Two are chosen for arts awards

Alba Cabral, a Cornell senior in fine arts and psychology, and alumna Jennifer Tipton '58, a lighting designer, have been chosen to receive university awards recognizing excellence in the arts.

The Cornell Council for the Arts selected Cabral, a painter and photographer from Miami, to receive the Cornell University Student Art Award, which recognizes her as an "outstanding undergraduate in the arts." Cabral, who will receive her Cornell degree in December, has been active as coordinator and designer of a program that helps children learn and experience cultural heritage through visual art in a local after-school program. She also has spent the past two summers in the Dominican Republic tutoring, teaching and working on a photo-documentary project.

Four other candidates for the awards will receive certificates recognizing their talents: Senior Sam Gold, a double major in theater and film, has directed numerous plays at Cornell and played Alan Strang in the Cornell production of Equus. Soprano Arsenia Soto, also a senior, participated in the Young Artist Ensemble at the Caramoor International Music Festival and attended the Spoleto Vocal Arts Symposium last summer. An architecture graduate, David Huang integrates his architecture degree with a concentration in visual studies, and Scott Pitek '02 explores the multiple dimensions and facets of spatial experience.

Tipton, a professor at the Yale University School of Drama, has been named by the Cultural Endeavors Committee of the Cornell University Council to receive the 2000 Cornell Alumni Award for Distinction in the Arts. She has designed for dance companies and for such choreographers as Jerome Robbins and Mikhail Baryshnikov and for the noted directors at the New York Shakespeare Festival and on Broadway. Her many awards include several Drama Desk Awards, a Tony, an Obie and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her lighting designs for The Dead and Wrong Mountain were seen on Broadway this year.

Both Cabral and Tipton will receive their awards from the Cornell University Council Cultural Endeavors Committee on Oct. 25.