Brinsley Tyrrell, Kent State University
emeritus professor of art, was awarded
the Lifetime Achievement Award from
Cleveland Arts Prize.

The Cleveland Arts Prize Executive Director Marcie Bergman and its board recently announced Brinsley Tyrrell, Kent State University emeritus professor of art, is a 2011 winner of a Lifetime Achievement Award.

The press release announcing the Cleveland Arts Prize 2011 winners says that Tyrrell thinks of himself primarily as a sculptor, working with clay, wax, plaster, bronze, wood or stone. At age 14, he was handed a block of alabaster in a sculpture class and shown how to use some chisels. He began carving while the teacher sat in the corner and played the cello. Within 20 minutes, he knew he wanted to be an artist. He has created many large public commissions, which led to using other materials. Together with blacksmith Steve Jordan, he has completed a number of wrought iron sculptures, fences and gates, many of which are scattered around the Cleveland area.

In 2007, he used the large-scale enamel kiln at Kent State to complete a commission for the Greater Cleveland Regional Transit Authority’s 117th Street station. The Kent Campus also features work by Tyrrell, including “Behind the Brain Plaza” near Merrill Hall in the Beck Family Memorial Gardens. In addition, 58,175 daffodils were planted at the May 4 Memorial site at the suggestion of Tyrrell to symbolize those U.S. servicemen and servicewomen who lost their lives in the Vietnam War.

Born in 1941 in Surrey, England, Tyrrell attended the Camberwell School of Arts and Crafts at the University of London, where he received a major grant from the Middlesex County Council, and earned his intermediate degree in Fine Arts in 1961 and a National Diploma in Design with a major in sculpture and a minor in terracotta in 1964.

The Cleveland Arts Prize will host its 51st annual awards event on Tuesday, June 28, at 6 p.m. Winners of the 2011 Cleveland Arts Prize awards will be honored at the Gartner Auditorium at the Cleveland Museum of Art. The event will be hosted by Dee Perry, arts commentator for WCPN-FM and ideastream. Performances will take place throughout the program, and there will be a video tribute to John Paul Miller, 93, the first Cleveland Arts Prize winner in 1961. Attendees will mingle with the winners at the reception, where they also can greet Cleveland Arts Prize winners from previous years.

Ticket prices range from the $200 patron ticket ($160 tax deductible) and the $100 donor ticket ($60 tax deductible), which include the reception at 6 p.m. with food and drink and the dessert reception following the event to the $50 General Ticket ($40 tax deductible), which includes the dessert reception following the event. Tickets are available at www.clevelandartsprize.org.

For more information on the Cleveland Arts Prize and its June 28 event, contact Marcie Bergman at marciebergman@gmail.com or 216-321-7278.