The Missouri Arts Council has selected Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield of Westphalia as the recipients of the 2020 Missouri Arts Award for Philanthropy.
Presented annually since 1983, the awards recognize “profound and lasting contributions to the artistic and cultural legacy of the state” in six different categories.
The Sinquefields were cited specifically as “ardent supporters of music education and the composition and performance of new music, especially through the University of Missouri in Columbia via competitions, festivals, awards, scholarships, and the leading gift toward a new music building.”
The new building for the University’s School of Music, funded with a $10 million lead gift from the Sinquefields, is expected to open in 2020. In addition, since the Mizzou New Music Initiative was created in 2009, the Sinquefields have made gifts totaling $6.9 million to support its various programs positioning the University as a center for new music and composition.
Those programs include the annual Mizzou International Composers Festival; the Creating Original Music Project (COMP), a statewide composition contest for Missouri students in grades K-12; the Missouri Composers Project (MOCOP), which provides performance opportunities for orchestral and choral works by Missouri composers; and more.
Over the last ten years, the Sinquefields’ gifts have funded a total of 74 full scholarships and graduate assistantships; campus visits from 171 guest performers and composers; and the creation or performance of 512 works of new music, including eleven that have been performed or read by the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra.
“Jeanne and Rex Sinquefield’s support has been transformative for our composition department and the entire School of Music,” said Julia Gaines, director of the School. “The Mizzou New Music Initiative is a real asset to the University, the community, and the entire state that simply would not exist without their generosity and vision. And looking ahead, the new building for the School of Music will realize a long-held dream for the department, and allow us to continue to grow in many ways.”
An independent panel of Missourians representing the arts community throughout the state selects the honorees from among public nominations. Since the founding of the Missouri Arts Awards, the Missouri Arts Council and the State of Missouri have honored 223 people, organizations, and communities throughout the state.
The other 2020 award winners are William Ash of St. Louis for Arts Education; Bach Aria Soloists of Kansas City for Arts Organization; Grand Center Inc. of St. Louis for Creative Community; Maryfrances Wagner of Independence for Individual Artist; and Quin Gresham of Arrow Rock for Leadership in the Arts. All honorees will receive art glass created by Tyler Kimball, founder and owner of Monarch Glass Studio in Kansas City.
The 2020 Missouri Arts Awards will be presented in a public ceremony on February 5, 2020, in the Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City. Everyone is invited to attend.
Established as a state agency in 1965, the Missouri Arts Council is a division of the Office of the Lieutenant Governor, and is funded through the Missouri General Assembly, Missouri Cultural Trust, and National Endowment for the Arts.
The Council provides support to not-for-profit organizations through grants, making quality arts programming possible in communities statewide, and also provides expertise in community development, fundraising, marketing, grant writing, arts education, and artistic disciplines.
