GEMINI INK WINS DOWNTOWN ALLIANCE AWARD FOR BEST ARTS & CULTURAL PROGRAM

Gemini Ink, San Antonio's Independent Literary Center receives award from the Downtown Alliance recognizing their contribution to downtown cultural life. Nan Cuba, Executive Director, expressed surprise and gratitude for the award. The literary center offers classes, reader's theater productions, and a Writers-in-Communities program that benefits disadvantaged groups.

--San Antonio-- Nan Cuba, Executive Director of Gemini Ink, accepted the award for Best Arts & Cultural Program at the 2002 Downtown's Best Awards on Tuesday, March 26 at the Charline McCombs Empire Theatre. The Downtown's Best Awards are presented each year by the Downtown Alliance, and sponsored by SBC Communications, to honor downtown organizations that help revitalize downtown San Antonio. The Awards Jury this year included Brooke Benson Connolly of Connolly & Company, Arthur Coulombe of the San Antonio area Marriott Hotels, and Nelson Wolff, County Judge for Bexar County.

Nan Cuba admitted the award was a surprise and said "I'm very grateful to the Southtown Association for nominating us; we are so proud and delighted to be in this neighborhood." Gemini Ink, San Antonio's only independent literary center, relocated to Southtown offices in October 2001. The literary center now resides in a renovated warehouse on South Presa.

Gemini Ink offers a range of innovative programs that add to San Antonio's cultural life. The University Without Walls program offers classes to the public where they can study and create literature. The Dramatic Reader's Theater events are multimedia presentations that combine art, music and literature. The third branch of Gemini Ink is the Writers in Communities program, which sends writers to work with special needs groups such as disadvantaged seniors and children.

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