Dublin Resident among County Arts Leadership Award Winners

The Alameda County Board of Supervisors honored six award recipients at its virtual board meeting on October 12, with commendations presented in conjunction with the County’s celebration of October as National Arts and Humanities Month. Although the meeting was closed to the public because of COVID-19, it was available to view online.

Each year the members of the Alameda County Arts Commission review nominations submitted by the public for the Arts Leadership Award program and then select the award recipients. The Alameda County Arts Commission acknowledged all of the nominees for their leadership in the arts and for their service to our community. Additionally, the Arts Commission extended thanks to the Alameda County community members who submitted nominations for 2021.

The following individuals are the recipients of the 2021 Alameda County Arts Leadership Award: Lisa Bullwinkel, Gregory Conway, Kala Ghaty, Carl Larson, Vanessa Thomas and Angela Wellman.

Dublin Resident, Vanessa Thomas is the Co-Founder of the Dublin Arts Collective. She is also an active supporter of many local organizations including the Pleasanton Art League, Livermore Art Association, Tri-Valley Artist Studio Tour, Tri-Valley Cultural Tourism Working Group, and Lapis Lazuli Art Club. Vanessa is a South African-born, multiracial, freelance journalist with a scientific background who has made Dublin her home since 2013.

She is an exhibiting artist, published floral photographer, and the owner of an online floral photography site named Fables and Flora. Vanessa was nominated for Dublin Citizen of the Year in 2017 for Volunteer Work in the Arts and in 2019 she was the recipient of the Mayor’s Award for her volunteer contributions to the community with the Dublin Arts Collective. She writes about, supports and promotes the artists and art scene in Dublin and the Tri-Valley area.

Joint winner in Supervisorial District One is Kala Ghaty of Fremont who is the Founder and Director of Kalamandir Art School in Fremont and Special Education Teacher for Fremont Unified School District.

County Arts Commissioner Usha Shukla, also an arts leadership award recipient for 2020 commented "Many congratulations to the one and only Vanessa Thomas for her well deserved Arts Leadership Award 2021. She has done commendable work to bring arts in the Alameda County to the next level. Keep up the Good Work! So proud of you! Congratulations to all the recipients!"

Shukla and Thomas, along with over 50 Tri-Valley Artists will be participating in the first TVAST (Tri-Valley Artists Studio Tour) on November 13 and 14, 2021. The Tour is the brainchild of Livermore Artist, Dennis Baker, and is being jointly organized with Anne Giancola, Visual Arts Manager at the Livermore Valley Performing Arts Center.

For TVAST, Shukla and other artists will be displaying artwork at the Firehouse Art Center in Pleasanton while Thomas will be based at the F.CO. Art Gallery in Dublin along with Sawsan Wolski, Lorraine Wells, Swati Rastogi, Lee Britton, Karen Scott, Rob Bennett, Buffy Davis and Michelle Meng.

For more information about the TVAST and the venues visit the Alliance for the Visual Arts Website.