Did you know?
AACTA Onyx Awards
Keynote speaker for 2004
was Glynn Turman.Here he is pictured with
founder Victoria
Thompson Bey
The African American Council of the Arts (AACTA) is a multi-faceted, educational arts organization dedicated to promoting the arts as a tool of enlightenment, personal development and tolerance for minorities and the disadvantaged thru education, training, literature, research, dissemination of information, job opportunities, the Onyx Awards and incentives. AACTA was founded by Victoria T. Bey who was born and raised in Pittsburgh and has been involved in the arts in various capacities for more than 25 years.
Our vision is a world that values differences and has tolerance of all of its citizens.
One of our goals is to stimulate and reward African American performers for quality work and to acknowledge African American theater companies for stellar productions. Accomplishing that endeavor has not only produced a win-win situation for the region and for all those involved, but has also raised the bar with regards to the quality of work produced for the entire region. Consequently, the idea of the AACTA Onyx Awards was created.
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What is the AACTA Onyx Awards?
The AACTA Onyx Awards were established to acknowledge and celebrate the talents of African Americans in the Pittsburgh area who participate in productions in the immediate area. Participants are judged on their work as performers, dancers and technicians.
The AACTA Onyx Awards is an annual celebration of the richness of talent that Pittsburgh African Americans and others demonstrate throughout the year in their artistic productions.
The awards ceremony is a classy, sophisticated affair, similar to the Academy Awards. It publicizes, celebrates, appreciates, encourages and acknowledges excellence displayed by minorities in the performing arts. Other desired outcomes include raising the bar with regard to the quality of work produced by these community members; increasing the city s awareness of their talents and contributions to the performing arts; and diversifying the audience base for minority performances.
The judges are selected and they attend all the productions separately. They individually complete evaluation forms which are collected, scored and tabulated. The winners are announced at the ceremony during the last week of June.
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