The Oak Park Area Arts Council drew a large and enthused crowd to its annual meeting last Wednesday at Pleasant Home. While the music and the food were great, it is more likely that two awards presented at the meeting swelled the crowd.
Kay Sorenson, District 97 art curriculum leader, received the council’s Lifetime Achievement Award. Sorenson is retiring this spring after 19 years in the Oak Park public elementary district and several years before that teaching art at St. Edmund and St. Giles Catholic schools in Oak Park. Sorenson has been the art teacher at Beye School where she is famed for the murals she and students have created over the decades. It is hard to find a flat surface at Beye that has not been covered with a mural. Sorenson was introduced by Margot McMahon, an Arts Council board member, sculptor and Beye parent.
The council’s Joseph Randall Shapiro Award was presented to John Lukehart, president of the council. The honor took Lukehart by surprise. A member of the Arts Council’s board since 2000, he has served as its president since 2002. Lukehart has been actively involved in village and school government affairs for 25 years. He was introduced by Wednesday Journal Editor and Publisher Dan Haley.
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