Sam E. McCuen honored with John Richard Craft Leadership Award
November 10, 2019
The Columbia Museum of Art presented the 2019 John Richard Craft Leadership Award to Sam E. McCuen. A committed philanthropist and community leader, McCuen epitomizes the values the CMA recognizes each year with the Craft Award. Executive Director Della Watkins and Board of Trustees President Allen J. Coles III presented the award to McCuen at an elegant appreciation dinner celebrating his service on Wednesday, November 6. The Craft Award, named for the CMA’s first director, is the highest honor the museum bestows.
Luther J. Battiste III (left), recipient of the 2018 John Richard Craft Leadership Award, and this year’s winner, Sam E. McCuen (right).
“We appreciate Sam’s work assisting the CMA to strategically navigate nonprofit, government, and private avenues in support of CMA programs, exhibitions, and capital projects,” says Watkins. “He poured his heart and passion into what have become museum successes.”
For more than 30 years, McCuen has devoted his time, talents, and resources to champion the arts, history and preservation, science, education, the environment, and civil rights. Through dedicated board service, committee participation, premier membership, financial support, and assistance in raising truly significant capital funding for the museum, McCuen’s decades of contributions have helped to elevate the CMA to excellence.
Now president of Sam E. McCuen & Associates, LLC of Lexington, McCuen has been recognized throughout his career as a media relations consultant with numerous national and international awards for the SC Highway Department’s “Highways or Dieways” campaign, four prestigious Associated Press awards as a reporter for The State newspaper, a South Carolina Philharmonic Outstanding Service Award, and an Allen University Presidential Medal for Distinguished Civic Service.
For more information, visit columbiamuseum.org.
