Gold Coast Arts Center is Semi-Finalist in Imagine Awards

LONG ISLAND, NY — December 20, 2018 — The not-for-profit Gold Coast Arts Center today announced it had been named a semi-finalist in the 2019 Long Island Imagine Awards according to Regina Gil, founder and executive director of the Great Neck-based arts and cultural organization. The Gold Coast Arts Center was nominated in the Claire Friedlander Arts & Culture Award category, and the winner will receive $5,000.

If awarded, the Gold Coast Arts Center will use the funds to market and expand on its “Making Memories Through the Arts” initiative, a series of free special programs designed for people living with memory loss and their caregivers. Making Memories is led by a certified special education teacher and a licensed master social worker, who works with neurologically impaired patients. The arts have proven to be highly therapeutic in helping people with memory-loss, enabling them to evoke important sensory memories. For caregivers, Making Memories provides a respite from daily caregiving and offers them a change of environment while allowing their patients to socialize, and rekindle memories.

The Long Island Imagine Awards recognizes excellence within the nonprofit sector and the good work that it does, as well as providing opportunities for collaboration among other organizations within the sector.

“The Gold Coast Arts Center serves a diverse population with equally diverse programs and services that enrich as well as entertain, and along with other organizations in the nonprofit sector we continue to face numerous challenges that include an ever-increasing demand for services, and reductions in government and institutional funding,” stated Ms. Gil. “Programs like the Imagine Awards become vital in not only providing additional funding, and added publicity, but further validation of the important work we do.”

Winners of the 2019 Long Island Imagine Awards are expected to be announced in February 2019, and an awards ceremony will be held on April 30, 2019.

About the Gold Coast Arts Center
The Gold Coast Arts Center is a 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting the arts through education, exhibition, performance, and outreach. Located on the North Shore of Long Island, it has brought the arts to tens of thousands of people throughout the region for over 20 years. Among the Center’s offerings are its School for the Arts, which holds year-round classes in visual and performing arts for students of all ages and abilities; a free public art gallery; a concert and lecture series; film screenings and discussions; the annual Gold Coast International Film Festival; and initiatives that focus on senior citizens and underserved communities. These initiatives include artist residencies, after-school programs, school assemblies, teacher-training workshops, and parent-child workshops. The Gold Coast Arts Center is an affiliate of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Partners in Education program, and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. More information can be found at www.goldcoastarts.org.

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