VMFA names semi-finalists for Muse Awards

The VMFA Muse Award The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has named 18 of Virginia’s most creative businesses as finalists for the 2008 Muse Awards. The Muse Awards Committee received 80 nominations from businesses of all sizes, reflecting the state’s economic and creative diversity in the most successful nominations campaign in the four-year history of the […]

February 11, 2008; 1:34 PM • by FTRea

The VMFA Muse Award

The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts has named 18 of Virginia’s most creative businesses as finalists for the 2008 Muse Awards.

The Muse Awards Committee received 80 nominations from businesses of all sizes, reflecting the state’s economic and creative diversity in the most successful nominations campaign in the four-year history of the awards.

The semi-finalists are Art Cheerleaders, Belmont Butchery, Catalyst, Hope & Glory Inn, Impact Makers, Mom-entum, PBM Products, PocketMed, Project: SoldierHelp, Ravenchase Adventures, South River Compounding Pharmacy, Spurrier Media Group, Stephens & Co., Style Weekly, TECHEAD, Velocity Micro, Watershed Architects, and Work Labs.

Nine of the companies will be selected as Muse Award winners, and one will be named Top Muse for exceptional creativity.

“These businesses have literally put their creative inspiration to work, be it through their products, services, or missions,” says Elizabeth Lowsley-Williams, VMFA’s corporate relations manager, “If anyone wonders whether there is a connection between creativity and commerce, they need only look at the Muse nominees.”

Lowsley-Williams says the Muse Awards offer the Virginia business community a forum in which leaders and entrepreneurs can come together to acknowledge the major role that creativity plays in their businesses. The Virginia Museum of Fine Arts – a resource for stimulating creative inspiration through its collections, exhibitions and programs – provides that forum, she says.

“Creativity is a powerful – yet often unrecognized – component of success, and its application within the Virginia business community is helping to shape the commonwealth into a diverse and important economic region.”

Eric Taylor, a VMFA Business Council member representing Genworth Financial, says, “Virginia’s business community continues to demonstrate its creativity through exciting advances. The diversity of how each nominee has incorporated innovative ideas to further their business and community impact is truly inspiring.

“Choosing this year’s semi-finalists was difficult, given the quality of applications the nominations committee received. We encourage every nominee to continue their outstanding efforts.”

The nine winner will be selected by a group of judges who will review each of the 18 semi-finalists’ application. The panel comprises Bill Chapman, co-founder, former president and creative director of RightMinds, now with Enon Hall renovation project; Teresa DiMarco, managing director at COPC and artist and former CEO of First Health Services; Kelly O’Keefe, CEO of O’Keefe Brands and executive education director at the VCUBrandCenter; Jeff Segal, CTO of Cinea/Dolby Laboratories; and Susan Winiecki, editor-in-chief of Richmond Magazine.

Will Loving, a member of the VMFA Foundation board of directors and COO of Ironworks Consulting, describes the judges as “a wonderfully diverse panel.”

The panel, he says, “even includes a business executive who is an artist in her own right. Each year it becomes more and more difficult to recruit impartial judges because, as the entry pool grows, many of Virginia’s most creative business leaders are participating as nominees.”

Winners of the fourth annual Muse Awards will be announced during the Muse Awards Un-Gala March 6. Conceived by the VMFA Business Council, the Un-Gala serves as a creative departure from the more traditional awards dinners and ceremonies; its theme is kept secret until the evening of the event.

Muse Award winners receive cast-aluminum spiral trophies, designed and produced by Cushing Manufacturing Co., that are patterned after a chambered nautilus, symbolizing the natural evolution of creativity. Winners also receive a complimentary one-year VMFA Corporate Patron membership (valued at $1,000) and recognition in a variety of media.

The VMFA Business Council is sponsored by Hilb Rogal & Hobbs. Muse Awards sponsors for 2008 are Richmond Magazine, CXI, SunTrust and RBC Dain Rauscher.

An association of executives and leaders from area businesses, the VMFA Business Council is dedicated to promoting and maintaining an active dialogue between Virginia’s business community and the VMFA. By working directly with the business community, the Business Council aims to highlight and promote the valuable contributions the museum makes to the quality of life and economic vitality of the region.

In addition to creating the Muse Awards, the Business Council works to raise awareness for the museum’s capital campaign in support of the largest expansion in VMFA history.

For more background information about the awards contact:

Charles Ajemian – Muse Chair PR-Communication
Mediaflux Corporation
(804) 370-6474 (cell)
charles@mediaflux.com

Eddie Gugelman – Business Council Chairperson
SunTrust Bank Mid-Atlantic
(804) 782-5614 (office)
Eddie.Gugelman@suntrust.com

 

Elizabeth Lowsley-Williams
VMFA Corporate Relations
(804) 340-1469 (office)
elizabeth.lowsley-williams@vmfa.museum

The information above was provided by Suzanne Hall, VMFA Marketing & Communications, 804) 204-2704 (office), suzanne.hall@vmfa.museum.

– VMFA Muse Award Photo © Virginia Museum of Fine Arts

February 11, 2008 1:34 PM 0