[Congressional Record Volume 164, Number 181 (Thursday, November 15, 2018)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7047-S7048]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBUTE TO ALBERT B. HEAD

 Mr. JONES. Mr. President, today I wish to honor Albert B. 
Head, a native of Troy, AL. Al has done a great deal for the southeast 
and the country. His work has been particularly impactful in my home 
State of Alabama, and I would like to touch on just a few of his 
accomplishments today.
  Al earned his undergraduate degree from Troy State University, 
majoring in art history and aesthetics, was a star quarterback on Troy 
State's 1968 NAIA national championship football team, and received his 
master of liberal arts with a concentration on southern literature from 
Auburn University at Montgomery.
  In 1972, Al joined the Fine Arts Council of Florida and subsequently 
received a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship to attend 
Harvard's Arts Administration Institute in 1974. He served as executive 
director at the Stephen Foster Folklife Center and the Louisiana 
Division of the Arts before becoming executive director of the Alabama 
State Council on the Arts, a position he has held with distinction 
since 1985.
  For more than 40 years as a director of three different cultural 
agencies and as a national arts leader, Al has advocated for the 
importance of the arts and the necessity of providing State support for 
the arts. He is the only State arts director to start folk arts 
programs in three States--Florida, Louisiana, and Alabama--and he has 
strived to show how important the folk and traditional arts are to 
defining and giving life to a community.
  Al served two terms on the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies 
board and in 1998 received the Gary Young Award from that organization 
for his leadership and achievements in promoting the arts nationally. 
Al has also served as a member of the South Arts board for 38 years, 
presiding as its chair from 1983-85.
  Al established the Alabama Center for Traditional Culture as a 
division of the Alabama Council on the Arts dedicated to research and 
presentation of the State's cultural traditions. In 1999, he received 
the Alumnus of the Year Award from Troy University National Alumni 
Association and in 2008 received the Distinguished Leadership Award 
created by Troy University to recognize an alumnus who has rendered 
outstanding service to the university and the public.
  In 2012, he received the National Heritage Fellowship Bess Lomax 
Hawes Award from the National Endowment for the Arts recognizing his 
significant contributions to the preservation and awareness of cultural 
heritage.
  Al has developed a reputation as one of the foremost arts agency 
directors in the Nation, has led the Alabama State Council on the Arts 
through a period of tremendous growth and accomplishment and has served 
as a mentor and champion for arts organizations and artists across the 
State of

[[Page S7048]]

Alabama. He will be celebrated in Montgomery on December 6, 2018, and I 
want to add my voice to the many others thanking him for his 
work.

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