AES Good News - March 2026 |
Way to go! RIT will be well represented this week at Geva Theater. The annual Essie Calhoun Diversity in the Arts Award ceremony is this Thursday, March 5th. It is given annually to individuals or organizations celebrating their contributions to the community by promoting and encouraging diversity in the arts. Among the recipients are Tina Chapman DaCosta, award winning director of RIT Brick by Brick Theater, RIT’s Luvon Sheppard, well known artist and professor in the School of Art, and the Puerto Rican Festival of Rochester, led for many years by RIT grad Orlando Ortiz, who has been active with the RIT Board of Trustees and the Alumni Association. And if the name of the award sounds familiar, it is in honor of Essie Calhoun-McDavid, an RIT trustee emeritus, who received the very first award back in 2011.