The Alabama State Council on the Arts has selected eight distinguished honorees for its annual awards ceremony recognizing notable Alabamians for their work and contributions to the arts. The ceremony is slated to take place May 16 at the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) in Montgomery.

“Through their remarkable achievements and unwavering commitment to the arts, our 2024 honorees have played a pivotal role in shaping Alabama’s creative landscape. Their work reflects the vibrancy and depth of our artistic community, and illuminates the path for future generations of artists and creators across our state,” said Elliot Knight, council executive director.

This year’s award recipients are:

• Pinky/MM Bass: visual artist – Alabama Arts Impact Award.
• Russell Gulley: musician, teaching artist, arts administrator – Alabama Arts Impact Award.
• Chester Higgins: visual artist – Alabama Distinguished Artist Award.
• Elias Katsaros: visual artist, iconographer – Alabama Folk Heritage Award.
• Kevin King: visual artist, arts advocacy leader – Alabama Arts Impact Award.
• Greta Lambert: actor, director, teaching artist – Jonnie Dee Riley Little Lifetime Achievement Award.
• Monique Ryan: dancer, artistic director – Alabama Arts Impact Award.
• Jeanie Thompson: poet, literary arts advocate – Albert B. Head Legacy Award.

Pinky/MM Bass — Alabama Arts Impact Award

The Alabama Arts Impact Awards honor individuals who have made unique and meaningful contributions to arts in Alabama.

Bass is a nationally recognized photographer with work in collections, including the Polaroid Corporation, numerous museums and publications such as “Aperture” and “The Pinhole Journal.” Her awards include a Media Fellowship from the Alabama State Council on the Arts and an individual artist grant from South Arts/National Endowment for the Arts. Her large format images are made using alternative cameras and experimental processes, and address issues of aging, death and the mythology of that journey. Bass has had over 30 solo exhibitions and has work in the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, the Huntsville Museum of Art, the Polaroid Corporation, the Birmingham Museum of Art, several colleges and universities, and private collections. Publications in which her work is featured include “The Polaroid Book,” “Book of Alternative Photographic Processes,” “Aperture Magazine,” and “Entwined.” Read more about Pinky/MM Bass.

Left: Pinky Bass is a visual artist based in Mobile. Patterned Flowers on half-hair. (Pinky/MM Bass and Carolyn DeMeritt) Right: In Abiquiu by Pinky Bass, 1987. (courtesy of the artist)

Russell Gulley — Alabama Arts Impact Award

The Alabama Arts Impact Awards honor individuals who have made unique and meaningful contributions to arts in Alabama.

Gulley was born in Rome, Georgia, but spent his childhood in Fort Payne. He loved music from an early age, listening to blues on the radio and in the choir at his local Pentecostal church. In high school, he played bass with the Howell Family gospel group and credits that experience as his introduction to the business of music. Gulley recorded two LPs with the group — his first time working in a studio. After serving in Vietnam, he found his way back to music. Gulley played in the bands of artists such as Ray Peterson, Ronnie Dove and Ruby Winter before receiving a fateful call from Jimmy Johnson at Muscle Shoals Sound Studio. That led to the eventual creation of the band, Jackson Highway — named after the address of the original Muscle Shoals Sound Studio in Sheffield. Gulley recorded an album with the group, and they embarked on several tours before disbanding. He then moved to Nashville and continued to work as a touring musician, going on the road with the likes of Leroy Van Dyke, Gary Buck and Miss Margo Smith, before finally returning to his hometown in northeast Alabama. Read more about Russell Gulley.

Left: Russell Gulley is a musician, teaching artist and arts administrator based in Fort Payne. (contributed) Right: Gulley at an arts education showcase, 2008. (contributed)

Chester Higgins — Alabama Distinguished Artist Award

The Distinguished Artist Award recognizes artists with deep connections to Alabama who have earned significant national acclaim for their art over an extended period.

