Congratulations to Photographer Aukram Burton for receiving the Brown Forman Purchase Award in the 2005 Ninth Annual African American Juried Art Exhibition at Actors Theatre Louisville. Brown Forman Purchased Ile-Ife Dancers, Sango Dancers #1, and Woman of Orisa.

Photographer Aukram Burton is the Recipient of the 2005 Brown Forman Purchase Award in the Eleventh Annual African American Juried Art Exhibition at Actors Theatre Louisville.

The award winning images were taken during the 7^th World Congress of Òrìsà Tradition (ÒrìsàWorld 2001) in Ilé-Ifè, Nigeria, August, 2001. This bi-annual
Congress provides a framework within which the continued significance of Òrìsà tradition and culture is examined. Òrìsà traditions have existed
over thousands of years as the traditional religion of the Yorùbá people in West Africa, who live in villages, towns and cities in Nigeria,
Benin Republic, Togo, and Sierra Leone. Yorùbá religious traditions in the Americas came about as a consequence of the Atlantic slave trade
in Brazil, Cuba, Haïti, and Trinidad. Òrìsà practitioners come from many countries of the world including: Australia, Bahamas, Brazil, Cameroon,
Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Ecuador, France, Germany, Guyana, Mexico, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, The United Kingdom, The United States,
Trinidad and Tobago, and Venezuela. To date eight OrisaWorld Congresses have been held in Nigeria: 1981, 1986 and 2001;
Brazil: 1983 and 1990; USA: 1997; and Trinidad and Tobago: 1999. The 9th World Congress of Òrìsà Tradition (ÒrìsàWorld 2005)
will be held in Brazil, August 1-6, 2005.

View Award Winning Photographs and the
Friday, February 4, 2005 Awards Reception Below

Produced by RamImages.com

Click on a picture to enlarge it.




Ile-Ife Dancers	Woman of Orisa	Sango Dancers #1




Aukram Receives Brown Forman Purchase Award from Juror Garry R. Bibbs, Associate Professor of Sculpture at the University of Kentucky	Participating Artist in the 11th Annual African American Juried Art Exhibition	Aukram in front of award winning photography Ile-Ife Dancers


The Gallery at Actors Theatre of Louisville showcases regional and local artists during monthly exhibits displayed in the theatre's galleries located in lobbies throughout the building. Annually, Actors host the African American Art Exhibition in February. This year's exhibition 2005 exhibiton includes 46 works by 18 artist local and regional artists. Click for more information		Aukram Burton is an educator, media artist, and media producer. He has studied at the New England School of Photography. He received his B.A in Art, and a M.Ed. in Instructional Design from the University of Massachusetts, Boston, and Doctoral studies in the Center for International Education at the University of Massachussetts, Amherst. He was awarded a research fellowship from the Community Fellows Program in the Department of Urban Studies and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he studied in the Center for Advanced Visual Studies. He is the 1991 American Federation of Television and Radio Artists Crystal recipient. In 1998 he received a Regional Artists Project Grant from the Arts and Science Council in Charlotte, North Carolina. He currently works as a Diversity/Multicultural Specialist for the Jefferson County Public Schools in Louisville, Kentucky, where he serves on the Board of the Louisville International Cultural Center (LICC) and is the co-chair of the Global Education Network, Kentuckiana (GEN) and the Louisville Africa Forum.