Damian Perkins On Artists in Our World, by Anthea Dennis

November 1, 2008 – Hollywood: This year’s Artists For A World Awards Event and Concert, for me, had several wonderful messages, of which the one I have remembered and retold many times is this:

When the 2008 AFABW Int “Outstanding Contribution As An Artist” Award was presented to Damian Perkins, he asked the audience to close their eyes. He asked again so that we all did this. I can’t say that I remember exactly how he said to do this but in essence he asked us to imagine the world as it is today with all the activities, good and bad, with people at work, people at concerts, people at war, people on vacation, people at sports – all the activities we see in our world, day to day. When we got this, he said, OK … pause…

…now take way all the artists from that world.

Well, it created a huge telling effect on me and on some others I have done this with. To have no artists is to each person something a little different, but we all agree, that they are not just ‘nice-to-have’ but are ESSENTIAL to our world, and without them I would despair: there would be nothing worth doing, no beauty or wonder – it would be awful.

So, I think it was a wonderful way to convey how important artists are to us all, whether they are huge names in lights, or just regular people who make our world more appealing, who add their theta and their creations to our offices or homes, whether in paintings, or dress, or architecture, or sculpture, or film, or music or dance…

I think this was a wonderful message that we should convey to all.

It was a fabulous Awards Evening!

Thanks to all the AFABW Int members and volunteers for all you do to create Artists for a Better World!

Best,
Anthea Dennis
Awards Event Attendee