photo by: Journal-World File Photos

From left to right, Hong Chun Zhang, Deborah Woodall Routledge and David Vertacnik are among the 2026 Phoenix Awards honorees.

This year’s Phoenix Award honorees have been selected, and you may have experienced their work on the radio, or in a middle school auditorium, or at the airport, or even on the label of a beer bottle.

On Wednesday night, the Lawrence Cultural Arts Commission chose the six winners for the annual awards, which, according to a news release from the city, recognize “outstanding contributions to the arts and cultural community in Lawrence.” This year’s honorees are conductors and educators Paul Popiel and Deborah Woodall Routledge, radio host Cordelia Brown, illustrator Kent Smith, sculptor David Vertacnik and painter Hong Chun Zhang.

“We actually have a pretty good spread of folks,” said Tim Metz of the Cultural Arts Commission — professors, a radio personality, a middle school band director and more. “It’s a cool mix.”

“Absolutely,” said Commissioner Daniel Smith. “It is a nice mix of folks.”

Nominations can come from anyone in the community, and this year, the commission had 11 nominees to consider.

The winners will be honored at a ceremony in December as part of the Winter Inclusive Market at Abe & Jake’s Landing; in the release, the city said that more details would be announced as that gets closer. Each honoree receives a piece of art as a trophy; this year’s will be made by local artist Mara Strayer.

Here’s some more about each of the 2026 honorees and their work:

photo by: University of Kansas

Paul Popiel

• Paul Popiel is the former dean and director of bands of the University of Kansas School of Music. He left the position earlier this year to become the director of bands at his alma mater, Notre Dame, after working at KU since 2010. According to a KU news release announcing his departure, he conducted KU ensembles at Carnegie Hall and the Kennedy Center and at the 2025 World Exposition in Osaka, Japan. Popiel also conducted the Lawrence City Band, known for its free summer concerts in South Park.

• Cordelia Brown was Kansas Public Radio’s director of classical music until she retired last December. She had hosted radio programs since 1979, according to a KPR article announcing her retirement, and she brought more attention to musicians from Kansas and their live performances through the “Classics Live” series.

photo by: Bremen Keasey

A mural commissioned for the Dillons at 2205 Iowa St. It was created by local artist Kent Smith and features nods to Lawrence’s art and architecture.

• Kent Smith is an assistant teaching professor of illustration and animation at KU. According to his university webpage, his artwork “can be found on toys, beer labels, masks, huge woodblocks and tiny trading cards.” You might have seen his illustrations on Free State Brewing Company’s products, or at the Dillons at 2205 Iowa St., where his mural featuring local landmarks and Kansas-themed imagery is mounted near the front of the store.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Eighth-grade students from the Southwest Middle School band perform at the school district offices, 110 McDonald Drive, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024.

• Deborah Woodall Routledge is the longtime band director at Southwest Middle School. According to Lawrence Public Schools, she began teaching at Southwest when the school opened in 1995, and she’s been recognized with multiple teaching awards, including the Lawrence Schools Foundation’s Golden Apple Award in 2019 and its Dedication to Education Award in 2024.

photo by: Journal-World File Photo

Sculptor David Vertacnik is pictured in this 2014 file photo.

• David Vertacnik is a sculptor and professor emeritus at KU who works in metal, ceramics and other media. He began teaching at the university in 1979, according to his KU webpage. He’s the grandson of Slovenian immigrants, and his Facebook page says his work “is about the land and our responsibility towards it: about primitive symbols that relate to my heritage, as well as the natural world.” His work has been exhibited both here in the U.S. and in Slovenia.

photo by: Mike Yoder

Lawrence artist Hong Zhang, pictured Friday, Sept. 10, 2021, in her studio, learned earlier this month that her artwork depicting Kansas wheat and native grass had been selected to adorn the walls of the new Kansas City airport, which is scheduled to open in spring 2023. About 1,900 artists had applied for the commission, and Zhang was one of only 28 to be accepted.

• Hong Chun Zhang is a painter who’s lived in Lawrence since 2004. Before coming to the U.S., she studied Chinese ink painting at the Beijing Central Academy of Fine Arts, and she’s known for her works that use flowing, swirling hair as a motif, shaping it into tornadoes, wheat fields and many other subjects. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including at the Smithsonian and the Royal Palace of Milan in Italy, and you may have seen her work at the Kansas City airport, where she was one of only a handful of artists commissioned to create artwork for the concourse.