Philip Anschutz to receive first Western Visionary Award
Philip Anschutz will receive the inaugural Western Visionary Award when the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum presents its 58th annual Western Heritage Awards this spring.
The Oklahoma Citybased museum, 1700 NE 63, will host the blacktie Western Heritage Awards ceremony April 14. The awards celebrate creative works in literature, music, film and television that reflect the significant stories of the Western genre, according to a news release.
“This exciting evening represents the highest echelon for Western songwriters, authors, entertainers, artists and promoters,” said Natalie Shirley, the museum’s president and CEO, in a statement. “Each honoree demonstrates the Code of the West philosophy of doing hard work to create a sense of community where integrity and courage bring out the best in people. We could not be more thrilled to honor these exceptional individuals.”
The museum will recognize Anschutz, named in Forbes Magazine’s “100 greatest living business minds,” with the first Western Visionary Award, which recognizes an individual who has made a significant contribution and national impact in preserving and protecting Western heritage and its ideals. The Denver-based businessman has been the owner of The Oklahoman Media Company since 2011.
The Western Heritage Awards ceremony will be emceed by actors Sam Elliott and Katharine Ross, previous inductees into the Hall of Great Western Performers. This year’s event will celebrate the induction of the late Walter Vail (1852-1906) and Jim Odle into the respected Hall of Great Westerners and the late Lynn Anderson (1947-2015) and Barry Corbin into the Hall of Great Western Performers.
Randy Cate will receive the 2018 Chester A. Reynolds Memorial Award, named in honor of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum’s founder.
Oscar-nominated writer/directors Taylor Sheridan and Scott Frank and two-time Grammynominated cowboy singer-songwriter Michael Martin Murphey will be among the honorees as the Western Heritage Awards also lauds the year’s best Western film, television, music and literature.
Each award winner and inductee receives a Wrangler, an impressive bronze sculpture of a cowboy on horseback created by Oklahoma artist Harold T. Holden, a 2017 Hall of Great Westerners inductee.
The star-studded awards weekend begins with a workshop at 10:30 a.m. April 13, followed by a cocktail reception at 5:30 p.m. On April 14, the Western Heritage Awards inductee panel discussion, which is open to the public with museum admission, begins at 11 a.m., followed by a cocktail hour at 5 p.m., and the blacktie dinner and awards ceremony at 6 p.m. The events are open to the public by reservation, with discounts available to museum members.
General admission black-tie dinner pricing is $185, or $155 for museum members. For more information about the Western Heritage Awards, go to national cowboymuseum.org/ western heritage awards.
2018 inductees and honorees
• Western Visionary Award Recipient — Philip Anschutz
• Chester A. Reynolds Award Recipient — Randy Cate
Hall of Great Westerners Inductees
• Jim Odle • Walter Vail (1852-1906)
Hall of Great Western Performers Inductees
• Barry Corbin
• Lynn Anderson (1947-2015)
Film & Television Awards
• Theatrical Motion Picture — “Wind River,” starring Kelsey Asbille, Elizabeth Olsen, Jeremy Renner, and Julia Jones, directed and written by Taylor Sheridan, produced by Acacia Filmed Entertainment, Film 44, Savvy Media Holdings.
• Fictional Drama — “Homecoming,” “Godless,” Season 1, Episode 7, starring Jack O’Connell and Michelle Dockery, directed and written by Scott Frank, produced by Netflix.
• Documentary — “Floating Horses: The Life of Casey Tibbs,” directed and written by Justin Koehler, produced by Nowlin Town Productions.
• Western Lifestyle Program — “Today’s Wild West,” Season 1, Episode 6, directed and written by Mark Bedor, produced by Today’s Wild West.
• Docudrama — “Home on the Range,” starring Buck Taylor, directed by Ken Spurgeon, produced by Lone Chimney Films. • Television Feature Film — “Unspoken: America’s Native American Boarding Schools,” directed and written by John Howe, produced by KUED/PBS.
Literary Awards
• Magazine Article — “All American Indian Days and the Miss Indian America Pageant,” Montana: The Magazine of Western History, by Gregory Nickerson, published by Montana: The Magazine of Western History.
• Poetry Book — “Wooden Lions,” by Karla Morton, published by Texas Review Press.
• Western Novel — “Stranded: A Story of Frontier Survival,” by Matthew P. Mayo, published by Five Star Publishing.
• Nonfiction Book — “Lakota Performers in Europe: Their Culture and the Artifacts They Left Behind,” by Steve Friesen, published by University of Oklahoma Press
• Art/Photography Book — “Once Upon a Time … The Western: A New Frontier in Art and Film,” Thomas Brent Smith and MaryDailey Desmarais, editors; published by 5 Continents Editions with Denver Art Museum and Montreal Museum of Fine Arts.
• Juvenile Book — “Lotta Crabtree: Gold Rush Fairy Star,” by Lois V. Harris, published by Pelican Publishing Co.
Music Awards
• Original Western Composition — “A Nickel A Head,” recording artists K.R. Wood and Michael Martin Murphey, composed by K.R. Wood.
• Traditional Western Album — “Take Me Back to Texas,” recording artist Maye Kaye, produced by Don’t Fence Me In Records.