The 5th Arts Alive! Awards Celebration was held Sunday, November 15, 2009 at Portage Country Club.  This special event honored individuals and groups that enrich our lives by their participation in arts and cultural activities.  The fabulous evening shined the spotlight on those who help make our community sparkle with creativity. 

Since the Akron Area Arts Alliance established the Arts Alive! Awards, the Out-of-the-Box Auction has become a way for area artists to showcase their talents. These one-of-a-kind creations, made everthing from cloth to clay to metal to glass to wood, have become highly collectible in the community. This year's box auction was no exception. 

The boxes were a featured part of the evening in our silent auction. Over the years, these fabulous boxes have become collector's items for Arts Alive! patrons. For the first time the boxes were also on display for the general public, auction bidding was allowed before the event in a special Out-of-the-Box Exhibition at Summit Artspace Gallery.

Thank you to The Brennan Family Foundation and Omnova Solutions Foundation for sponsoring Arts Alive! 2009. Also a special thanks to Akron Life & Leisure Magazine, TRIAD Communicaitons, Inc., Walt Heeney/Labels & Letters, Akron Beacon Journal, Portage Country Club and our volunteers, Gary Grether, Jeanine Wirebaugh, Annette Long, and Jessica Krizo.

We would also like to thank the Planning Committee 2009 headed by event chair Jill Bacon Madden and co-chair Andrea Wlaszyn, without which the event could not have been a success.

The Akron Area Arts Alliance looks forward to the next Arts Alive! Awards in 2011!