the Governor's Arts Award Winners

Aria Finch

Roswell

2013 Recipient, Major Contributor to the Arts

Aria Finch, an arts educator and founder of the Pecos Valley Potters Guild, is being recognized as a Major Contributor to the Arts. Finch has nurtured generations of youth and adults in the community of Roswell. Artist Eddie Dominguez, a 2006 Governor's Arts Award recipient, noted, "Aria Finch has done more to build and shape the local art scene of Roswell than any other individual I know, and has done so through an unyielding dedication to community and an unflinching pursuit of big dreams for a small town." Finch has taught art in elementary, middle school and high school and inspired students to pursue their artistic dreams. An acclaimed artist in her own right, Finch was invited to participate in the highly acclaimed Korean Biennial for her ceramic sculpture. Under Finch's leadership, The Potters Guild has raised $187,000 for the Roswell Museum and Arts Center and the Roswell Artist-in-Residence (RAiR) Program through the 'Soup n Bowl' benefit and $54,000 for the Patricia Lubben Bassett Art Education Center, a wing that houses a state-of-the-art ceramics studio, in 1998. "She is clearly a dynamic and masterly teacher who has a strongly inspirational effect on her students and creates a deep, lasting commitment to ceramic arts," said Sally Anderson of the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Foundation and its Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art.