Reception honoring Nellie Dixon Wednesday

Nellie Dixon enjoying this year's Outdoor Festival of Art.

Longtime Plainfield resident Nellie Dixon will be honored at a reception at the Plainfield Public Library Wednesday evening, to which all her many friends are invited.

Nellie, who is retiring and moving away from the area, has been the dynamo at the center of any number of community groups and activities.

For over a decade she was a major force in organizing and managing the Central Jersey Chamber of Commerce's Outdoor Festival of Art (now under the City's sponsorship), a juried event that drew fine arts, photography and sculpture professionals and amateurs from the tri-state area to exhibit (and sell) their works in Library Park each July.

As co-director of the YWCA's TWIN program (Tribute to Women in Industry), Nellie was active in this groundbreaking program for recruiting and mentoring women executives, helping to push back on the 'glass ceiling' which held many women's careers back.

Her long service on the City's Cultural & Heritage Commission was capped by the development of a 'mini-grant' program through which the Commission helps to underwrite a larger number of artistic and cultural activities throughout the community by way of small grants -- usually $500 or less -- that help in the display or publicizing of local arts and cultural opportunities.

My own experience with Nellie's enthusiasm and focused energy came with the AT&T 'New Audiences' cultural inventory and planning grant that was won by a consortium of Plainfield organizations in the mid-1990s.

For about a year and a half, she and I (representing the Plainfield Public Library) and Barbara Ballard of the Central Jersey Chamber of Commerce, Barbara Fuller of the Historical Society of Plainfield and the Union County Office of Cultural Affairs, Brian Dallow of the nationally regarded Music for All Seasons, Vicki Griswold of Ars Musica Antiqua, Plainfield artist Indira Bailey, and Helen Rodriguez and Amelia Andrade of the dance group Sentir Criollo worked tirelessly with our consultant Andrea Olin-Gomes to develop a strategic plan for Plainfield's cultural life.

Everyone who has worked with Nellie and who values her many contributions to Plainfield's betterment is invited to wish her well at the reception.

---

RECEPTION HONORING
NELLIE DIXON

Wednesday, December 14
 
6:00 PM
PLAINFIELD PUBLIC LIBRARY
Park Avenue at West 8th Street
No RSVP necessary

---

-- Dan Damon [follow]

View today's CLIPS here. Not getting your own CLIPS email daily? Click here to subscribe.