Educator, architect receive arts awards

Heather Rawlyk

Tuesday, Dec. 16, 2003 | 8:50 a.m.

The Nevada Arts Council named two locals among five recipients of the 24th annual Governor's Arts Awards, the state's highest honor in the arts.

The Arts Council selected the five honorees out of numerous outstanding nominations, Nevada Arts Council Executive Director Susan Boskoff said. Selection was based on a person's commitment to "enhancing Nevada's present-day quality of life while ensuring a strong cultural legacy for future generations," she said.

Boskoff said the Governor's Arts Awards honorees are symbolic of Nevada's rich and diverse culture.

"The Governor's Arts Awards recognize outstanding and enduring contributions to Nevada through artistic achievement, commitment and service to the arts," she said.

Local patron and co-founder of Klai Juba Architects, John Reynolds Klai II, received the Service to the Arts: Businesses & Patrons award.

Klai was nominated by Lied Discovery Children's Museum and KNPR-Nevada Public Radio for his "patronage of nonprofit organizations driven by his motivation to see children and adults of all economic and ethnic backgrounds have an abundance of opportunities throughout the Las Vegas community."

His donations to Lied Discovery Children's Museum have earned him recognition in the museum's Building Block Council and Stars for Children.

He has also been the financial underwriter of the Creativity Workshop daily art activities in the museum as well as a leading donor to the Nevada Public Radio Endowment campaign and the Service Expansion Campaign, which helped ensure the successful launch of KNPR's new station, Classical 89.7 KCNV and the expansion of its news service.

In addition, Klai has endowed a scholarship fund for architectural students at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and has a long-standing history of support with other community nonprofit organizations like the Boys and Girls Club of Las Vegas and Shade Tree Children's Shelter.

Sylvia Tegano, principal at Knudson Middle School Academy of Creative Arts, Language and Technology of Las Vegas, was the recipient of the Arts & Education award.

Tegano opened the minds of football players to the possibility of expressive movement by cross-training athletes and dancers.

In 1990 she was awarded the Nevada Dance Educator of the Year and asked to write curriculum establishing standards of dance education for the Clark County School District.

Tegano was nominated by Christine Shaw Taylor and Cheryl Pullin, who described her contributions to that arts and education in Nevada as noteworthy "because she approaches her work with the imagination and passion paralleled only in the young people in our society."

Other Nevadan honorees include Philip Ruder, a violinist from Reno, receiving the Excellence in the Arts award, Virginia McCuin, a silversmith from Silver Springs, who received the Excellence in Folk Arts award, and Meg Glaser, artistic director of Western Folklife Center in Elko, who received the Service to the Arts: Organizations & Individuals award.

Recipients of the Governor's Arts Awards will be honored at a reception and ceremony at the Charleston Heights Art Center in Las Vegas on March 25.

The event is co-sponsored by the Cultural Affairs Division of the city of Las Vegas' Department of Leisure Services.

For ticket information, contact the Nevada Arts Council at (775) 687-6680 or (702) 486-3700.