With his camera, Higgins “wrestles with issues of memory, place and identity.” He sees his life as a narrative” and his “photography as its expression,” according to his mission statement. “His art gives visual voice to his personal and collective memories. It is inside ordinary moments where he finds windows into larger meaning. Light, perspective and points in time are the pivotal elements he uses to reveal an interior presence within his subjects as he searches for what he identifies as the Signature of the Spirit.” The work of Higgins challenges us to see the full breadth of our humanity. Through his portraits and studies of living rituals, traditional ceremonies, and the monuments and ruins of ancient civilizations, viewers gain a rare insight into cultural behavior — a window to another place and time. Higgins is the author of eight collections: “Black Woman,” “Drums of Life,” “Some Time Ago,” “Feeling the Spirit: Searching the World for the People of Africa,” “Elder Grace: The Nobility of Aging,” “Echo of the Spirit: A Photographer’s Journey,” “Ancient Nubia: African Kingdoms on the Nile” and “Sacred Nile.” Read more about Chester Higgins.

Left: Self-portrait of Chester Higgins from Kigali, Rwanda, 2023. Right: Higgins at Luxor Temple, Egypt, 2019. (Betsy Kissam) Courtesy of Chester Higgins and the Tuskegee University Archives.

Elias Katsaros – Alabama Folk Heritage Award

The Alabama Folk Heritage Award was established to recognize exemplary folk artists who have made outstanding contributions to their artistic tradition.

Katsaros was born of Greek parentage in Istanbul, Turkey, in 1945. He moved to Athens, Greece in 1963 where he studied art. Katsaros kept to the strict Byzantine tradition of iconography and painted in the 16^th century Cretan style. He has lived in the U.S. since 1969, making Huntsville his home, where he established his studio with his wife Elaine. In 2016, Katsaros retired from taking on iconography projects. He now continues to paint and draw portraits, landscapes and still-life pieces. Katsaros’ iconography projects can be found in Orthodox churches, along with a few Episcopal and Catholic churches across the country. Read more about Elias Katsaros.

Left: Elias Katsaros is a visual artist and iconographer based in Huntsville. (contributed) Right: Elias Katsaros, 2013. (Anne Kimzey / Alabama Center for Traditional Culture)

Kevin King – Alabama Arts Impact Award

The Alabama Arts Impact Awards honor individuals who have made unique and meaningful contributions to arts in Alabama.

King established The King’s Canvas in Montgomery in 2018 and serves as the nonprofit’s executive director. After relocating to the city’s Washington Park neighborhood in 2007, King and his family actively collaborated with neighbors, becoming woven into the fabric of the historically marginalized community. Their participation in the neighborhood’s growth stems from a shared commitment to nurturing, serving and connecting with the community. This work has driven transformation and renewal, and cultivated leadership within the area. Operating as a creative haven, the King’s Canvas seeks to provide opportunity and access to artists who have been historically and systemically marginalized, by focusing on creativity, entrepreneurship and personal development. Through artistic expression and creative placemaking strategies, the King’s Canvas also channels efforts towards using arts and culture as a conduit to address issues of community and economic development. The Alabama Power Foundation is among the King’s Canvas supporters.

Left: Kevin King is a visual artist and arts advocacy leader based in Montgomery. Right: The King’s Canvas in Montgomery’s Washington Park Neighborhood. (contributed)

Greta Lambert – Jonnie Dee Riley Little Lifetime Achievement Award

The Jonnie Dee Riley Little Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes individuals who have devoted a lifetime of energy, service and contributions to the arts in Alabama.

