Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Goza To Be Honored For Work In Art

The Arkansas Arts Council has announced the recipients of the 1999 Governor's Arts Awards, according to James E. Mitchell, executive director of the Arts Council, an agency of the Department of Arkansas Heritage.

The Governor's Arts Awards recognize outstanding contributions to the arts in Arkansas. Recipients will be recognized at the awards luncheon to be held September 27 at Arkansas' Excelsior Hotel in Little Rock. The luncheon will be a highlight of ArtLinks '99: Programming for the Future, the Council's statewide conference on the arts.

Tickets to the luncheon are available by calling the Arkansas Arts Council at 501-324- 9766 before Sept. 17.

One of the six awards to be presented, the Arts in Education Award will go to Frankie Goza of Arkadelphia.

Goza is know in Arkansas and nationally for her commitment to working with people with disabilities. Mrs. Goza is an art instructor at the Arkadelphia Human Development Center.

She was among the first group of employees hired to work at the Development Center in 1968 and soon created an art program for center residents.

Recently, Mrs. Goza has been able to pursue her long-term dream of encouraging center residents to utilize their artistic talents in an employment setting. She has developed a business that allows artists to sell their work at area crafts shows throughout Arkansas and surrounding states.

Goza helped to organize an annual Christmas crafts sale to benefit the Development Center's volunteer council at the Wal-Mart location in Arkadelphia. Today it has become a major fund-raiser for the organization and is supplemented with a matching grant from Wal-Mart.