He is also a member of the Porter Colloquium on African American Art Committee. In 2002, Frazier co-founded Art Lives, Inc., a fund for visual artists with terminal illnesses. A lawyer in the District of Columbia specializing in estate and art collection planning, he has been featured in Black Enterprise magazine and on WPFW Radio. Frazier received the President’s Award of the National Bar Association for the Jacob Lawrence Project, was honored by the DC Bar Association as Lawyer of the Year for Community Outreach and recognized for exemplary volunteer service by the Anacostia Community Museum in 2006.
Evangeline (EJ) Montgomery - In recognition of having spent her lifetime in service to women in the arts, E.J. Montgomery was one of six women honored by the Women's Caucus for Art during the organization's national conference held in Los Angeles, February 7-11, 1999. Before joining the U.S. Information Agency's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs as an exhibition coordinator in 1983, E.J. held many distinguished positions in the art community, i.e., a San Francisco arts commissioner (1976-79), a consulting curator for a number of museums, including the Oakland Museum in California, an exhibition workshop coordinator for the American Association for State & Local History where she held eight national workshops on interpreting the humanities for museum exhibits (1979), and workshop coordinator on exhibit design for the African-American Museums Association (1982). While continuing to work as a practicing studio artist in print making, metal smithing and weaving, E.J. has dedicated her career to giving greater exposure to artists in inner city communities and the community at large. In the process of coordinating over fifty touring exhibitions for USIA for major museums and institutions abroad, E.J. has received an Award of Distinction from the American Craft Council for USIA's touring craft exhibitions (1995); a Special Achievement Award for two major USIA-sponsored craft exhibitions - CRAFT TODAY USA (1989-91), and FRONTIERS IN FIBER (1988-90).