Judy Brown, Artistic Director and founder of Illinois Voices Theatre, has been named a 2006 Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award winner that honors her for her years of work creatively using theater to interpret and present the history of Illinois. The Illinois Humanities Council launched The Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award program in 1999 in which mayors are asked to nominate those individuals, primarily volunteers, who have championed the humanities in their communities. The program is now run on a biennial schedule.  

     As Artistic Director and founder of Illinois Voices Theatre, Brown has been involved with Voices from the Past: A Discovery Walk through Evergreen Cemetery since its inception, facilitating this annual award-winning event's growth in her roles as director, writer, and actor. She and her collaborators at the McLean County Museum of History have turned the Voices from the Past cemetery walk into a much-copied event that is recognized statewide as the "granddaddy" of cemetery walks. Ms. Brown has also served as Executive Director of the Illinois Theatre Consortium, where she commissioned, developed, and produces original full-length works such as Quiet Tumult: The Papers of Adlai Stevenson by Brian Simpson and Final Payments by Emmy-award winner playwright Jane Barnes, in celebration of Bloomington’s Sesquicentennial.  Her contributions to the humanities in Illinois run long and deep, and include projects such as the production of a Heart of Illinois Talking Book Center project in 1992-1993 entitled Illinois Patchwork: Oral Remembrances from Residents of the Heart of Illinois Talking Book Center Region and the writing and performance in 1989 of Depression Voices, a work commissioned by the Bloomington Public Library.

    Brown’s contributions to the humanities in Illinois run long and deep, and include projects such as the production of a Heart of Illinois Talking Book Center project in 1992-1993 entitled Illinois Patchwork: Oral Remembrances From Residents of the Heart of Illinois Talking Books Center Region and the writing and performance in 1989 of Depression Voices, a work commissioned by the Bloomington Public Library.

The Illinois Humanities Council's Studs Terkel Humanities Service Award, 2006, to Judy Brown, Artistic Director of Illinois Voices Theatre.

American Association of State and Local History's Award of Merit (the AASLH’s higest award), 1997, for Voices From the Past: A Discovery Walk Through Evergreen Cemetery.

Illinois Association of Museums Superior Achievement Award, 1996, for Voices From the Past: A Discovery Walk Through Evergreen Cemetery.

HONORS

Don Shandrow, Artistic Director of New Route Theatre, has been invited to participate in the Illinois State Museum's oral history project as an expert on the development of the Rural Electric Associations in Illinois.

GRANTS

The Illinois Theatre Consortium has been privileged to receive grants from the following organizations or agencies:

The Harmon Arts Grant Program

McLean County Arts Center Re-granting Program

WalMart Community Grant

WalMart Community Matching Funds Grant