Freeholder Director Burry, Steve and Maureen Van Zandt and Mary Eileen Fouratt honored by Count Basie

Freeholder Director Lillian Burry, Steven Van Zandt, Maureen Van Zandt and Mary Eillen Fouratt, Executive Director of Monmouth Arts at Count Basie Theatre, August 22 for the presentation of the Vanguard Awards.

RED BANK, NJ – Monmouth County Freeholder Director Lillian G. Burry was honored with a Vanguard Award by the Count Basie Theatre.

“It is an honor to be chosen as one of the first recipients of the Vanguard Awards,” Burry said. “I believe that art and history are the foundation of our society and it is essential to maintain a strong presence of the arts in our communities.”

The Vanguard Awards took place on Aug. 22. Vanguard Awards were also given to E-Street Band guitarist Steven Van Zandt and his wife Maureen Van Zandt and Monmouth County Arts Council executive director Mary Eileen Fouratt.

The evening featured a Rockit Woodstock reprisal performed by students aged 8 to 18.

A longtime proponent of local arts and the Basie, Burry has been a three-time presenter at the theatre’s annual Basie awards, and in 2014 was honored as the Monmouth County Arts Council’s “2014 Community Champion of the Arts.”

In the winter of 2014, Burry participated in a presentation about the MoCo Arts Corridor Partnership. The five-minute video was presented during a panel session at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Development’s 52^nd Session of the Commission for Social Development. The video focused on the MoCo Arts Corridor which is both a physical and cooperative initiative designed to promote the many art, cultural and historic assets in Monmouth County.

Since her election to the Monmouth County Board of Chosen Freeholders in 2005, Burry has been the Board’s Director three times and is liaison to the Parks and Library and Public Services divisions. She is also a member of the Monmouth County Planning Board’s Master Plan Arts, Cultural & Historic Resources working group.