Gary Gaydos Receives Missouri Arts Award

Post author:independentnws
Post published:January 25, 2017
Post category:Business News / Entertainment / Travel / Florissant
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Gaydos 1 of 6 Honored in Jeff City

Gary R. Gaydos, who retired in 2016 after 38 years as manager of the Florissant Civic Center Theater at the James J. Eagan Community Center, has been named one of six honorees for the 2017 Missouri Arts Awards. The awards will be presented on Wednesday, February 8 in the Capitol Rotunda in Jefferson City.

Gaydos will be presented with the Leadership in the Arts Award. The Missouri Arts Council, which has honored the State’s “arts heroes” and the people who make art happen since 1983, will give awards in six categories at the February 8 event.

The Council will recognize Gaydos for his “four decades as a leader in both his profession and his volunteer activities,” saying that “Gary R. Gaydos has enriched the lives of countless people in his home town of Florissant, North St. Louis County, the St. Louis region and beyond.”

During his career, Mr. Gaydos was the driving force in arts programming for the Florissant Civic Center Theatre as well as its long-range planning and day-to-day operations. In 2016, more than 120,000 people attended performances at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre by Alpha Players and Hawthorne Players community theater organizations as well as other theater companies, concert bands, dance studios and schools, as well as national touring groups.

Nationally known performers often brought their acts to Florissant, such as actor Edward Asner of Mary Tyler Moore Show fame, who staged his one-man show about former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt at the Florissant Civic Center Theatre a few years ago.

“We are proud of the many accomplishments made by Gary in his tireless service to Florissant and the arts community, not only in our city but also for the entire St. Louis area and the State of Missouri,” said Florissant Mayor Thomas P. Schneider. “In his honor our theater was recently re-named the Gary R. Gaydos Civic Center Theatre in Florissant

Gaydos also was a board advisor for more than 30 years to the Florissant Fine Arts Council, and for 28 years directed the Junior League’s St. Louis Family Series for area schools. He was the leader of the Children’s Celebration of Performing Arts at the City of Florissant’s annual Valley of Flowers Festival.