The not-for-profit Gold Coast Arts Center has been named a semi-finalist in the 2019 Long Island Imagine Awards according to Regina Gil, founder and executive director of the Great Neck-based arts and cultural organization. The Gold Coast Arts Center was nominated in the Claire Friedlander Arts & Culture Award category, and the winner will receive $5,000.
If awarded, the Gold Coast Arts Center will use the funds to market and expand on its “Making Memories Through the Arts” initiative, a series of free special programs designed for people living with memory loss and their caregivers.
Making Memories is led by a certified special education teacher and a licensed master social worker, who work with neurologically impaired patients. The arts have proven to be highly therapeutic in helping people with memory-loss, enabling them to evoke important sensory memories. For caregivers, Making Memories provides a respite from daily caregiving and offers them a change of environment while allowing their patients to socialize and rekindle memories.
The Long Island Imagine Awards recognizes excellence within the nonprofit sector and the good work that it does, as well as providing opportunities for collaboration among other organizations within the sector.
“The Gold Coast Arts Center serves a diverse population with equally diverse programs and services that enrich as well as entertain, and along with other organizations in the nonprofit sector, we continue to face numerous challenges that include an ever-increasing demand for services, and reductions in government and institutional funding,” said Gil. “Programs like the Imagine Awards become vital in not only providing additional funding, and added publicity, but further validation of the important work we do.”
Winners of the 2019 Long Island Imagine Awards are expected to be announced in February, and an awards ceremony will be held on April 30.
