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​Fordham award winner Andrew Jones Phinisee and art instructor Annie Chrietzberg

​Contact: Kathye Hammontree
214-378-1536; khammontree@dcccd.edu

For immediate release — May 5, 2014

(DALLAS) — Without art, life is a blank canvas — without color, without lines, without music, without words. Life is celebrated through the arts, and that’s what a select group of students from the Dallas County Community College District have done — created works of art that make life special.

Those 15 students were recognized recently during a special event at El Centro College that included an exhibit of works by visual arts students, plus a stage performance that featured music and writing awardees. One student from each of the colleges received the Cecil Wallace Fordham Award in Visual Arts and the Alice Jones Bearding Award in Music. One student also received the Eleanor Jones Award in Creative Writing.

The awards are made possible through endowments donated by Eleanor and George Jones and their family through the DCCCD Foundation, each carrying a cash award of $500.

“DCCCD appreciates so much that Mrs. Eleanor Jones and her children and grandchildren have continued the tradition of honoring their family and our students through these awards,” said Dr. Joe May, DCCCD’s new chancellor. “The family’s dedication to the creative and performing arts survives in the works and dreams of our outstanding students. Gifts such as these are a lasting legacy that honor both the donors and the recipients.”

The Cecil Wallace Fordham Award in Visual Arts was endowed in 1979 by Eleanor Fordham Jones and her husband, George Rather Jones, in memory of her father. The award honors Cecil Fordham, an automotive mechanical engineer and veteran of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, who built furniture as a hobby and who also had a lifelong appreciation for beautiful design. The award is given annually to an outstanding visual arts major at each of the seven colleges in the DCCCD system.

This year’s visual arts honorees (listed with hometown, college and major) are:

• Kenya Diaz of Dallas, Brookhaven College, visual arts/printing;
• Phillip Washington of Ovilla, Texas, Cedar Valley College, studio arts/print making;
• Amy He of Mesquite, Eastfield College, communication/graphic design;
• Andrew Phinisee of Dallas, El Centro College, graphic design and fashion design;
• Erik Espinoza of Duncanville, Mountain View College, visual communications;
• Oscar Delgado of Lewisville, North Lake College, digital art and video; and
• Adolfo Hernandez of Dallas, Richland College, studio art and education.

The Alice Jones Berding Award in Music honors its namesake for her years of teaching piano both privately and in Dallas schools; it was established in 1977 through a gift from Berding’s brother, George Rather Jones, and his wife, Eleanor Fordham Jones. Continued by the family after Mrs. Jones’ death in 1981, the award is now in its 37th year.

• Clara McLain of Dallas, Brookhaven College, music/classical guitar performance;
• Deborah Beene of Grand Prairie, Cedar Valley College, vocal performance;
• Kwinton Gray of Dallas, Eastfield College, music/music education;
• Laisa Leal of Dallas, El Centro College, music composition;
• Rebecca Rice of Dallas, Mountain View College, vocal performance/speech pathology;
• Helen Marincel of Flower Mound, North Lake College, music; and
• Rachel Trevino of Garland, Richland College, vocal performance/music education.

The Eleanor Jones Award in Creative Writing, established in 2002 in honor of Mrs. Jones’ 75th birthday by her family, is presented annually to one creative writing student representing the entire district who excels in prose or poetry. This year’s academic honoree is Ashley Balcazar of Carrollton, who attends Brookhaven College and is majoring in English and French.