News

Ben Culver Wins Arts Award

Saline Middle School Orchestra Director and Saline Fiddlers Artistic Director Ben Culver has been awarded a 2005 Arts Education Award by the Arts Council Lake Erie West.

The Arts Council Lake Erie West (ACLEW), a regional multi-arts agency founded in 1983, serves artists and communities throughout the Lake Erie West Basin. ACLEW was started by artists, educators and businessmen of Northwest Ohio and Southeast Michigan as an independent non-governmental, tax-exempt non-profit arts and education agency.

ACLEW's goals are to "Provide Leadership for the arts as advocates for and partners in: community building, economic development, education reform, and cultural sustenance. ACLEW's mission is to provide, promote, and produce quality creative and cultural opportunities as well as facilities for artists, agencies, educators, residents, and visitors."

This year's "LEWIE" award, in the teacher category, will be presented to Mr. Culver on April 9, 2005 at the ACLEW's Gala to be held in Toledo, Ohio. This award recognizes Ben's achievements in developing excellent string musicians through the use of alternative styles of music, especially American fiddling, in the Saline Schools' orchestra program and in the non-profit Saline Fiddlers group. Mr. Culver was also recognized for his contribution to the arts through his popular fiddling workshops with students from other districts, his workshops with other string educators, his innovative techniques for teaching fiddling, his use of extracurricular programs to supplement school-based programs, and for his contributions to other community arts programs through his expertise as a sound technician.