The 2022 Class of the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame (FVAHF) was announced Friday, Oct. 14 at the Batavia Public Library. Inductees are Lucille and Sten Halfvarson, music; Olive Beaupré Miller, writer; Charles Pierce Burton, writer, all of whom are deceased and had resided in Aurora; and Joseph Morton (Mort) Luby, painter from Carpentersville.
The 2020 banquet was postponed because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Both the 2020 and 2022 FVAHF classes will be inducted March 31, 2023, at Villa Olivia in Bartlett. The previously-announced 2020 inductees are Patrick F. Beckman, music and Kevin Braheny Fortune, music, from Elgin; Vincent S. Chiaramonte, portraitist and Jeffrey Hunt, music, from Saint Charles; and Joel C. Sheesley, painter, from Wheaton.
The Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame recognizes artists associated with the Fox Valley by birth, education, residence, or service, who have achieved international or national acclaim. Candidates should have completed 20 years in their professional field and received recognition for excellence. The honor is for living artists, or can be awarded posthumously.
The Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame (FVAHF) was a dream of Lucille Halfvarson and other arts leaders that took tangible form during the millennium (2000) celebrations in Aurora. A series of two-minute history sketches for public television briefly put the spotlight on violinist Maud Powell, an Aurora resident who, a century earlier, had the musical world at her feet. The committee that worked on this project evolved into the Fox Valley Arts Hall of Fame, a nonprofit organization that gives public recognition to artists associated with the Fox Valley.
A second objective of the FVAHF is to ensure a strong cultural legacy for future generations. Inductees are honored with engraved plaques that are displayed at the Hemmens Cultural Center in Elgin.
The founders of FVAHF are Joyce Dlugopolski, Jay Harriman, Mary Clark Ormond, Susan S. Starrett, and deceased members Lucille & Sten Halfvarson, G. Edward Nelson, Roger Parolini, and Charlotte & George Peichl. For more information, please send E-mail to info@fvahf.org.