Lisa Cremin Receives Nexus Award: March 13, 2012

The Atlanta Contemporary Art Center (ACAC) is pleased to announce that Lisa Cremin is the recipient of the third annual Nexus Award. Cremin is the founding director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund at The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta.

“Lisa was the overwhelming choice to receive this year’s Nexus Award,” said Stuart Horodner, artistic director of ACAC. “Her name was put forth by members of the community during our public call for nominations, and her contributions to the arts and culture ecology of our city are without question. In her role as Director of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, Lisa is a respected leader whose personal and institutional efforts have helped to stabilize, nurture, and empower countless arts organizations. She is a tireless advocate who cultivates connections inside and outside of Atlanta, and she raises the bar for individuals and agencies trying to bring new ideas and experiences to a diverse public.”

Of her recognition, Cremin stated, “It is on behalf of my colleagues, who with me celebrate and focus on the vision of a vital and thriving community rich with arts and culture, that I accept The Nexus Award.  I am humbled by the privilege to do the work of the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund, and fortunate to work with arts leaders and artists in the Atlanta region who can’t imagine life without the profound joy of art in everyone’s lives. My thanks to the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center for this recognition.”

Nexus Award Celebration
Cremin will receive the Nexus Award at a celebration at ACAC on Thursday, May 24, 2012. For more information visit www.thecontemporary.org/nexusaward.

Recipient Bio
Lisa Cremin is the founding director of The Community Foundation for Greater Atlanta’s Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund. At The Community Foundation, Cremin also focuses on the Nonprofit Loan Fund, Social Innovation and Social Venture Philanthropy. Under her leadership, the Arts Fund has directly supported more than 100 arts organizations in Atlanta employing a strategy directed at organizational stabilization and strategic general operating support. Cremin also works with donors at The Community Foundation who are interested in arts and culture, and oversees the Foundation’s Atlanta Public Art Legacy Fund.

When the global financial markets sank in 2008, Cremin led the Arts Fund’s swift response with the Atlanta Arts Recovery Initiative, a $2.5M grants and consulting program, which has assisted small and mid-sized arts organizations in the Atlanta region with adapting and remaining stable during the recession.

Cremin’s passion is the transformative potential of arts in local and global social change. Previously she led a consulting firm based in New York and directed creative programs with for-profit and nonprofit entities. Working internationally, she produced major museum exhibitions, curated private visual art collections and designed philanthropic initiatives using arts to promote social change.  Cremin also worked at Christie’s International, New York and the Weston Gallery, California, and created visual arts programs for both the 1984 and 1996 Olympic Games in partnership with corporate sponsors.

Cremin attended Stanford University’s Executive Program for Philanthropy Leaders with a fellowship from the Loridans Foundation, is a graduate of Leadership Atlanta, the Regional Leadership Institute and was an inaugural fellow of the Diversity Leadership Academy. She was an officer for Grantmakers in the Arts and recently served as chair of its national conference in Atlanta. In addition, she was a founding board member of Atlanta’s Public Art Advisory Committee. Cremin served for eight years as a Fellow and was vice chair of the Center for Creative Photography, University of Arizona. She is a graduate of Hamilton College.

Cremin has received various honors and awards in the local community and beyond including Atlanta Magazine’s Five for the Future (2011); Business to Business’ 2008 Women of Excellence; Atlanta Magazine, 25 Power Women to Watch, 2005; Women’s Leadership Exchange, one of Georgia’s most influential female business leaders, 2005;and Lexus Leader of the Arts, 2004.

About the Nexus Award
Recognizing that a need existed to celebrate leaders in the visual arts in Atlanta, ACAC created the Nexus Award in 2010 to publicly acknowledge an individual or individuals who have made a profound contribution to contemporary visual art in Atlanta and beyond. The Nexus Award name acknowledges the history of ACAC, which began as Nexus in 1973 and has grown to be a recognized leader in the exhibition and understanding of contemporary art and visual culture.

In discussing the impetus for the award, Horodner stated, “The Nexus Award both recognizes the consequential individuals who empower art and culture in Atlanta and inspires others to follow in their footsteps. We believe that art enriches our lives and our city. It must be actively supported, and its leaders publicly thanked for their efforts.”

In its inaugural year, the Nexus Award recognized two outstanding individuals, Dr. Andrea Barnwell Brownlee, director of the Spelman College Museum of Fine Art, and Dr. Jerry Cullum, editor at large of “Art Papers” magazine. The 2011 Nexus Award recipient was Louis Corrigan, founder of Flux Projects and Possible Futures.
 
About the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center
Founded in 1973 as a grassroots artist cooperative, ACAC is now a non-profit, non-collecting institution dedicated to the creation, presentation and advancement of contemporary art by emerging and established artists. ACACcreates a diverse cultural landscape for artists, arts professionals and the art-interested public through its exhibitions, educational programming and studio artist program. For more information about ACAC visit www.thecontemporary.org.

Disclosure: ACAC received funding in 2009 and 2011 from the Metropolitan Atlanta Arts Fund through its Atlanta Arts Recovery Initiative.

For more information about the Nexus Award, contact: Saskia Benjamin, director of institutional advancement, 404-688-1970 x211 orsbenjamin@thecontemporary.org, or visit www.thecontemporary.org/nexusaward.