CFA's Burrows to receive 2006 Arts Council Award

BUFFALO, N.Y. -- The Arts Council in Buffalo & Erie County has selected Thomas Burrows, executive director of the University at Buffalo Center for the Arts to receive this year's Arts Administrator Award. Burrows and other award recipients will be honored on March 21 at the 20th Annual Arts Awards Luncheon in the Buffalo Convention Center. The award honors individuals, businesses and organizations that demonstrate exceptional support, achievement and excellence in the arts and cultural community of the Buffalo Niagara Region.

Burrows has served as executive director of the Center for the Arts since 1996. During this time, he has implemented numerous programs, one of which was to support underserved art forms in the community. Noting that the presentation of national and international dance was very limited, he worked to achieve this goal through corporate sponsorships, grants and revenue generation to keep ticket price affordable for professional dance presentation. He also began a dance residency program whereby visiting companies, staying for extended periods, work not only with UB students, but with thousands of children in local primary and secondary schools to introduce young people to dance. Another objective was to introduce thousands of local children to the performing arts through the center's "School Time Adventure Series." The center's transportation stipend program helps absorb the cost of buses so that children in underserved communities may attend these events.

Prior to his appointment at the Center for the Arts, his distinguished career in the performing arts began in New York as production manager of Circle in the Square, while studying directing with Jose Quintero. He later served as general manager for The Establishment Theatre Company. His other career achievements include: managing director of Theatre Operations at Yale University School of Drama; general manager of Shaw Festival Theatre, Niagara-on-the-Lake; general manager of O'Keefe Centre (currently Hummingbird Theatre) in Toronto, and prior to coming to the center, general manager of Hamilton Place, Hamilton, Ontario. He is past president of the board for the Irish Classical Theatre Company.

Burrows also is affiliated with: Artpark & Company (Board of Directors), Shaw Festival (Governor's Council), Asian Studies Advisory Board, Film Advisory Board of Buffalo and Erie County and Canadian Studies Advisory Board. He also is a member of ATPAM, the International Association of Auditorium Managers and ISPA, International Society of Performing Arts Foundation.

More information on the award and recipients may be found at http://www.artscouncilbuffalo.org.