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Celebrating All Art Forms

April 9, 2024

With online auction, Casino night & Bee Gees Now tribute band, Bosque Arts Center’s annual Big Event fundraiser celebrates legacy, Joan Spieler Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Judi Boston

CLIFTON – It was a time to celebrate! It was a time to reflect on the special art center Bosque County offers the area, which celebrates all art forms. It was a time to celebrate the driving force behind the arts center and the people who keep it running. Without its army of volunteers, and the donations of generous sponsors and patrons, the Bosque Arts Center would not be able to operate.

During its annual Big Event fundraiser dinner April 7, people glittered up to the Saturday Night Fever theme and filled the Tin Building Theater. The theme came from the post-dinner concert by the Bee Gees Now tribute band performance. Besides the online auction E-BAC, the Friday night Casino night, the raffle items, the 52-card draw and the silent auction, visitors celebrated the 2024 recipient of the Joan Spieler Lifetime Achievement award – Judi Boston.

Boston held a BAC membership since 2007 and has been an active member since then, primarily being involved in the Tin Building Theater, where she handled office duties, designed programs, made reservations, worked on the sets and was a director, actress and TBT board president. Recognizing her for her longtime volunteerism and willingness to go the extra mile, she received the TBT Frances Watson Lifetime Achievement Award.

There would not be a Texas Troubadour Songwriting Classic without Boston. She suggested offering upcoming country singer/songwriters a stage to showcase their talents in 20213. Boston was also instrumental in developing the Atrium Art Gallery, giving local artists a place to showcase their work.

Additionally she collaborated with others regarding improvements to the BAC, including restoring the third floor Frazier Performance Hall, and equipment upgrades that would serve both concert and theater needs. She also helped with improvements to the BAC website and tweaking bylaws of the different BAC groups.

Boston currently serves as President Elect of the Art Council and serves on the Books on the Bosque Committee, and the BAC Board of Directors.

And she was always ready to assist during any BAC events like the Arts of Christmas, the Big Event, the Scholarship Variety show and Bosque County Music Association events. She has currently logged over 2700 volunteer hours since 2011.

“The BAC is so lucky to have this talented, dedicated and beautiful soul as a volunteer,” Award presenter Karin Cornett said. “I am so lucky to call her my friend and my cousin. It is my honor and privilege to name her the 2024 Spieler Award recipient.”

While Boston saw many very deserving Spieler Award recipients receive the BAC’s ultimate honor, working closely with her friend Joyce Jones, she humbly never considered herself deserving of the award. In her “thank you” speech, she recognized all the other BAC volunteers in the room that strive to make the BAC the exceptional arts and cultural center it is today.

Prior to the 24th Spieler Award presentation, Bryan Davis gave a history of the Big Event since 1997, and who Joan Spieler was and what she meant to the then Bosque County Conservatory of Fine Arts which transformed into the BAC.

“The BAC would not be here if not for the dream and the vision and the determination for the first Art Center Lifetime Achievement Award,” Davis said. “You know, I doubt Joan Spieler stood five feet tall, but she was a towering presence of grit and had a passion for the arts, all the arts, to a place that no one would ever have expected them to be.”

Spieler had a talent for spotting talent, like Martin Grelle, hosting his first one-man show in 1974 when he was only 19. She had a love for children and young people, and they were ultimately the inspiration for her dreams for an art center. Spieler was saddened that at the time, not a single art class was being taught in Bosque County schools.

Spieler got the ball rolling in transforming the defunct manufacturing plant situated in the former Clifton College Building into an arts center, “a total arts center, a place for all the arts under one roof, for adults and children.” She never sought any credit for her role in getting the property donated, the fundraising started. She admitted to “knowing the right people at the right time to get things done.”

Boston is one of those people; she exemplifies Spieler’s passion for the arts and how to get them closer to the public. “Tonight, we remember her as we renew our pledge to support and to grow that dream for generations that follow,” Davis said.