James Flannery

Emory University has recognized Professor James W. Flannery’s commitment to Irish studies by presenting him with the 2011 Creativity & Arts faculty award.

The awards recognize Emory faculty, students, staff, alumni, community members and volunteers annually for their contributions to the university’s arts programs.

Dr. Flannery, Emory’s Winship Professor of Arts and Humanities, is being honored particularly for his work with Emory’s W.B. Yeats Foundation, which promotes and produces its namesake’s poetry and plays.

Started in 1989, for the next four years the foundation partnered with Atlanta’s Coca-Cola Co. to produce the Yeats International Theatre Festival at Dublin’s Abbey Theatre, which Yeats helped to found in 1904.

Dr. Flannery has also directed and produced Emory’s Atlanta Celtic Christmas Concert, which was filmed by the Public Broadcasting Service in 2010 and is to be aired later this year.

The awards also recognized Emory students and staff Mary Catherine Johnson, assistant director of Emory’s Visual Arts Department and Gallery; Joey Orr, graduate student and founder of the university’s Visual Scholarship Initiative; Jennie Saliers, a board member of Emory’s Friends of Music; and Charlotte Watts, undergraduate and founder of the Emory Arts Club.

Professional artists recognized were Chris Appleton, founder of the WonderRoot organization to promote artists’ community involvement; Malina Rodriguez, co-founder of Atlanta public dance program Dance Truck; and D. Patton White, an Emory alumnus and artistic director of Atlanta-based Beacon Dance.

The recipients were honored at a Sept. 9 reception at the Schwartz Center for Performing Arts that coincided with the opening of Emory’s concert, theater and dance seasons.

For details on the award winners see http://arts.emory.edu/news/press-releases/090111-creativity-and-arts-award-winners.html. For more on the W.B. Yeats Foundation, visit http://college.emory.edu/program/wbyeats/.