Meet the Judges

The Activated Spaces committee asked three local judges to help identify the top candidates who would be eligible for the People’s Choice award. Two celebrated community artists were asked to lend their skilled eye for critique and to lend credibility to the contest. The third judge was petitioned to lend her opinion, representing Dayton families that would make up a large portion of the audience.

James Pate

Artist

Without a doubt, James Pate is one of the most striking artists to emerge from the Midwest. During his primary years he received public attention and buyers for his art. Labeled gifted, he instinctively understood how to compose two-dimensional space with very uncommon and mature draftsmanship ability. Pate further evidenced this natural skill later in his development when he created and dubbed his signature style, Techno-Cubism. James was born in Birmingham, AL but raised in Cincinnati, OH where he attended the School for the Creative and Performing Arts. He received the prestigious Corbett Award, which earned him a scholarship to attend the Art Academy of Cincinnati during his senior year in high school. His art education is largely a result of self-discipline, dedication, and consistent projects that refined and propelled his already potent aptitude to a professional level of quality.

 Pate is an innovative multi-stylist whose work has been exhibited in a number of select galleries and museums, including the Contemporary Arts Center in Cincinnati, OH, Joysmith Gallery in Memphis, TN, J.B. Speed Art Museum in Louisville, KY, Troy University Rosa Parks Museum in Montgomery, AL, and the National Civil Rights Museum in Memphis, TN. His creations are in the corporate art collections of Cincinnati Bell, Atlanta Life Insurance Company, and Central State University, to name a few. James is a past winner of the highly competitive Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Award grant and a two-time recipient of the Montgomery County Individual Artist fellowship.  In 2010 he won Best of Drawing, Best of Painting, and Best of Show at the nationally competitive Black Creativity Juried Art Exhibition at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago, IL—an unprecedented ruling. He has received numerous commissions from a diverse array of entities, including the Cincinnati Reds MLB Franchise, Kentucky Fried Chicken Corporation, and Dayton Power and Light, Inc. One of these highlights is a one hundred seventy-foot wide by twelve-foot high public-art piece for the City of Dayton that displays Pate’s artistry as a muralist. The mural is published in the coffee table book Walls Of Heritage/Walls Of Pride, the first book to feature murals created exclusively by African American artists in cities across the country.

 Pate has earned a solid reputation as an art educator. For ten years he served as an adjunct staff member at Colonel White High School for the Arts teaching advanced drawing and painting to students pursuing careers in visual art. He has completed artist-in-residence programs at The Dayton Art Institute, and in several primary and high schools throughout southern Ohio. Today, James Pate lives and works in Dayton, OH as a hands-on art education consultant for Dayton Public Schools, providing instructional methods designed to encourage at-risk students to stay in school. You can also find Pate in his studio engaged in graphic design projects and keeping up production in order to meet a demanding schedule for fine art collectors and exhibitions.

 

Christy Jennewein

Cannery Art + Design Center Gallery Director

 

Kim Faris

Afternoon Drive Host, Lite 99 FM (Clear Channel)

Kim Faris

Kim Faris has spent more than half of her life on the air in her hometown – Dayton. (She is celebrating her 33rd year on the radio this year.) Faris grew up in Oakwood and graduated from Oakwood High School. From there she earned degrees from both Cazenovia College in New York and Bowling Green State University- Ohio. Faris is married to Steve, a lieutenant with the Beavercreek Fire Department. They have two sons, Marshall, who is serving our country in the U.S. Navy, and Cameron, a junior at the Ohio State University.

Faris spent 28 years working for WING/WGTZ radio. Over those years, Kim had the opportunity to work with some of the most talented broadcasters in the nation, including Steve Kirk, Carl Day, Johnny Walker, Marsha Bonhart, Jack Pohl and Cheryl McHenry…just to name a few.

In 2006, Faris was the first female broadcaster from Dayton to be inducted into the Radio/Television Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame of Ohio. The following year, Faris was honored by her induction into the Dayton Area Broadcaster’s Hall of Fame.

Faris now hosts the Afternoon Drive show on 99.9 LITE FM. She lends her time and talent to many local non-profit organizations including the Kettering Medical Center Foundation’s Walk for Women’s Wellness, The Noble Circle Project, The Breast Cancer Task Force of the Greater Miami Valley, We Care Arts and the American Heart Association “Go Red for Women” campaign.