Call for Nominations! 2012 Themis Award
The Themis Award honors a person or organization that advances peace, equality, and social justice in the greater Philadelphia area.
Herstory behind the award: In 2008, the board and the singers of Anna Crusis Women’s Choir decided to give an annual award to an individual or organization in the Philadelphia area whose mission is in concert with our own mission. We chose the goddess Themis as the title of the award because ancient Greeks most often showed her with a balance that represented the judgment required for justice.
In 2009, Anna Crusis Women's Choir introduced its annual Themis Award to recognize individuals and organizations that have advanced peace, equality and social justice within the Greater Philadelphia region. Through this award, Anna Crusis looks to build vital relationships with people and groups dedicated to creating a great city and community in which to live, work and enjoy the arts.
Please nominate the person or organization you believe best epitomizes the criteria.
Nominations for the 2012 award are open now through March 10, 2012. The award will be presented at our spring concert June 2, 2012.
Nominate online now! or Download Nomination Form
WINNERS:
2 011 - First United Methodist Church of Germantown (FUNCOG)
The mission of FUMCOG to be inclusive, diverse, and activist fits the criteria of the award perfectly. "...We affirm our commitment by working together, taking risks for social justice and peace in our community, our city, our nation and our world."
2010 winner – Doris Polsky and Shirley Melvin (posthumously) of Twin Realty and the Allens Lane Art Center, community activists and pioneering business women
"Nobody will be excluded from our neighborhood,” was what Doris Polsky and her twin sister Shirley Melvin vowed when they moved to Mt. Airy from Greys Ferry in 1943. The sisters were 19 when they moved into the neighborhood as the only Jewish family. Within a decade, Shirley and Doris launched the Allens Lane Art Center, a place where all could gather around the arts. They later lobbied the Center’s board to open an arts-oriented nursery school and summer day camp, the first racially integrated public day camp in the city and a stabilizing factor in the increasingly diverse community. In 1963, they formed Twin Realty in Germantown. At that time, there were few female brokers and even fewer realtors working against the “white flight” that was occurring in neighborhoods which were previously exclusively white. The sisters worked with residents to help welcome their new black neighbors and together to celebrate the diversity of their neighborhood.
Today the camp, classes and theater are all still running--the lasting impact of Doris’s work, in partnership with her late sister, still evident in the demographics and spirit of the Mt. Airy and Germantown communities.
2009 winner – Jane Golden of the City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program
Since 1984, The Mural Arts Program, the nation’s largest of its kind, has created over 3,000 murals and works of public art, now part of the city’s civic landscape and inspiration to thousands of residents and visitors, earning Philadelphia the international title, the “City of Murals.” It works with over 100 communities each year, transforming them through the mural-making process. Its award-winning, free, citywide education programs serve nearly 2,000 youth and at-risk teens annually. The program serves adult offenders in prisons and rehabilitation centers, using the restorative power of art to break the cycle of crime and violence.
Philadelphia’s program has been described as the most important, prolific and successful public art project in the nation. This is mostly attributable to Jane Golden. The artist - a woman of remarkable intensity, drive and heart - took what might have remained a minor city program aimed at eradicating graffiti and turned it into a force for beauty, redemption and hope.
Anna Crusis Women's Choir is a 501(c)3 organization.
P: 215-864-5991 F: 215-241-7278
Email: info@annacrusis.com
P.O. Box 42277, Philadelphia, PA 19101
*Our banner photo was taken by Harris J. Sklar on February 4, 2011 at the 2011 Susan G. Komen Kick Off Event.
