The Mayor’s Awards for the Arts give us a chance to recognize some of the people and organizations who make this region a more creative place to live.
This year, 31 nominees across eight categories represent an especially broad cross-section of our arts community: working artists and longtime volunteers, teachers and students, cultural organizations and businesses that help make the work possible.
Some have spent decades building institutions. Some are just beginning their creative careers. Some perform under stage lights. Others work behind the scenes, in classrooms, board rooms, studios and community spaces.
All of them were nominated by members of the community who believed their work deserved to be seen.
The 2026 Mayor’s Awards for the Arts will be presented Wednesday, November 18, at the Hoogland Center for the Arts, beginning at 5:30 p.m.
Before then, meet this year’s nominees.
Arts Educator
Brandt Sitze
Brandt Sitze is a band and music teacher at Pawnee CUSD and an instructor at Lincoln Land Community College. His nomination highlights his work revitalizing Pawnee’s band program and creating opportunities for students to study music at a higher level.
Craig Williams II
Craig Williams II has worked in Springfield theater for more than 30 years as a director, performer, designer and educator. As Artistic Director of the Hoogland Performing Arts Education program, he has helped grow participation from roughly 50 students to more than 300.
Mary Ellen Strack
Mary Ellen Strack has spent more than four decades teaching visual art to students of all ages. A practicing painter herself, she has also taught through the Springfield Art Association and remained active as a volunteer, mentor and supporter of the local arts community.
Arts Organization
Garvey Tubman Cultural Arts and Research Center
Founded in 2013 by the late John T. Crisp Jr., the Garvey Tubman Cultural Arts and Research Center provides arts, cultural and educational programming with a particular focus on Springfield’s African American community. Its programs have included visual art, poetry, music and youth programming.
Springfield Choral Society
Founded in 1971, the Springfield Choral Society now includes more than 100 singers and presents concerts ranging from classical choral works to contemporary programming. Its growing community work also includes Sing By Heart and the new Springfield Children’s Choir.
Springfield Cultural Arts Foundation
The Springfield Cultural Arts Foundation was created to support, promote and showcase the many cultures represented in the Springfield area. Its work has included free publications highlighting local artists and businesses and a downtown cultural festival featuring performers, artists and vendors.
Voices of Love, Joy and Peace
Voices of Love, Joy and Peace celebrates its **50th anniversary in 2026**. Founded by Jessie Mae Finley, the organization has spent five decades preserving and performing African American musical traditions while raising scholarship funds for young people pursuing music and the arts.
Arts Volunteer
Cindy Wall
Cindy Wall has volunteered as a costume designer and costuming leader in Springfield theater since 2009. Her work has supported productions across the community, often involving hundreds of performers, while she has also taught and mentored other costumers.
Jim Kontio
Jim Kontio is a longtime Springfield Choral Society singer, volunteer and organizational leader who now serves as the group’s president. His work has included production, marketing, fundraising and the development of community programs such as Sing By Heart and the Springfield Children’s Choir.
Business Supportive of the Arts
Conn Hospitality
Conn Hospitality has paired its long history in Springfield with investment in historic preservation, public events and the arts. Through projects such as Moonlight Market and Conn Family Community Works, the family has helped create places where artists, musicians, makers and audiences can gather.
Horace Mann
Founded in Springfield by educators in 1945, Horace Mann has supported arts and education programs throughout its hometown. Its record includes support for First Night Springfield, the Old Capitol Art Fair and educational programming made possible through the Springfield Public Schools Foundation.
Isringhausen
Isringhausen has supported arts organizations, public events and live music throughout Springfield while maintaining a major business presence downtown. Its DRIVE Grant program has also helped local entrepreneurs, including creative businesses, establish and grow their work in the city center.
Mid Illinois Group at Morgan Stanley
The Mid Illinois Group at Morgan Stanley has supported the Hoogland Center for the Arts for more than two decades through sponsorships, financial contributions and volunteer service. Its relationship with the Hoogland has also included significant financial and organizational expertise.
PNC
PNC’s local arts support reaches from preschool classrooms to downtown streets and concert stages. Its investments include Arts Start, Paint the Street and Levitt AMP Springfield, helping expand access to arts experiences for children, families, artists and audiences.
Exceptional Arts Student
A’Santianna Austin
A’Santianna Austin is a Lincoln Land Community College student, writer and emerging filmmaker. Her work spans poetry, prose and film, including her book *Melanated Not Black*, and she has also helped encourage other young writers through workshops and public speaking.
