NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release
Oct. 6, 2009

FOR MORE INFORMATION, CONTACT:
Ann Dee Lee
Public Information Director
Oklahoma Arts Council
(405) 521-2931
anndee@arts.ok.gov

MITZI HANCUFF TO RECEIVE
GOVERNOR’S ARTS AWARD

Oklahoma City, OK – Mitzi Hancuff, Edmond, will be honored by Governor Brad Henry at the 34th Annual Governor’s Arts Awards. Hancuff will receive the Arts & Education Award that recognizes an individual, organization, school, educator or group for their outstanding leadership and service in the arts benefitting youth and/or arts in education.

Sponsored by the Oklahoma Arts Council, 16 individuals and five organizations will be honored for their contributions to the arts in their communities or throughout the state. The ceremony is scheduled for 4:00 p.m., Tuesday, October 20th in the 4th Floor Rotunda of the State Capitol and is open to the public. Presiding at the ceremony will be Council Chair Kym Koch Thompson and Oklahoma Arts Council Executive Director Suzanne Tate. A reception on the first floor of the Capitol will follow the 4 p.m. ceremony.

Mitzi Hancuff has been Executive Director of the Fine Arts Institute of Edmond for 21 years. Under her leadership, class enrollment and programming now reach over 15,000 people a year. Gatherings which started in two rooms in 1985, expanded under Hancuff’s capable leadership and now include more than 250 classes and camps annually. Programming has expanded to include the Edmond Youth Chorus, two children’s plays, the statewide Fine Arts and Literature Academic meet, and a statewide Youth Impressions juried art show.

Apart from classes offered on location, Hancuff implemented the Arts in Public Schools program to enhance arts education for over 600 3rd and 4th graders each week at four Edmond elementary schools. Other educational endeavors include partnerships with Peppers Ranch, Boys Ranch Town and the City of Edmond Juvenile Court on “Your Creative Side,” an art based delinquency prevention program for teens.

Her business acumen, ability to raise funds and sustain long term relationships with the community, inspired her board and local donors in an aggressive capital campaign, which raised more than $1 million for the construction of a new 8,000 square foot building. Promoting the arts through fundraising is one of her strengths and has resulted in The Spring Sampler, Dancing with the Arts, Taste of Edmond dinners as well as other events.

Hancuff serves as a board member of the Edmond Visual Arts Commission and the Central Edmond Urban Development Board. She was a member of Leadership Oklahoma Class XIX and Leadership Edmond Class V. She is immediate past president of the Rotary Club of Edmond and currently serves on the advisory board for Integris Hospital, Edmond. She has received numerous honors including being named Edmond Citizen of the Year in 2002. The Edmond Women’s Club honored her with the “Women of the Year” for the Arts award in 1999 and she was given the “Friend of the Arts” award by Sigma Alpha Iota in 1998. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and earned a B.S. degree in Journalism.

A complete list of Governor’s Arts Awards recipients and their photos are available at www.arts.ok.gov. For more information about the Governor’s Arts Awards, please contact Ann Dee Lee at (405) 521-2931 or at anndee@arts.ok.gov.

ABOUT THE OKLAHOMA ARTS COUNCIL

The Oklahoma Arts Council is a state agency whose mission is to improve lives through the arts by promoting and sustaining the development of a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education and economic vitality for all Oklahomans.

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