40 North | 88 West
4th Annual ACE Awards

Thursday, October 23, 2008, 5:30pm
The Highdive, 51 E. Main, Champaign

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Celebrating outstanding contributions to Champaign County's Arts, Culture and Entertainment

art lives here. and we honored it.

The 2008 ACE Award Winners:

Spotlight | The Sousa Archives (American Music Month)
Creative Community Service | Patrick Harness
Education | Brian Hagy
Advocacy | Mike Ross
Media | Rantoul Press/Ian Wang
Business | Precision Graphics
Lifetime Achievement | Carl and Nadja Altstetter

40 North | 88 West - Champaign County’s Arts, Culture and Entertainment Council - announced the winners of the 2008 ACE Awards at a special event held inside The Highdive in downtown Champaign on Thursday, October 23. The fourth annual awards ceremony recognized those who have made outstanding contributions to the cultural life of Champaign County. The evening featured house music and latin jams by dj Doctor J, salsa dancing by Dance 2XS Caliente, tapas by English Hedgerow catering, a complimentary mojito bar by Bacardi, and an after-party concert by UIUC Latin Jazz Ensemble (Tito Carrillo, director).

Announcer Nathan Rice welcomed 40 North staff members Steven Bentz and Megan Wolf to the stage to begin the ceremony, which included past ACE Award winners as presenters of this year’s award statues — seven unique sculptural pieces designed by Champaign artist Andy Warfel and manufactured of polished clear acrylic and digitally-routed aluminum plate by Atlanta-based ID3. The 2008 ACE Awards also featured short videotaped interviews with each award winner - by ACE title sponsor WAND TV (Ken Frye and Mitch Morrison, producers) - projected on a screen over the stage following each ACE Award presentation. Chicago’s Psymbolic Visual Communications contributed video titles, animation and a live video mix throughout the evening, aided by the high definition camera work of Robin Peters, Dreamscape Cinema.

Judging Panel
In addition to the 2008 ACE Award winners, the names of the community members who selected them were also revealed at Thursday’s event. 40 North | 88 West wishes to thank the ACE Award judging panel:

Harold Allston
Danda Beard
Linda Evans
Senator Michael Frerichs
Julie Gunn
Diane Schumacher

Planning Committee
40 North would also like to offer its thanks to these volunteers for their service on the 2008 ACE Awards Planning Committee:

Todd Fusco
Patrick Harness
Anna Hochhalter
Bradley Jenks
Ellen Kirsanoff
Jody Littleton
Rod Reid
Janet Soesbe

And with special thanks to our title sponsors:

The ACE Awards

40 North | 88 West - Champaign County's Arts, Culture and Entertainment Council - presents the ACE (for Arts, Culture and Entertainment) Awards to recognize and celebrate outstanding contributions to the cultural life of Champaign County. The awards are given out annually during National and Illinois Arts & Humanities Month. The 2008 ACE Awards were sponsored by Busey Bank, The Buzz and WAND TV.

The ACE Awards honor the efforts of local individuals, businesses, artists, teachers, arts organizations, volunteers, government and community leaders who enrich the culture of Champaign County through their hard work and creative energy. The nominations made by the public become the basis for the deliberations of an independent panel of seven community-based judges — representing a broad cross-section of Champaign County — who are charged with selecting each year’s 40 North ACE Award winners. These are the people and enterprises helping art live here in Champaign County.

The ACE Awards honor outstanding achievements in these seven categories: Education ACE, Media ACE, Advocacy ACE, Spotlight ACE, Creative Community Service ACE, Business ACE and Lifetime Achievement ACE.

Thanks to these 2008 ACE Award sponsors: