Permanent Endowment Fund honors Featherstone Center leaders

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The Permanent Endowment Fund for Martha’s Vineyard announced that Featherstone director emerita Francine Kelly and executive director Ann Smith will be awarded the 2015 Creative Living Award at a celebration on Wednesday, Nov. 4, at 5 pm at the Grange Hall in West Tisbury.

Winners of countless awards and gestures of appreciation from the Island community, Ms. Smith and Ms. Kelly have contributed to Island life in myriad and important ways, the Endowment said in a press release.

This will be the 33rd year the Endowment has presented the Creative Living Award, established to recognize members of the Vineyard community who embody the spirit of Ruth Bogan, who, in the words of her friend Ruth Redding, was a “gallant woman who loved beauty, who loved the Vineyard and who believed ‘anyone can do anything.’”

In order to “encourage fine craftsmanship, creativity, and ingenuity in many fields,” the Endowment has honored the spirit of Ruth Bogan by presenting the Creative Living Award to those who have worked to “preserve and nourish” the Vineyard, as well as to those who have helped “the present inhabitants to realize the value of their treasure.”

“I am so honored to join the company of Peggy Pinney, Featherstone’s founding executive director, in being selected to receive the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard’s Creative Living Award,” Ms. Kelly said. “Featherstone’s commitment and contribution to the Island have clearly been recognized by bestowing this award on all three of Featherstone’s executive directors in our short 19-year history!”

“Thank you to Ruth Bogan and the Permanent Endowment for Martha’s Vineyard for championing the arts and making the Island an incredibly wonderful place to live, work, and thrive,” Ms. Smith said.