Greene County Council On The Arts

398 Main Street
Catskill, NY 12414
518.943.3400
gcca@greenarts.org

Come to the Coronation!
March 29th at the 20th Annual Beaux Arts Ball

“The greatest gift of all is the giving of oneself - through steadfast commitment and unselfish contributions to the quality of cultural life in Greene County.” So reads the Greene County Council on the Arts’ Distinguished Service Award.

One of the highlights of the Beaux Arts Ball is the presentation of our Distinguished Service Award, underwritten by First Niagara Bank. Since 1989, this award has been presented to artists, individuals and organizations whose outstanding contributions have significantly benefited the health of the Arts Council as well as the cultural life of Greene County. The GCCA has been fortunate to have many gifted supporters over the years.

GCCA is proud to announce the 2008 Distinguished Service Award honoree:
Deborah Allen. Deborah Allen is the publisher and CEO of Black Dome Press, a New York State regional publishing company she co-founded in 1990. Black Dome Press’s first published book was Roland Van Zandt’s classic The Catskill Mountain House, one of the first books to draw attention to the central role of Greene County’s landscape in the formation and development of the 18th-century American Romantic movement in the arts. This inaugural Black Dome Press book debuted in 1991 with a fine art exhibit at the Gallery at Hunter Mountain.

Since then, Allen has published more than 70 titles on New York State history, culture, art, architecture, folklore and natural science, including: Heritage Award Recipient, Mountaintop & Valley: Greene County Folk Arts Today (with the Greene County Council on the Arts); Kaaterskill Clove by Greene County Historian Raymond Beecher; Printer’s Devil to Publisher (for The New York Times); Denning’s Point (with The Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries); and most recently, American Wilderness: The Story of the Hudson River School of Painting (with the Reynolda House Museum of American Art).

In the past nineteen years Black Dome Press—which employs local graphic artists, photographers, editors, and writers—has become recognized as a leading New York State regional publisher. Allen has been profiled in The New York Times, Publisher's Weekly, and American Bookseller, and was voted "Best Publisher in the Hudson Valley" by the readers of Hudson Valley magazine. Other awards include the Economic Development Recognition Award for contributions made to the New York State economy, the Columbia County Preservation Heritage Award, and the Leadership in Cultural Heritage award from the Community of Windham Foundation.

Allen has served on the Board of the Greene County Council on the Arts and the Board of Governors for Thomas Cole’s Cedar Grove, and is a Director of the Mountain Top Historical Society. She has been active in special projects such as organizing (with the Catskill Mountain Quilters Hall of Fame) the first Great Catskill Mountain Quilt Show in 1996, an event that has become an important annual showcase of quilting art. Black Dome Press and Purple Mountain Press were responsible for the bill signed by Governor Pataki in 1997 declaring every November "New York State History Month," and Allen presided at the 1997 debut of NYS History Month with Governor Pataki, New York Times Chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr., and New York State Historical Association Chair Jane Forbes Clark. Allen is on the Hudson River School Art Trail committee and organized the effort to house a permanent exhibit at the MTHS campus in Haines Falls. She has served on the GCCA grants panels for many years, co-organized the successful Columbia-Greene College Book Fair, participated in the international Rural Communities Strategic Planning process, co-organized the Windham Storytelling Halloween festival (with GCCA and Carolyn Bennett), coordinated the Catskill Mountain Storytelling Festival headlining Pete Seeger, was a coordinator of the Heritage Trail project and brochure, was an active member of the Committee to Save the Thomas Cole House and received the GCCA Volunteer for the Arts commendation.

Publishing books that explore and interpret the natural and built environment of the Catskill Mountains and greater Hudson River Valley, Black Dome Press titles have championed regional architectural preservation, environmental conservation, and a greater appreciation of the region’s historical, art-historical, and literary-historical contributions to American culture.

Debbie’s cultural contributions to our region are enormous, and we are grateful that she continues to share her expertise and resources with our community. Thank you, Debbie!