The 38th annual Mayor’s Arts Awards will take place on Sept. 28 at the Lincoln Theatre to honor local artists, arts educators, creatives and fashion industry gurus, nonprofit organizations, and patrons of the arts and humanities. Embracing this year’s theme, “Born Bold,” LaToya Foster, director of the Office of Cable Television, Film, Music, and Entertainment (OCTFME) emphasized that the awards are important to not only celebrate D.C. arts and culture, but highlight the vibrant, unique and diverse arts community.
“People are often told to calm down our boldness, to dim our light but we want our community to shine like diamonds,” Foster told The Informer.
Foster and her team found “Born Bold” to be the perfect theme, she elaborated, because of the bold and creative visions many local artists possess.
Celebrating the District’s Soul
This year’s celebration, Foster emphasized, will be held in the historic Black Broadway neighborhood — also known as the U Street Corridor — at the Lincoln Theatre. Foster shared that the event’s location selection is purposeful as it is reflective of the District’s fruitful art history.
The location is also fitting, she shares, because it is truly reflective of the mayor’s commitment to shining a light on our own.
“We know how important the arts are to our city,” Foster said, before quoting the late Mayor Marion Barry, from 1997.
“‘A city without art is a city without soul,’” the director added, quoting Barry.
The event, she said, would be “full of soul and be bolder than ever before.”
With the 50th anniversary of hip-hop, the awards will also honor the genre.
Highlighting Local Artists
Overall, the event is an opportunity for the District to not only award local talent in the community but pay homage to historic artistic figures as well.
The winners of each award have already been selected by the community for all 14 categories. A few of the categories for the nominations are Excellence in Arts Education, in Creative Industries, Excellence in Media Arts, Excellence in the Nightlife Economy, and many more.
Attendees should also look forward to live performances, surprise guests, and overall arts and cultural celebration.
Foster also noted she hoped attendees leave with the courage to “be bold.”
“Being bold encompasses resilience, vision, defying the odds, and doing the things we’re afraid to do.”