Council for the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island celebrates 20 ...

STATEN ISLAND, N.Y. Twenty years young and strong and thriving, and the Council for the Arts and Humanities for Staten Island has only just begun. That was the mantra Thursday night as COAHSI celebrated its 20th anniversary with a gala at the Old Bermuda Inn, Rossville.

Centered on the theme ?Give To Art. Love Art,? the night emphasized all the organization has done to build a creative and thriving arts culture in the borough. It came with music, dancing and dinner, and culminated in the recognition of three people whose work has been indispensable in that regard.

Sisters Doreen Cugno and Luanne Sorrentino received The Laura Jean Watters Service to COAHSI and the Arts Community Award; Michael Fressola the Achievement in the Arts and Humanities Award, and Colin Jost the Emerging Young Artist Award.

COAHSI Executive Director Melanie Franklin Cohn predicted that Islanders can expect much more as COAHSI matures.

?The organization has really grown with the arts community in Staten Island, and the arts community in the borough is getting more and more vibrant all the time,? she said. ?And it?s fabulous that the arts council has been able to keep pace and support it.?

Mrs. Cugno and Mrs. Sorrentino, along with their mother, the late Rosemary Cappozalo, rescued the St. George Theatre; Mrs. Sorrentino said it was the sisters? privilege to bring to fruition their mother?s work of restoring the showplace to its former brilliance.

?It was our mother?s dream to see this theater succeed and thrive and shine,? said Mrs. Sorrentino. Mrs. Cugno said she was equally honored to accept the award named for Ms. Watters, whom she credits as an inspiration.

Fressola is the arts editor for the Advance and has covered the Island cultural community for more than 30 years.

?I already do something I love and have been doing forever. And I don?t plan on stopping, so an award seems unnecessary, but thank you,? he said.

Jost, 28, a former Advance staffer and now recently named head writer for ?Saturday Night Live,? paid homage to the newspaper, where he started as an intern, and lauded his fellow honorees.

Source: http://www.silive.com/entertainment/arts/index.ssf/2012/10/council_for_the_arts_and_human.html

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