PITTSBURGH – The 2017 CREATE Festival, presented by thePittsburgh Technology Council in partnership with the Dollar Bank Three Rivers Arts Festival, has awarded William (Bill) Strickland, Jr., President and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation, the first-ever Lifetime Achievement Award. The award will be presented at the 2017 CREATE Festival on June 1, 2017, at the August Wilson Center for African American Culture.
CREATE 2017 celebrates the people, projects, and initiatives that are transforming the Pittsburgh region through excellence and innovation in the Creative Industries. Strickland will be honored for a lifetime of outstanding contributions to the Creative Industries in Pittsburgh, and around the world.
As president and CEO of Manchester Bidwell Corporation and its subsidiaries, Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild (MCG) and Bidwell Training Center (BTC), and National Center for Arts and Technology, Bill Strickland has created an educational model designed to create empowering educational environments for adults-in-transition as well as urban and at-risk youth, enriching Southwestern Pennsylvania, and the world.In 1968, Bill founded Manchester Craftsmen’s Guild to help combat the economic and social devastation experienced by the residents of his North Side neighborhood. Later in 1972, he assumed leadership of Bidwell Training Center to guide its transition to providing skills relevant to Pittsburgh’s economy. GRAMMY®-winning MCG Jazz was added to the MBC family in 1987, which is one of the longest-running jazz subscription series in America. What started as an informal art program and exhibition space for inner-city minority children has now transformed into a 62,000 sq. ft. arts and career-training center, as well as a 40,000 sq. ft. production and educational greenhouse.
Throughout Strickland’s distinguished career, he has been honored with numerous prestigious awards for his contributions to arts and the community, including the coveted MacArthur “Genius” award. He is also the author ofMake the Impossible Possible.
A full list of CREATE 2017 awardees can be found athttps://createpgh.org/awardees/.
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