Guild Hall Awards Three for Arts Achievement

[caption id="attachment_61681" align="alignnone" width="800"] AprilGornik, EricFischl, Michele Marty Cohen, and Edwina von Gal at the Guild Hall Academy of Arts Achievement Awards on Monday. Barry Gordin photos[/caption]

By Dawn Watson

Three of the East End’s brightest creative lights were recognized at the Guild Hall Academy of Arts Achievement Awards on Monday night, March 13. Those honored included Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Philip Schultz, five-time Tony Award-winning director and choreographer Susan Stroman and renowned landscape designer Edwina von Gal.

Mr. Schultz, an East Hampton resident, is also a National Endowment for the Arts Fellow and the winner of an American Academy & Institute of Arts and Letters Award. Additionally, the founder and director of The Writers Studio in Manhattan has earned a Fulbright Fellowship in Poetry and a Guggenheim Fellowship in Poetry, and has also been nominated for the National Book Award.

[caption id="attachment_61683" align="alignright" width="360"] Susan Stroman[/caption]

In addition to her Tony Awards, Ms. Stroman has earned five Drama Desk Awards, two Laurence Olivier Awards, eight Outer Critics Circle Awards, four Fred Astaire Awards, a Lucille Lortel Award and a George Abbott Award for Outstanding Achievement in Theater. The East Hampton resident—who has worked on productions such as “Crazy for You,” “Showboat,” “Big,” “Oklahoma!,” “Young Frankenstein,” “Big Fish” and “Bullets Over Broadway”—has been nominated for a whopping 28 Tony and Drama Desk awards.

Ms. Von Gal, who lives in Springs, is one of the world’s most highly regarded landscape experts and environmentally friendly landscape designers. A co-founder of the Azuero Earth Project, she has also worked on The Springs’ Seedlings Project garden classroom here on the East End and the park space for the Frank Gehry-designed BioMuseo in Panama. A frequent collaborator with artist and architect Maya Lin, her client lists includes such stylish and accomplished devotees as Calvin Klein, Larry Gagosian, Cindy Sherman and Ina Garten. An advocate for environmental awareness and lawn maintenance reform, recently Ms. von Gal launched the Perfect Earth Project, a non-profit group that promotes toxin-free land management.

[caption id="attachment_61682" align="alignleft" width="364"] Michael and Cheryl Minikes, Philip Schultz and Edwina von Gal at Monday's Guild Hall event.[/caption]

The 32^nd annual Guild Hall event, held this year at The Rainbow Room in Manhattan, brought out a number of esteemed cultural contributors, including award presenters: “Sesame Street” librettist and writer John Weidman; artist, designer and environmentalist Maya Lin; and Poetry Society of America Executive Director Alice Quinn, who helped to fete their friends and colleagues, Ms. Stroman, Ms. Von Gal and Mr. Schultz, respectively. Hosted by Guild Hall Academy President and artist Eric Fischl , Board Chair Marty Cohen and Executive Director Andrea Grover, the evening was host to more than 200 attendees, who also gathered to pay tribute to Cheryl and Michael Minikes, who received the Special Award for Leadership and Philanthropic Endeavors, presented by Broadway producer, Roy Furman.

In addition to the awards ceremonies, the night also featured a performance on piano by Tanya Gabrielian, one of Guild Hall’s current Artists in Residence, and a performance by Laura Osnes and Tony Yasbeck from “Crazy For You.”

Since the inaugural festivities—held in 1985 and honoring Kurt Vonnegut, Willem de Kooning, and Alan Alda—Guild Hall has annually recognized the talents and contributions of East Enders in the arenas of literary, visual and performing arts. Past honorees include: Sarah Jessica Parker, Matthew Broderick, Nathan Lane, Laurie Anderson, Steven Spielberg, Billy Joel, Elaine Stritch, Mel Brooks, Alec Baldwin for Performing Arts; John Alexander, Ralph Gibson, Julian Schnabel, Willem de Kooning, Roy Lichtenstein, Bruce Weber, April Gornik and Chuck Close for Visual Arts; and Jules Feiffer, Walter Isaacson, Jon Robin Baitz, Kurt Vonnegut, E. L. Doctorow, Edward Albee, Joseph Heller and Joe Pintauro for Literary Arts. Special Awards have been bestowed upon Eli Wallach, Anne Jackson, Dina Merrill and Peter Jennings, to name a few.

[caption id="attachment_61679" align="alignnone" width="800"] Alec and Hilaria Baldwin.[/caption]