Gabi Dart
Gabi Dart has built a wide-ranging artistic background encompassing theater, voice, dance, choral music and competitive figure skating. She also gives back through programs serving younger performers and older adults and founded Music for Neighbors in 2026.
Isabella Wiesenmeyer
Isabella Wiesenmeyer is an Integrated Media Design student at Lincoln Land Community College. Her photograph *To Cultivate and Care For* was selected for the 2026 Illinois Community College Students Studio Art and Graphic Design juried exhibition.
Natasha O’Brien
Springfield High School student Natasha O’Brien has already earned national recognition for her visual art, including a 2026 National Silver Medal in the Scholastic Art & Writing Awards. She works across drawing, painting, sculpture and ceramics and also uses her art in community projects.
Individual Literary Artist
Joshua Amos Graff
Joshua Amos Graff is a Springfield poet whose work lives both on the page and in live performance. A familiar presence at open mics and community events, he has also helped strengthen Springfield Poets & Writers and encouraged other local writers to publish their own work.
Ted Morrissey
Ted Morrissey is an award-winning novelist, poet, critic, publisher and educator whose work has appeared in more than 150 publications. Through Twelve Winters Press, teaching and community workshops, he has also created opportunities for other writers to find audiences.
Individual Performing Artist
Ben Bedford
Ben Bedford is a Springfield singer-songwriter and composer whose music has taken him to venues and festivals throughout the United States and Europe. A Kerrville New Folk winner, Bedford has released six studio albums and built a national reputation for storytelling through song.
David M. Briggs
David M. Briggs is a writer, poet, performer and graphic designer who has become a regular presence at Springfield arts events and open mics. His work includes multiple poetry collections, *The Book of Rainbow Joy* and projects preserving LGBTQ+ stories in central Illinois.
Ezra Casey
For more than 20 years, musician Ezra Casey has performed throughout the Springfield community. His nomination particularly celebrates his work as a mentor and connector who helps younger musicians develop their talents and find opportunities to perform.
Mahogany Knight
Mahogany Knight has been a defining presence in Springfield drag and nightlife for more than three decades as a performer, producer, host, mentor and drag mother. A nationally recognized titleholder, Knight’s work has also been documented by the Illinois State Museum, which holds one of her performance dresses in its permanent collection.
Mary Young
Mary Young has performed in more than 200 Springfield-area productions during a theater career spanning more than 40 years. Her work also includes directing, producing, scenic design, criticism and, more recently, advising local productions on theatrical intimacy and consent-forward practices.
Reggie Guyton
Reggie Guyton has worked as an actor, director and producer with organizations including the Hoogland Center for the Arts, Springfield Theatre Centre and The Muni, often helping bring historically underrepresented stories to local stages. He also performs professionally for the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum, previously served as Sangamon Auditorium’s inaugural Our Stage/Our Voice Artist in Residence, and now serves on the Sangamon County Board representing District 21.
Tom Irwin
Tom Irwin has been performing and writing songs in central Illinois since the early 1980s. His three studio albums include *Sangamon Songs*, a project inspired by a 19th-century diary discovered in his rural Sangamon County farmhouse that he later developed into a theatrical performance.
Individual Visual Artist
al strider
Alyson Briggs, who creates under the name al strider, is a Springfield digital artist, illustrator, cartoonist and crafter. A co-founder of Pooshie LLC, strider regularly participates in local and regional art markets while also promoting and supporting other independent artists.
Jeff Curtis Williams
Jeff Curtis Williams is a painter and graphic designer who has been part of the central Illinois arts community for more than three decades. A co-founder of DIM Art House Gallery, Williams has exhibited regionally and nationally while also contributing to public art, youth mentorship and artist-development efforts.
Julie Brown
Julie Brown is a painter, musician and retired arts educator whose creative work spans roughly four decades. Best known for her painting, she has also explored mixed media, fiber art, photography, sculpture, music and illustrated journaling while remaining deeply involved in Springfield’s arts community.
Leslie Stalter
Leslie Stalter is a mixed-media artist whose work explores place, identity, longing and belonging. She has taught art at Lincoln Land Community College since 2004 and has exhibited through the Springfield Art Association Collective and galleries throughout the region.
Come celebrate them
The Mayor’s Awards are not only about who takes home an award. Someone noticed the years spent teaching, rehearsing, volunteering, organizing, creating, sponsoring, mentoring and making room for somebody else.
On November 18, we get to join those people in the same room and celebrate them.
Join us at the 2026 Mayor’s Awards for the Arts:
Wednesday, November 18, 2026
Hoogland Center for the Arts