Past Winners

James Knapp

James Knapp is the artistic director of Denver Gay Men’s Chorus. With more than 35 years of leading university, church and community choruses, he’s also the artistic director emeritus of Bayou City Performing Art and has received the Certificate of Congressional Recognition from the United States House of Representatives, among other honors. Knapp is a powerful voice in the queer choral movement and is especially passionate about using music as a way to unify, heal and bring people together.

Danielle SeeWalker

Danielle SeeWalker (Húŋkpapȟa Lakȟóta, citizen of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe) is a multi-disciplinary artist, youth mentor and leader in the American Indian community in Denver. Danielle centers much of her art around the Native American community - a population that has been severely misrepresented, underrepresented or not represented at all - thematically depicting American Indian elders and highlighting the two-spirit (LGBTQIA2S+) community through her art. Her work in the arts and her focus on the Native American community have been inspirational and necessary, especially during the pandemic, breaking down stereotypes and microaggressions by accurately displaying Indigenous people as successful, contributing members of our city and society.

The Word | A Storytelling Sanctuary

The Word | A Storytelling Sanctuary is a community-led, Denver-based nonprofit organization that builds cultural equity through the literary arts. The Word’s programs include the annual Editor-Writer Mentorship program, the biennial [margins.] Literary Conference + Book Festival, #MarginsBookselling, the annual BIPOC Bookseller Awards, and a host of year-round community engagement programs and publishing workshops. Each of these programs fills a unique space for The Word’s intersectional constituency of BIPOC+, LGBTQIA2S+, disabled and neurodiverse communities, in which no previous comparable support was available. The Word’s goal is to provide spaces in which its community members embody each and every one of their many facets, and together harness the power of storytelling to move us all toward joyful, vibrant and equitable futures.

Sacred Voices

Sacred Voices is a Denver-based, Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC+), youth-focused organization dedicated to promoting unity and healing among BIPOC+ communities through creative expression, while empowering youth to find their voices and strength to become leaders in their communities. Sacred Voices hosts the only youth-focused open mic in town, and conducts culturally engaging spoken word/poetry workshops. The organization also hosts a monthly radio program on KGNU, and the “Speak Your Truth Summer Program” for youth aged 14-25, through which youth strengthen their cultural knowledge, develop leadership skills, engage in creative expression, build a sense of self-identity and heal themselves through culturally responsive mental health and holistic practices.

Gamelan Tunas Mekar

This award is presented to an individual or organization that has brought Denver’s arts and culture to the national or world stage. Nominees for this category have received national or international recognition through collaboration, media coverage, or grant dollars received.

Gamelan Tunas Mekar is an all-volunteer organization that presents traditional and new music for Balinese gamelan locally, nationally and internationally, educating audiences about the music, dance and traditions of Bali and Indonesia. Modeled after typical village groups found throughout Bali, and learning through traditional methods, this community ensemble provides audiences the rare opportunity to experience one of the world’s most beautiful and sophisticated performing arts. Tunas Mekar serves diverse communities across the front range through performances and collaborations of Balinese expressive arts. They perform for the general public and in schools, and partner with Colorado College, University of Denver, Metropolitan State University of Denver, University of Colorado Boulder and the University of Wyoming in Laramie. The group also performs in support of the Indonesian Consulates in Los Angeles, Chicago and Houston, and at the request of the Ambassador of Indonesia.

Innversion

Through live and recorded performances and vocational training in many aspects of the entertainment industry, Innervision promotes personal services to aspiring broadcasters with disabilities in the Denver area. Innervision nurtures the talents and skills of local artists from diverse backgrounds while sponsoring concerts, events and weekly radio shows that enrich and educate the entire community. The organization was founded in 1991 by Johnnie W. Johnson and Wayne Turner, two African-American recording industry experts who are both blind. For thirty years, Johnson and Turner have used the power of music to foster education, acceptance and inspiration for artists and audiences alike. Innervision has made broadcasting accessible and recording affordable, and has showcased artists throughout Denver at clubs and festivals, and on television and radio.

Edgar L. Page

Edgar L. Page comes from traditions celebrating the African Diaspora and legacies of Black Modern Dance. Locally, he stewards creative incubators employing the Africanist Aesthetic of Cool to inform a lush amalgamation of contemporary dance movement. He centralizes on storytelling and narration in his work.

Color of Conversation

Floyd and Stephanie Rance have made a mark as innovators in the arts and culture space by highlighting the works of filmmakers of color in Denver and by encouraging major studios and streaming platforms to take the city of Denver seriously as a market for promoting their multi-cultural films. Through Run&Shoot Filmworks, Floyd and Stephanie Rance have produced "The Color Of Conversation," a highly successful film series through which they amplify the voices of the African American, Latino and the LBGTQIA+ community through purposeful conversations and thought-provoking films.

Pop Culture Classroom

Through its Classroom program, Pop Culture Classroom (PCC) works with schools, youth-serving organizations, museums and many other partners to offer innovative arts education programming. This programming includes:

• Highly customizable workshops that help students learn to make their own comics, board games or cosplay; create fictional worlds and craft narratives; develop targeted skills through playing board games, video games and tabletop role-playing games.
• Colorful History, a comic series about diverse people and events in Colorado and U.S. history that may not be covered in traditional textbooks.
• Storytelling Through Comics (STC) and Game On! (GO!), PCC’s two Common Core-aligned curricular units that help teachers, parents, and students understand the educational value of comics and games.
• Special programs serving targeted populations, such as LEAD (Literacy Education in Adolescent Detention) With Comics, which works with youth in detention facilities, and Connection Through Comics, which works with refugees to tell their stories through comics.