Originally posted by the Utah Cultural Alliance
Every year, Utah Cultural Alliance recognizes excellence within the cultural industry and we are thrilled to announce the recipients of this year’s awards. Amy McDonald, founder of Brolly Arts, is selected to receive the 2022 Utah Cultural Career Achievement Award. Ogden Contemporary Arts (OCA) is selected to receive the 2022 Utah Exceptional Cultural Contribution Award. We congratulate these phenomenal recipients and look forward to honoring them at the 2022 Culture Connect. You can read the full award descriptions for each awardee on our website using the button below.
Awardee - Amy McDonald (Brolly Arts)
Amy MacDonald believes “that the arts are one of the most non-threatening means society has to bring people together to engage in critical issues”. Yet while the arts are indeed a powerful place for human and community transformation, access to funding, resources, and communities can be complicated, difficult, and sparse. It takes nothing short of a hard working visionary to build dozens of sustainable systems of expression, education, community engagement, and art over time through relentless resourcefulness and an enduring belief in positive change. Amy’s super power is her ability to listen to the culture around her and diagnose the needs, gaps, and potential of any given community. She knows how to build a team, elevate and empower individuals, include all voices, and build something meaningful with whole communities without excluding folks with ideas different from her own.
In 1995, Amy founded Brolly Arts, a non-profit umbrella arts organization, dedicated to creating meaningful art and vibrant communities through artistic and civic collaboration and experimentation. Through these efforts, Brolly Arts has sponsored or supported numerous local projects, served over 750 artists, and successfully engaged in multiple strategic partnerships, all the while addressing global issues with local relevance. Brolly Arts is British slang for umbrella – an appropriate name for an inclusive non-profit arts organization focusing on positive social change. As Nancy Boskoff, Former Executive Director of the Salt Lake City Arts Council, said, “Brolly Arts has, from its inception, been an agent of change and community development through the arts for Salt Lake City. Every project undertaken has moved the arts community to work together and has creatively addressed many local and global issues.”
Amy’s positive ethos, work ethic, integrity, willingness to act, representation of all voices, and effectiveness are incredibly rare. Without her hard work over the last 30 years, there would be many seasoned artists and community builders who wouldn’t have even begun their careers or had the chance to make the infectious impact they learned first from Amy and her big ideas! Amy has an uncompromising dedication to bring about positive social change through the arts and humanities.
