Governor's Arts Award Categories

Governor's Arts Awards have been presented since 1980. The Award categories have changed over time. Below is the list of award categories for the 2023 awards.

Arts Education Award:
Recognizes an individual, nonprofit organization, school district or community that has made an outstanding contribution to arts education within the past three years. Contributions may include innovation and/or sustained contributions to arts education in the classroom, leadership in a school such as the implementation of a comprehensive arts curriculum, the securing of increased funding to arts education or other significant contribution to arts education.

Arts in Health Award:
Recognizes an individual or New Hampshire nonprofit organization for providing increased access to the arts for people in health care settings and/or with physical, mental or emotional disabilities, or contributions that align with public health priorities to reduce stigma, increase awareness, and inspire action that drives positive health outcomes for populations or communities.

Creative Communities Award:
Recognizes a city, town, or village government or community-wide organization (e.g. Municipality, Chamber of Commerce, or Main Street program) or an individual that significantly fostered the arts through funding and/or program initiatives within the past three years. Examples include major municipal support to a cultural facility or public art program, establishment of a local arts commission or council, the creation of unique public/private partnerships to promote cultural tourism and/or significant increases in local public support for the arts.

Distinguished Arts Leadership Award:
Recognizes an individual who has played a sustained role in the advancement, direction, or management of a New Hampshire nonprofit arts organization. Examples include an Executive Director, Artistic Director or Board President.

Folk Heritage Award:
Recognizes a New Hampshire traditional folk artist who has made a significant contribution to his or her art form and the cultural community, reflecting a lifetime of achievement. Traditional art forms are those art forms, passed informally from generation to generation, that reflect the culture of a particular community defined by ethnic heritage, occupational, religious, geographic, or familial groups.

Individual Arts Champion Award:
Recognizes a New Hampshire resident who has made a significant contribution to the support of the arts in New Hampshire. Contributions may include donations of money, time, goods, or services that over time have significantly increased support for the arts.

Lotte Jacobi Living Treasure Award:
Recognizes a professional New Hampshire artist, in any discipline, who has made a significant contribution to his or her art form and to the arts community of New Hampshire, reflecting a lifetime of achievement. This award is named for the late Johanna Alexandra (Lotte) Jacobi (1896-1990), a photographer of great national and international renown. Jacobi emigrated from her native Germany to the United States and spent her later years as a resident of Deering, New Hampshire.

Special Awards:
Occasionally, the State Arts Council recognizes individuals who have made outstanding contributions to the arts in New Hampshire but do not fit into any of the above categories. These unique awards are determined by the State Arts Council and presented at Governor's Arts Awards.

Last updated: January 17, 2023