Ohio Artists Receive Top National Honors
by Stephanie Dawson
Ohio Arts Council (OAC) grant recipients Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar have been honored with an Oscar nomination for the documentary “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant”; and Ohio artist Maya Lin, who created the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C., was presented with the National Medal of Arts for her work as an architect, artist and environmentalist.
Julia Reichert and Steve Bognar of Yellow Springs, Ohio were nominated for an Academy Award for their film “The Last Truck: Closing of a GM Plant” about the General Motors Plant in Moraine, Ohio. The film, which focused on the people who worked there and their lives, received an Oscar nomination for Best Documentary Short Film. It is Bognar’s first and Reichert’s third Oscar nomination. The couple won a prime-time Emmy Award for their 2006 documentary, “A Lion in the House,” about children fighting cancer. Bognar and Reichart have been long-time OAC grant recipients, including the $5,000 grant that was instrumental in getting their latest project off the ground.
"The OAC showed their faith in us and offered a crucial start up grant,” said Bognar. “This is always the hardest part for independent filmmakers." HBO became interested in the project, and eventually funded it completely. Reichert estimates that well over $200,000 was spent in the Dayton area economy as a result of the filming. They plan to attend the 82nd Annual Academy Awards ceremony March 7, 2010 at the Kodak Theatre in Los Angeles along with four GM workers from the Moraine plant.
Maya Lin of Athens, Ohio was awarded the National Medal of Arts for her profound work as an architect, artist, and environmentalist. President Obama presented Lin with the award during the ceremony on February 25, 2010, remarking, “her vision for the National Vietnam Veterans Memorial emblemizes her deep understanding of the ways in which we respond to the world around us.” Lin won a public design competition for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in 1981, beating out 1,420 other competition submissions.
The black cut-stone masonry wall, with the names of 58,261 fallen soldiers carved into its face, was completed in late October 1982 and dedicated on November 13, 1982. Lin was 21 and still an undergraduate when she began the project.
The National Medal of Arts is an award created by the United States Congress in 1984 and is the highest honor conferred to an individual artist on behalf of the people. Honorees are selected by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).
The Ohio Arts Council is a state agency that funds and supports quality arts experiences to strengthen Ohio communities culturally, educationally and economically.
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