Watch Highlights of Ceremony Honoring Martha Richards!

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Watch Highlights of the Vintage Award Ceremony Honoring Martha Richards! Dear Women in the Arts & Media Coalit, The Women in the Arts and Media Coalition honored Martha Richards, the Founder and President of WomenArts, with its 2020 Elsa Rael VintAge Award in a lively and inspiring Zoom ceremony on Saturday, November 14.  In case you missed it, you can watch two minutes of highlights in the video below, and you can get a link to a recording of the full 90-minute ceremony by making a $10 donation to the Women in the Arts and Media Coalition.  Learn more about getting a link to the full video>> This 2-minute video shows highlights from the Women in the Arts and Media Coaltion's Vintage Award ceremony honoring Martha Richards.  Click Here To Get A Link to the Full Award Ceremony! About the Vintage Award Ceremony The ceremony featured tributes from Richards' colleagues over her 45-year career in the arts, as well as WomenArts video clips and musical performances. Dame Rosemary Squire, one of the most prominent women in British theatre, presented the award and recounted working with Richards on a London production of Aphra Behn's "The Lucky Chance" in 1984. Paul Tetreault, the Director of the historic Ford's Theatre in Washington, D.C., described his 35-year friendship with Richards and his memories of working for her when he was a graduate student at Brooklyn College. Rebecca Strang praised Richards for rescuing a deficit-ridden regional theatre from bankruptcy.  Christine Young spoke about Richards having "spiritual daughters" all over the world. Melinda Pfundstein of StateraArts described Richards as "a steward of dreams;" and playwright Alice Tuan thanked Richards for making her and so many other women artists feel "seen and heard."  Sophie Ogutu (SWAN Day Kenya), Deborah Magdalena (Spoken Soul Festival Miami), and Leslie Shreve (SAG-AFTRA) discussed Richards' work building SWAN Day/Support Women Artists Now Day into an international holiday.  There were also songs by Sarah Moore, Jennifer Hill, and Lydiah Dola (winners of the SWAN Day Song Contests in 2017 and 2018), as well as a piano solo by Mary D. Watkins.  Shellen Lubin wrote and performed the final song, which was accompanied by a lovely slide-show by Zija Lubin-West featuring pictures of Richards over the years.  In her acceptance speech, Richards explained that she had started WomenArts because she had noticed that women artists, especially women artists of color, were not getting the resources they needed to realize their visions fully, and she wanted to figure out ways to help them. She was motivated by the question - what would these women create if they had more funding and encouragement?  Richards also said that she felt women artists have an important role to play in healing our divided world.  She told women artists who are just starting out or who are having a hard time, "There will be days when it will seem like your goals are very far away, but I want to encourage you to persevere. . . Work together, cheer each other on, stay focused. That's what it takes - that's what it has always taken." Click Here To Get A Link to the Full Award Ceremony! The Vintage Award ceremony is a benefit for the Women in the Arts & Media Coalition, which has been a strong partner of WomenArts.  In 2013 the Coalition  took over the publication of the monthly theatre and film/video funding newsletters (now called #StageOpps and #ScreenOpps), which WomenArts had published for the preceding 12 years. Please help them continue their important work. If you donate $10 or more to the Coalition, they will send you a link to the full 90-minute Vintage Award ceremony honoring Martha Richards and a .pdf copy of the program for the event.