Nevada Arts Council bestows annual fellowships

The Nevada Arts Council has awarded nine $5,000 Artist Fellowships for fiscal year 2008. Three fellowships each were awarded in Literary Arts, Performing Arts and Visual Arts. Five of the recipients are from Southern Nevada.

The recipients include Las Vegans Matthew O'Brien, literary arts honoree in prose/nonfiction; Shan Michael Evans, visual arts honoree in media arts; performing arts honorees Karen Haid, in music performance/flute; Bernard J. Jackson in dance performance; and Cristina Natsuko Paulos of Henderson in theater performance/puppetry.

In addition, three honorable mentions from each category were given a $500 grant by the Artist Services Program. Visual arts honorable mentions from Southern Nevada are: Delores Nast in painting and Brent Sommehauser in sculpture, both of Las Vegas.

The council, founded in 1967 to develop and promote arts in Nevada, reviewed 99 applications.

In other news:

* Three Southern Nevadans have their recipes listed in the 2007 edition of the Wal-Mart Family Cookbook. The cookbook includes recipes for appetizers, main dishes, side dishes, desserts and brand recipes which include dishes by Bertolli, Del Monte and Ore-Ida. Among the 96 recipes in the cookbook is the appetizer recipe for "Awesome Crab Spread" by Allison Spahn of Las Vegas, the main dish recipe for "Tamale Pie" by Debby Miars of Las Vegas and the dessert recipe for "Strawberry Blueberry Parfaits" by Benita Hilton of Mesquite.

The cookbook's recipes were collected from a contest open to Wal-Mart employees.

* The Las Vegas Elks Lodge No. 1468, 4100 W. Charleston Blvd., celebrated its 84th birthday at a dinner June 29. At the dinner, Lodge member Mike Amburgey was named "Fireman of the Year" in recognition of his community service. The Benevolent and Protective Order of Elks was founded in New York City in 1868.

* The Greater Las Vegas After-School All-Stars has received $709,000 in appropriated funds from the State of Nevada for its after-school programs at at-risk elementary and middle schools this fall. The funds will be used to support educational, enrichment and recreational programs including art, science, sports, dance, cooking, media and broadcast journalism.

If you know of a worthy candidate for this column, mail information to Newsmakers, Las Vegas Review-Journal, P.O. Box 70, Las Vegas, NV 89125-0070, or send faxes to 383-4676.