Spokane Valley Summer season Theatre government director wins Governor’s Arts & Heritage Award

Spokane Valley Summer season Theatre government director Yvonne Johnson shall be honored alongside eight different people and organizations throughout the 2022 Governor’s Arts & Heritage Awards.

Returning to their conventional classes after final 12 months’s Luminary Awards – which Spokane Valley Summer season Theatre received as a company – the awards acknowledge people and organizations for “vital contributions to Washington’s artistic vitality.”

“We’re thrilled to announce these 9 extraordinary honorees, every an irreplaceable pillar of their group,” ArtsWA government director Karen Hanan stated. “Now we have made extraordinary progress as a state and as a society for the reason that darkest days of the pandemic. The 2022 honorees signify the profound integrity, ingenuity and resilience of Washington’s artistic spirit.”

For the reason that Governor’s Arts Awards have been established in 1966 – and Governor’s Heritage Awards in 1989 – GAHA has honored 250 such people and organizations. Nominating Johnson for a person award within the arts class, GAHA cited Johnson’s management, group growth and her ongoing efforts with respect to the Idaho Central Spokane Valley Performing Arts Middle mission, scheduled for completion in June 2024.

The important thing to surviving and thriving the previous few years as a theater firm, Johnson stated, has been resiliency.

“Whatever the pandemic, we’ve continued to push ahead,” she stated.

Whereas troublesome, these years have introduced a number of silver linings. The pandemic pause gave her group extra time to work on the silent section of the performing arts heart capital marketing campaign. Since reopening, numbers proceed to rise.

“We simply had a record-breaking season … once more,” she stated. “And I feel it’s vital to notice … we’ve had the most effective years on document in all areas.”

Season ticket gross sales are up 231{99d7ae7a5c00217be62b3db137681dcc1ccd464bfc98e9018458a9e2362afbc0}. This season’s manufacturing of “Newsies” was the bestselling present within the historical past of the group.

Humbled to have received alongside her fellow recipients, Johnson is proud to be bringing dwelling one other award to Spokane Valley Summer season Theatre.

“Truthfully, it is a nice honor, a pleasure, a privilege to obtain this,” Johnson stated. “To obtain this … prestigious award from the governor … I’m simply actually humbled and really grateful.”

Johnson will journey to the governor’s mansion in Olympia for the award ceremony on Nov. 1.

For info, go to arts.wa.gov/gaha.