R. Ken Coit Statue Documentary Wins Telly Award
The NINE SHORT-FORM DOCUMENTARY STYLE FILMS highlighting the planning, creation and installation of the bronze statue of R. Ken Coit on the University of Arizona Health Sciences campus was named a Silver Winner in the Series – Online category in the 44th Annual Telly Awards.
The Telly Awards honors excellence in video and television across all screens and is judged by leaders from video platforms, television, streaming networks, and production companies, including Adobe, BBC World Service, Netflix, and Vimeo.
The “Creation of the R. Ken Coit Statue” series began production soon after Coit, an entrepreneur and alumnus of the College of Pharmacy, committed $50 million through his family foundation to solidify the University of Arizona’s place as a leader in pharmaceutical education, research, and innovation.
The statue was created to recognize Coit’s transformative $50 million gift to the College in the fall of 2021 and serve as a waypoint to the Coit Museum.
The films were distributed bi-weekly over the course of three months via email to alumni and friends of the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy. It was also shared through social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Distributing the videos episodically helped stoke excitement around the statue’s unveiling, which coincided with the College’s 75th anniversary celebration and the grand opening of the Coit Museum of Pharmacy and Health Sciences last October.
The email and social media efforts also provided context and updates about the museum, such as the vision and design tenets behind the museum’s transformation, the history of the museum, and museum milestones.
The series was created in collaboration with Doug Reid, president and creative director of AugustWolf Productions, the Coit Museum of Pharmacy and Health Sciences, and the R. Ken Coit College of Pharmacy. Each video serves not only to highlight the artistry behind the statue’s creation, but also to acknowledge the efforts of the people involved in preparing for the Coit Museum grand opening last fall.
“It was a true collaborative effort and could not have been possible without everyone working together, including the ArtWorks Foundry, Doug Reid, UA Facilities Management, and the team at the College of Pharmacy,” said Jeff Javier, director of communications for the Coit College of Pharmacy.
The series also highlights the last work of world-renowned sculptor Bruce Wolfe, whose large portfolio of work spans five decades and includes commissioned sculptures of Tony Bennett, Frederick Douglass, Margaret Thatcher, and Mario Lemieux. Wolfe died last December at the age of 81.
“In time, Bruce Wolfe’s spectacular on point statue of R. Ken Coit will be known most for its purpose,” Reid said. “To inspire, to commemorate philanthropy and to point to the future. The statue was always referred to as a lighthouse--a guiding beacon of goodwill. Bruce sculpted those shared values into that statue as only he could do.”
This is the second Telly Award AugustWolf Productions has received. In 2021, Reid was a Telly Awards Silver Winner in the museum category for “Great Moments in Pharmacy,” which was an exhibit featuring 40 paintings from the 1950s that were digitized and made into parallax (moving) animations.