Twin Cities TOSCA honors Twin Cities Daily Planet and others for contributions to the arts

On Thursday night, Twin Cities Media Alliance executive director Jeremy Iggers and I were on hand at the Nina Bliese Gallery to accept a TOSCAR award from Exploring TOSCA publisher Gail Weber. TOSCA is an acronym for Theater, Opera, Shakespeare, Culture, and Art, and about every year, Weber chooses one individual or organization in each of those five categories for recognition with a TOSCAR.

This year, the Daily Planet was recognized in the Culture category. In the program, Weber listed "Twin Cities TOSCA's favorite things about the Twin Cities Daily Planet." Among them are "Twin Cities Daily Planet connects citizens in the Twin Cities with one another and with the global community," "citizens are empowered to contribute to and be a part of the media," and "Arts Orbit Radar features arts events in the Twin Cities." Among this year's other award winners were Theatre in the Round (T), Margaret Meyers of the Twin Cities Opera Guild (O), the Great River Shakespeare Festival (S), and artist Leon Zobel (A).

In accepting the award, I thanked Weber and all our competitors for helping to keep Twin Cities artlovers informed ("Exploring TOSCA has no competition," Weber semi-jokingly noted in response) as well as Jeremy (who texted me just before I was introduced, reminding me to mention our Theater All Year discount ticket program), Daily Planet editor Mary Turck, the foundations and individual donors who support our nonprofit mission, and the dozens of citizen journalists who contribute to our coverage for little or no pay because they are passionate about the arts. This award truly belongs to them—and to you, the readers who make it all worthwhile.

Coverage of issues and events that affect Central Corridor neighborhoods and communities is funded in part by a grant from Central Corridor Collaborative.

Jay Gabler

Jay Gabler (jay@tcdailyplanet.net, Twitter @JayGabler) is the Daily Planet's arts editor.