Susan Winiecki and Harry Kollatz Jr. look on as Mary Flinn accepts a Pollak at the first reception in September 1998. (File photo)
It was August-in-Richmond hot that September afternoon, and the upstairs at VCU’s Anderson Gallery provided absolutely no relief for our first Pollak Prize ceremony in 1998.
Harry Kollatz Jr. and I had just lugged a cooler of ice up the stairs — the gallery had no elevator. We used it to chill the wine, which we served from plastic cups to our inaugural class of Pollak Prize honorees and their guests, including John Bryan, our conduit to the prize’s namesake.
That first reception for artists and makers was vastly stripped down from the event that we put on now. No video montages, no catered party, no sponsors, no music, but it was heartfelt and well received — long before Richard Florida touted the creative class and our city became widely known as RVA.
The second year, we were in a proper theater at the University of Richmond, we had both catering and air conditioning, and we hosted Theresa Pollak herself, who, at the age of 100, addressed the recipients. WTVR-Channel 6 was there to capture it all for the evening news, but that tape is long gone. All we have now is a photo in a yellowing copy of the magazine and the memory.
With ceremonies every year since then and acceptance speeches that still choke me up and make me thankful that I live in a region so rich in those who share their gifts, the Pollak Prizes for Excellence in the Arts celebrated their 20th anniversary on Dec. 19. We have an amazing array of 2017 honorees — teachers, entrepreneurs, dreamers who leave a legacy of work and a trail of people they’ve inspired. Read more about them, including writer/director/producer Vince Gilligan, who received our lifetime achievement award.
Harry poignantly writes in his Pollak retrospective, “If I know anything about art, it is that if it doesn’t get written about, then it didn’t happen. When I say that, I mean on paper, in a magazine or a book that endures as a physical object in time and space. … If you can pull it off the shelf and read it, the corners may yellow, but it’s yours because you did the work that put you there. And if you get a Pollak, there’s even a little something for the wall.”
The Pollaks are our little something for Richmond, a little something that has lasted longer than we ever imagined.
And, happily, there was no pulling of coolers this year. Maybe a sled and a flask, but definitely no coolers.
