The Nebraska Humanities Council
announced today that Omaha philanthropist Richard Holland will
receive its 2009 Sower Award in the Humanities.
Holland
will be honored Nov. 4 at the Joslyn Art Museum in Omaha, in
conjunction with the 14th Annual Governor’s Lecture in the
Humanities. Matt Miller, author of “The Tyranny of Dead Ideas:
Letting Go of the Old Ways of Thinking to Unleash a New Prosperity,”
published earlier this year, will deliver the lecture. The National
Chamber of Commerce named the book a “must-read” book for 2009.
Miller also wrote the best-selling “The 2% Solution: Fixing
America’s Problems in Ways that Liberals and Conservatives Can
Love.”
In nominating Holland, Carol
Gendler of Omaha said, “Everyone knows of Dick Holland’s generosity
to a broad range of organizations that offer the best in the arts
and the humanities. But Dick should also be honored for his
commitment to sharing his intellectual curiosity with his fellow
Nebraskans through the Holland Lecture series, which brings some of
the most stimulating and provocative thinkers to Omaha for everyone
to enjoy at no charge.”
Holland’s generous philanthropy,
with that of his deceased wife, Mary, is recognized publicly in
Omaha’s Holland Center for the Performing Arts, a state-of-the art
facility that features performers ranging from Garrison Keillor to
Yo-Yo Ma and the home of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra.
Holland’s advocacy for the
nation’s first public-private endowment fund to benefit both the
humanities council and arts council, has resulted in an additional
$1.5 million appropriation to the state fund and $1.5 million
contributed to the private side of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment
during the past two years, increasing the original $5 million state
endowment created by the Legislature in 1998 to $6.5 million in
support of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Humanities
Council.
The Nebraska Humanities Council
annually honors individuals, institutions, businesses and
communities with its Sower Award for contributions to public
understanding of the humanities in Nebraska, based on nominations
and letters of support from the citizens of Nebraska. The Sower
Award is an original bronze sculpture by Nebraska-born artist Sandra
Dunn Mahoney.
Presented by the Nebraska
Humanities Council and Foundation, the University of Nebraska and
Valmont Industries, the Nov. 4 evening lecture is free and open to
the public.
