SLCG Founder Wins Missouri Arts Award for Arts Education

St. Louis Classical Guitar Founder Wins Missouri Arts Award for Arts Education

William Ash, 2020 Arts Education Award Recipient with students from Kennard Classical Junior Academy

The Missouri Arts Council and State of Missouri awarded SLCG founder William Ash the Arts Hero award for Arts Education in 2020.

Since 1983, the Missouri Arts Council and the State of Missouri have been honoring our state’s arts heroes—the people who make the arts happen. The annual Missouri Arts Awards celebrate people, organizations, and communities that have made profound and lasting contributions to the cultural and artistic climate of the state. An independent panel selects honorees in six categories.

SLCG Board Member Paul Kreter nominated Bill, and the news of the award came as a complete surprise! Here is what Bill had to say about the recognition:

“I so appreciate this recognition of me by the Missouri Arts Council! But I can only accept it while acknowledging all the excellent work occurring daily in local public school classrooms by our team of talented teaching artists and committed classroom teachers. I thank all of you who have supported SLCG for so many seasons, and especially through our Visionary program launched in 2014. Without the initial and now ongoing support of the Augustine Foundation in New York for Ferguson schools it could not have initially launched at all. I’m grateful to all of you, and so many more. I hope you will continue to support us! I’m truly honored. My sincere thank you to the Missouri Arts Council, those who nominated me, and all the supportive St. Louis Classical Guitar Visionaries and teachers who are so invested in our Guitar Horizons school guitar programs!”

The 2020 Missouri Arts Awards will be presented in a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City beginning at 1 p.m. on Wednesday, February 5, 2020. Everyone is invited to attend. Click here to read more about the Missouri Arts Awards 2020.

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Support for Guitar Horizons comes from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Augustine Foundation, Regional Arts Commission, and individuals like you. Click here to support Guitar Horizons today.