West Bloomfield Theatre Coordinator Earns Arts Group's Yearly Honor

Educators from West Bloomfield, Royal Oak, Grosse Pointe Woods and Howell will receive Touchstone Awards this spring for inspiring students in creative and performing arts. 

They’re among 13 winners announced Wednesday by Michigan Youth Arts, a Royal Oak alliance of statewide arts educators. Winners also are nominated for Michigan Educator of the Year recognition in their subject areas and receive program grants from a corporate sponsor, MEEMIC Insurance of Auburn Hills.

Selections are based on "a record of advocacy for arts programs, dedication to bringing out the very best in their students and a continued commitment to artistic excellence," the announcement says.

The Michigan Interscholastic Forensic Association’s (MIFA) one-act theater coordinator at West Bloomfield High School, Mark Johnson, is nominated for the second time after 15 years of working as auditorium technical director for drama and music, with 14 of those additionally spent working with MIFA.

"After my first year, I realized there was a big hole in the middle of the year when theatre kids were not very active. I said, hey, can I start this?" said Johnson. "I did it as a student at Plymouth Salem High School and to be recognized after bringing this to West Bloomfield is pretty fun."

Johnson added that he was nominated by a student, but that the awards are chosen by educators similar to him. 

"I feel like it proves the respect that I’m getting from other schools across the state who are involved in this," he said. "It feels exciting to be validated by these people, some of whom I saw working when I was in school, that my work with the students is at a high enough level that it deserves recognition."

Southeast Michigan recipients also include:

• Cindy Babcock of Royal Oak, a Registered Dance/Movement Therapist at Creative Arts Therapies, Inc. of Detroit, which serves students with disabilities.
• Phillip W. Moss, chair of creative and performing arts at University Liggett School in Grosse Pointe Woods.
• Rod Bushey, director of choirs at Howell High School.

"Touchstone awardees show us the best in arts education," says Kim Dabbs, director of Michigan Youth Arts. "They endow Michigan’s children with a lifelong capacity for innovation."

Awards will be presented in May during the 50th annual Michigan Youth Arts Festival, a three-day event at Western Michigan University in Kalamazoo.

Nearly 1,000 high school musicians, singers, dancers, actors, poets, writers and other young performers from around the state are invited to attend May's festival after a nine-month screening process at schools. Teachers also participate.

The May 10-12 event includes workshops and guest artists, as well as public exhibits and performances. Most are free.

A black-tie dinner benefitting Michigan Youth Arts and ArtServe Michigan, a Wixom nonprofit, will mark the golden anniversary.