The Governor’s Awards for the Arts in Ohio is a statewide program that showcases and celebrates Ohio artists, arts organizations, arts patrons, and business support of the arts. The public is invited to nominate individuals and organizations in seven awards categories. A selection committee, made up of Ohio Arts Council board members and three individuals selected by Ohio Citizens for the Arts, chooses the winners. The program is presented by the Ohio Arts Council and the Ohio Citizens for the Arts Foundation. Award winners are presented with an original work of art by an Ohio artist at a luncheon ceremony.

ACCEPTANCE OF THE GOVERNOR OF OHIO’S ART PATRON AWARD GIVEN TO PUFFIN FOUNDATION WEST, LTD.

Puffin Foundation West gives its gratitude to the Ohio Arts Council, the Governor, and His first lady, Ohio Citizens for the Arts, Mr. Speaker and Mr. President and all the other legislators here today. Also my personal thank you our friends and Pufflings, including the student advocates who are here today being a program that has gotten Puffin grant support for many years. I especially thank the love of my life, Mark, and my father, Perry Rosenstein, who personally endowed Puffin West.

We know from giving over 225 grassroots grants in Ohio alone that when you give GOOD people, GOOD money that with that financial empowerment GREAT THINGS can and do happen.

Our Mission uses the universal language of art to address civil and social justice issues. Our awards in their small way help other NFPs and citizens address concerns that educate ordinary people about:

food insecurity;
racial and sexual discrimination and profiling;
the school to prison pipeline;
the need to protect our environment;
the cruelty of poverty, trafficking, bullying and many other contemporary issues.

I see a time where words like underserved, forgotten, invisible, homeless and hungry are no longer a description of members of our community.

I see a time when it is clearly understood that an investment in art

– Be it through your personal donations;
– Our legislators’ continued and increased funding of the arts;
– Thru the work of charitable and corporate NFPs;
– and thru the bottom-up grassroots granting, like the work that Puffin West does, will help to enable creative expression and the celebration of the human experience. Art Activists give us all a voice and platform that helps to preserve our humanity and blue planet.

I see a time when everyone understands that our mutual mission in this life should be to reach back and lift up as this fosters self-esteem and creates optimism.

THIS is also called LOVE.

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SPECIAL NOTICE: As a result of this honor bestowed by the Ohio Arts Council, ALL GRANT AWARDS in 2018 will only be considered for OHIO NFPs and Citizens in celebration and interest in the work that Puffin Foundation West has garnered. Applications for the 2018 grant period will be online in August 2017.

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