EVERETT — The Everett Cultural Arts Commission honored creatives and artistic organizations on Thursday as the commission presented the annual The Wendt & Mayor’s Arts Awards.
Award recipients included a photographer, a former City Council member, musicians, an art-centered community service organization and a filmmaking educator.
The commission awarded the Richard and Nancy Wendt Award of Excellence to Brenda Stonecipher. She previously served as a City Council member for two decades.
She received the award for “being a champion for arts and cultural centers in Everett,” the commission wrote. During her time on the council, Stonecipher helped pave the way for construction of the new Schack Art Center facility in downtown Everett, which opened in 2011. The Schack Art Center was founded as the Arts Council of Snohomish County in 1974.
“We are a city that punches well above its weight in terms of the arts,” Stonecipher said Thursday.
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Bunker Arts Collective received a Mayor’s Arts Award. The nonprofit organization provides murals to local schools at no charge and organizes trash cleanups and graffiti removal across the city.
Evan Reed formed the nonprofit in 2023. Along with some of his friends, he started the organization to help clean up the city and share artwork. The organization continues to host weekly cleanup events shared via social media.
In 2024, the collective removed 10 tons of litter and commissioned seven free murals in Everett.
“At the end of the day, we really are just trying to make the city of Everett more vibrant, more clean and just more enjoyable to live here,” Reed said Thursday. “I feel like investing in the arts in this capacity is a win-win for everybody.”
The Huong Viet Performing Arts Group was another Mayor’s Arts Award recipient. Founded in Everett by Hai Viet Hong more than two decades ago, the organization has a goal of studying and promoting traditional Vietnamese music. The group has shared their musical performances around the world, in places like France, Canada, Italy, Australia and New Zealand.
“Yet, among all these activities in the past 24 years, the proudest moment for us is standing right here where it all began,” Viet Hong said Thursday.
Christopher Gove, an educator who heads the Teen Storytellers Project, won a Mayor’s Arts Award for his work teaching filmmaking to local students. Formed in 2019, the Teen Storytellers Project provides tuition-free film education to youth in Snohomish County.
“Our goal at Teen Storytellers Project has always been to create space for learning, for students to learn technical skills that can lead to fulfilling careers as artists, to learn interpersonal skills that will benefit them wherever they go, and to reinforce their own intrinsic value as people,” Gove said.
Leland Dart, the former publisher of My Everett News, also won a Mayor’s Arts Award. For 13 years, he ran the daily online news publication and photographed numerous events across Everett. After he retired from My Everett News in 2024, he formed a new photography publication, “Seen In Everett,” and opened a downtown studio for portrait photography.
“My advice: Show up, be nice, provide value, take the photo,” Dart said Thursday. “Don’t worry about the type of equipment you have. Repeat. And make a copy for your wall.”
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This is the 31st year the awards have taken place. The Richard and Nancy Wendt Award of Excellence is presented to a person or organization that has demonstrated outstanding support to the arts through their lifetime. The Mayor’s Arts Awards are presented to people or organizations that have made Everett a better place through their creative vision.
Will Geschke: 425-339-3443; william.geschke@heraldnet.com; X: @willgeschke.
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