Artistic Excellence Award

At the Business Arts Partnership event, we also presented the Artistic Excellence Award — a $10,000 prize given annually to an arts or cultural organization that has demonstrated innovation, risk and artistic excellence in a performance, exhibition or program — to BalletMet Columbus and the Jazz Arts Group for Jazz Moves. Each organization received $5,000 for this unique partnership.

BalletMet and the Columbus Jazz Orchestra shared the stage in April 2006 in a groundbreaking fusion of dance and music glorifying the past, present and future of Columbus jazz, the most American of art forms. Along with a playful, improvisational streak, the electrifying program featured specially commissioned dance works and music by renowned artists from around the country. Together, the dance and music touched on such local luminosity as the Near East Side "Cradle of Jazz," the legendary figures of the 1950s and the unstoppable energy that propels today's artists forward into what's next.

The other 2007 Artistic Excellence nominees were:

• BalletMet Columbus for its new performance space.
• Columbus Museum of Art for Kehinde Wiley: Columbus.
• Columbus State Community College for Vault.
• cm2 (Columbus Movement Movement) for Gallery Hop, Skip, Jump!.