LAURINBURG — St. Andrews University named the recepients of its annual cultural arts awards.

Janet Kenworthy was presented the Ethel Fortner Arts Award and Dr. Douglas Orr was given the Sam Ragan Arts Awards during a ceremony earlier this month at the school.

Kenworthy started and runs the musical theater known as The Rooster’s Wife.

She was presented with the Ethel Fortner award by St. Andrews University president Paul Baldasare for her active role in the arts including music, literature and cinema.

Settling in Aberdeen with her family in 1991 following work and living in New York City, she said that she “has lived a story with a soundtrack, and a broad sensibility to all things artful.” Trips to New Orleans created a visceral reaction to what she perceived as a lack of affordable live music in her community.

Kenworthy opened her home to give musicians and music lovers a way to building community. Weekend concerts, now more than 300 — of all musical genres — fill the Rooster’s Wife located on Knight’s Street in Aberdeen.

The Ethel Fortner Arts Award was established in 1986 to honor the legacy of Fortner—a poet, critic, editor, arts promoter and benefactor of St. Andrews press.

Baldasare presented the Sam Ragan Arts Award to Orr, president emeritus of Warren Wilson College, a liberal arts college in Asheville.

While at Warren, Wilson he founded the Swannanoa Gathering summer music program that has become one of the nation’s most popular such events, attracting about 1500 participants each summer from all over the world for the five theme weeks.

He and his wife, Darcy live in Black Mountain and perform traditional Celtic and Appalachian music. They recently published through the UNC Press the New York Times best seller Wayfaring Strangers: The Musical Voyage from Scotland and Ulster to Appalachia, co-authored with Fiona Ritchie, host of NPR’s The Thistle & Shamrock weekly radio program.

He also served as vice chancellor and faculty member at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte, where he was a recipient of the teaching excellence award.

He has served as board chair of the North Carolina Independent College and University Association, and board chair of the Association of Presbyterian Colleges and Universities.

Orr was recognized by the governor of North Carolina with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine Award, the state’s highest civilian honor.

The Sam Ragan Arts Award was created in 1981 to honor Samuel Talmadge Ragan, North Carolina’s first Secretary of Cultural Resources.

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