Women in the Arts & Media Coalition to Present 2020 VintAge Award to Martha Richards

The Women in the Arts & Media Coalition will host a digital presentation of the 2020 VintAge Award, which celebrates the voice and vision of women in the arts and media as they age, on Saturday, November 14 at 3pm EST/12pm PST via Zoom. The 2020 Elsa Rael VintAge Award honoree is Martha Richards, the Founder and President of WomenArts, originally The Fund for Women Artists, an affiliate member organization of the Coalition. The awards ceremony will include speakers who have worked with Ms. Richards, throughout her illustrious career, as well as several musical performances. Admission is $10 for members of any of the Coalition's member organizations and $15 for non-members. For more information and to purchase tickets, visit www.womenartsmediacoalition.org.

Every two to three years, the Women in Arts and Media Coalition hosts VintAge, an event celebrating the voice and vision of women in the arts and media as they age. The Coalition brings together members of our community to recognize and pay tribute to those who have dedicated their time and energy to supporting each other, professionally and personally, through the years, as they continue to produce vibrant and exciting creative work. We also present the Elsa Rael VintAge Award to a woman who has offered significant support to women aging in the arts, as Elsa Rael did through her co-founding of the Coalition and her years of work on the board, as well as her POW (Professional Older Women's) Theatre Festival at The Public Theatre.

The 2020 Elsa Rael VintAge Award recipient is Martha Richards, the Founder and President of WomenArts. "Martha has dedicated her life to women in the arts at every stage of their career," says Co-President Yvonne Curry. Adds Co-President Avis Boone, "Her Advocacy is for women around the world, and always with an eye to Diversity and Inclusion."

Martha Richards served as the Executive Director of WomenArts from January 1995 until her retirement in June 2020. During her 25 years with WomenArts, Richards was a tireless fundraiser and advocate for women in the arts, and she created a variety of programs designed to increase the visibility and opportunities for women artists in all genres. Prior to WomenArts, Richards served as Executive Director of Brooklyn Center for the Performing Arts at Brooklyn College and as Managing Director of StageWest, a regional theatre in Springfield, Massachusetts. She has written and lectured extensively on arts and cultural policy issues. Richards has been frequently recognized for her commitment to women and to the arts. In April 2006 she was one of three U.S. nominees (with Quincy Jones and Wynton Marsalis) for the prestigious international Montblanc De La Culture Award for outstanding service to the arts. In April 2009 she was inducted into the BayPath College 21st Century Women Business Leaders Hall of Fame for her work in philanthropy. She has been honored as one of three "founding mothers" of the Women's Fund of Western Massachusetts. In 2018 StateraArts created the annual Martha Richards Visionary Leadership Award in her honor. Richards has a B.A. in Economics from the University of California Berkeley and a J.D. from the University of California Hastings College of Law. She was one of the founding directors of California Lawyers for the Arts.

Speakers will include Paul Tetreault (Director of Ford's Theater in Washington, DC), Rebecca Strang (former Marketing Director at StageWest), Christine Young (Director of the Honors College at University of San Francisco; co-author of Not Even: A Study of Gender Parity in Bay Area Theatres), Jovelyn Richards (writer, performance artist, storyteller, radio host, and diversity consultant), Deborah Magdalena, (founder of Spoken Soul Festival/SWAN Day Miami), Melinda Pfundstein (Executive Director of Statera Arts in Cedar City, UT), Alice Tuan (member of WomenArts Theatre Roster program; SWAN Day participant), Sophie Dowllar (2019 recipient of the StateraArts' Martha Richards Visionary Woman in Leadership Award), and Mary Watkins (composer of Fannie Lou Hamer).