Two recipients of the 2016 Governor’s Awards for Excellence in the Arts have Greenwood connections.
The awards, presented each year by the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC), will recognize Scott Barretta and Dr. Tommie “Tonea” Stewart for their achievements in the arts.
Barretta will receive he Mississippi Heritage Award in recognition for his work in blues research, which has included writing for several outlets, including the Jackson Clarion-Ledger, working with the B.B. King Museum and Delta Interpretive Center in Indianola, editing Living Blues Magazine and developing the Mississippi Blues Trail, which now consists of 188 markers.
“I feel blessed that I arrived in Mississippi in 1999 just at the beginning of a renewed interest in documenting and celebrating our wonderful blues culture,” said Barretta, former editor of Living Blues Magazine.
Working on the trail has given Barretta unique opportunities to document local blues scenes and individuals previously unknown outside of their own communities and ignored by mainstream blues researchers
The trail “celebrates the cultures that were important to local people, but not known to the outsiders, who mostly knew the music through records,” said Barretta.
Barretta and Jim O’Neil, one of the founding editors of Living Blues, work as the primary researchers and writers for the blues trail markers. The markers themselves were designed by Wanda Clark.
Barretta, born in Virginia, has lived in Greenwood for the last two years and teaches at University of Mississippi as an adjunct professor of sociology.
Stewart, who will receive the Excellence in Acting Award, was born in Greenwood in 1947, and has resided in Montgomery, Alabama, since 1990, where she serves as dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts at Alabama State University.
Stewart has appeared in several films, including “Mississippi Burning” and “A Time to Kill,” for which she was nominated for an NAACP image award. She has guest starred in television shows ranging from “Walker, Texas Ranger” to “American Horror Story.”
In addition to her work in television and cinema, Stewart has directed museum exhibitions at the Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery and the International Civil Rights Museum in Greensboro, North Carolina, among others.
Awards will also go to Claudia Cartee of Seminary (Excellence in Visual Arts), Tig Notaro of Pass Christian (Artist Achievement) and Tim “Bones” Malone of Sumrall (Lifetime Achievement).
“Mississippi’s heritage in the arts runs deep”, said Dr. Tom Pearson, executive director of the MAC in a statement. “We are privileged again this year to have five outstanding honorees representing Mississippi’s tradition of excellence in the arts.”
• Contact Nick Rogers at 581-7235 or nrogers@gwcommonwealth.com.
