Theatre Harrisburg Reveals Recipients of the 30th Awards for Distinguished Service to the Arts in the Capital Region

 Theatre Harrisburg has announced the recipients of the 30th Awards for Distinguished Service to the Arts in the Capital Region (Arts Awards). Carole DeSoto, an arts advocate and volunteer, will receive the Award to an Individual, and Sprocket Mural Works will receive the Award to an Organization, Company, or Group. The Awards will be presented on Saturday, June 1, 2024, in a Kennedy Center Honors-style theatrical gala at Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts in downtown Harrisburg. The ticketed event is open to the public and proceeds benefit Theatre Harrisburg.

Carole DeSoto, a resident of Dauphin County since 1967, is well known for her support and volunteer efforts on behalf of numerous arts organizations in the Capital Region. Among those benefitting from her philanthropy are Market Square Concerts, Harrisburg Symphony Orchestra, Susquehanna Art Museum, Theatre Harrisburg, Art Association of Harrisburg, Central Pennsylvania Youth Ballet, and Gretna Theatre. DeSoto has served on the Boards of the Susquehanna Art Museum and Harrisburg Symphony Association and is immediate past president of the Harrisburg Symphony Society. DeSoto has had a special devotion to Upper Dauphin County, especially Elizabethville, where she lived for many years before moving to Lemoyne. In 1993, she funded the Elizabethville Library Arts Series (now “Lively Minds”), which presents quarterly educational programs for adults, ranging from author visits and gardening classes to performances by musicians. She co-chaired the fundraising campaign and made the lead gift to build the DeSoto Amphitheatre for the Performing Arts at the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art in Millersburg and was honored with the first Ned Smith Center Visionary Award.

Sprocket Mural Works, founded in 2014 and incorporated as a non-profit in 2019, is a citywide mural project that has a mission to increase community pride and civic engagement in Harrisburg through creative action. Its vision is a world more beautiful because it is covered in art for the community, by the community. Sprocket uses murals as a medium to promote a sense of identity, belonging, and attachment to the communities within the city, not only through the art itself, but also through the process of creating it and exploring it together. Sprocket does its work with the support of local businesses, individual donors, private foundations, and the PA Council of the Arts. Since its inception, Sprocket Mural Works has painted, commissioned, and collaborated on 150 pieces of public art (85 of which are large-scale murals). Its bi-annual festivals attract muralists from across the nation and around the world. Megan Caruso is President and Co-Founder of Sprocket Mural Works. Co-Founder Jeff Corpus has authored a guidebook for organizations to develop their own community projects.

Since 1989, the Awards for Distinguished Service to the Arts in the Capital Region have honored artists and arts leaders, philanthropists and visionaries, educators, organizations, and companies. Honorees are chosen by a panel of past recipients. The theatrical gala is presented by Theatre Harrisburg, the region’s oldest performing arts organization, founded in 1926. Proceeds from Arts Awards support the work of Theatre Harrisburg. Additional details and information about reservations will be forthcoming at theatreharrisburg.com/artsawards.

To post a comment, you must register and login.