Originally hailing from Birmingham, Lambert has called Montgomery home for many years. Lambert retired after 38 years of service at ASF. During her time at the theater, she wore many hats — actor, director, teaching artist, MFA faculty member, director of the Intern and Fellowship programs, director of Education and Community Engagement, and associate artistic director. She and her husband Rodney Clark were both members of ASF’s Acting Company. Over the years, Lambert played a wealth of major roles as an actor at ASF, including Ivy Rowe in “Fair and Tender Ladies,” Daisy in “Driving Miss Daisy,” Amanda in “The Glass Menagerie,” the titular role of Shirley Valentine, Blanche DuBois in “A Streetcar Named Desire,” Lady Croom in “Arcadia,” Dottie Otley in “Noises Off,” Truvy (and later Ouiser) in “Steel Magnolias,” Linda in “Death of a Salesman,” Hedda Gabler, Sarah Bernhardt, Eliza Doolittle, Candida, Miss Havisham, Hanna in “Night of the Iguana,” Marquise de Merteuil in “Les Liaisons Dangereuses” and Maggie in “Dancing at Lughnasa.” Read more about Greta Lambert.

Left: Greta Lambert is an actor, director and teaching artist based in Montgomery. (Stephen Poff) Right: Lambert as Prospero in The Tempest at Alabama Shakespeare Festival. (Ann Little)

Monique Ryan – Alabama Arts Impact Award

The Alabama Arts Impact Awards honor individuals who have made unique and meaningful contributions to arts in Alabama.

Ryan is executive director and founder of Dance All Productions Inc./Dance Theatre of Huntsville. She moved to Huntsville in 2003 from Atlanta, where she choreographed and performed with the nationally known Atlanta Ballet, Total Dance/Dancical Productions and the Patdro Harris Co. Her extensive training comes from master instructors, including Mary Jacobs, Teri “Ajile” Axam and Valjean Grigsby. At Western Kentucky University, she studied under Beverly Veenker in the Performing Arts degree program. As a member of the International Association of Blacks in Dance, she trained with Joan Myers Brown, Chuck Davis, Eleo Polmare, Donald McKayle, Sarita Allen, Ojinga Love, Mamady Sano, Djian Tie and Lula Washington. Some of her most notable performances include dancing for: Elton John, Arrested Development and Wei Wei of Japan at the 1996 Olympics. She appears in the video “The Moving Word,” produced by Patdro Harris. In all, Ryan has more than 30 years of experience in the dance and performance world. She has served on the board of the Alabama Dance Council and is a member of the Leadership Huntsville Access team. Read more about Monique Ryan.

Left: Monique Ryan is a dancer and artistic director based in Huntsville. (contributed) Right: Dance Theatre of Huntsville – Ryan performs in Rockin Gospel. (Jeff White)

Jeanie Thompson – Albert B. Head Legacy Award

The Albert B. Head Legacy Award recognizes public officials, arts patrons or arts educators who have empowered the arts to thrive in the community, creating a lasting impact for future generations in Alabama and beyond.

Thompson was born in Anniston in 1952 and soon moved to Decatur with her parents, Katherine and Byrd Thompson, and younger brother Charlie. She was educated in public schools and graduated from the University of Alabama with a bachelor’s degree in English and a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. With fellow classmates in UA’s fledgling graduate creative writing program, Thompson founded and edited the literary journal “Black Warrior Review” for its first four issues (1974-76); the review celebrates its 50th anniversary this year. Thompson has worked in literary arts management and teaching for more than 45 years while also pursuing her own writing. Her five poetry collections include “The Myth of Water: Poems from the Life of Helen Keller,” “The Seasons Bear Us,” “White for Harvest: New and Selected Poems,” “Witness, How to Enter the River,” and three small press chapbooks. With Jay Lamar she co-edited “The Remembered Gate: Memoirs by Alabama Writers.” Thompson’s interviews, poems and essays have appeared widely. She was recently featured in “The Southern Poetry Anthology: Volume X Alabama” from Texas Review Press (2024). Read more about Jeanie Thompson.

Left: Jeanie Thompson is a poet and literary arts advocate based in Montgomery. (Jerry Siegel) Right: Thompson and author Rick Bragg at the Alabama Book Festival. (contributed)

Tickets to the awards ceremony are complimentary but must be reserved through the ASF box office.

To learn more about the Celebration of Alabama Arts awards ceremony, visit arts.alabama.gov/celebrate. To learn more about the Alabama State Council on the Arts, visit arts.alabama.gov.