If you’ve come to ADAO’s International Asbestos Awareness and Prevention Conference in the past, you know we always throw a fantastic Saturday night awards gala to present the annual honorees. This year, though, we’re taking this party up a notch!
ADAO is proud to announce the Meet the Artists Signature Cocktail Reception and Awards Dinner*, which will follow our academic conference programming from 6 – 9 PM on Saturday. In addition to our touching awards ceremony, from 6:00 – 6:30 pm you’ll be treated to an exclusive cocktail reception where you’ll have the chance to mingle with our featured artists who will be presenting throughout the weekend.
*Please note: The Meet the Artists Signature Cocktail Reception and Awards Dinner requires an additional ticket, available for purchase here.
One lesson we’ve learned over the years is that art has a special capacity to touch people in a way that makes a message seen, heard, felt, and remembered in a deeper way than dry facts, and the many modes of art people create helps us reach new audiences. We’re thrilled to have such talented artists on our team using their talents to put a spotlight on asbestos issues, and even more excited to be able to feature their work at our conference.
On Saturday, you’ll hear from legendary journalist David McCumber and hysterical comedian Quincy Jones, on Sunday you’ll be treated to a music performance from Jordan Zevon and a short film screening by Paolo Monico. Throughout the weekend and at our Meet the Artists reception, you’ll be able to enjoy a photography exhibit by Earl Dotter and an artifact exhibit by Tony Rich.
Take a minute to learn a bit about the incredible panel of artists you’ll meet at this exclusive event:
Earl Dotter began photographing coal miners in 1969, then the most dangerous job in America. After which, he focused on other hazardous occupations in the USA. After 30 years of documentation, he created the exhibit and book, THE QUIET SICKNESS: A Photographic Chronicle of Hazardous Work in America. He has been a Visiting Scholar at the Harvard School of Public Health since his appointment in 1999. In the year 2000, Dotter received an Alicia Patterson Foundation Fellowship to document commercial fishing. It had become our nation’s most dangerous trade. After 9/11, he photographed the rescue recovery effort at Ground Zero. For that exhibit work he received APHA’s Alice Hamilton Award. Currently, Dotter is following hazardous jobs new immigrants perform in the USA.
Quincy Jones 2017 Warren Zevon “Keep Me In Your Heart” Tribute Award recipient, is a talented, versatile comedian and mesothelioma patient who is spreading asbestos awareness through his hysterical stand-up comedy. Since his diagnosis, he has been defying all odds to make his dream of hosting a one-hour comedy special come true and prove cancer doesn’t define us. His Kickstarter campaign to fund this special led to an appearance on The Ellen DeGeneres show, which landed him this HBO comedy special “Burning the Light.” Quincy is being honored with the Warren Zevon “Keep Me In Your Heart” Memorial Tribute for using his gift and his story to shine a spotlight on mesothelioma and asbestos-caused diseases.
David McCumber, 2017 Keynote Speaker, is the editor of The Montana Standard. Previously, he was Washington Bureau Chief for Hearst Newspapers, and has led newsrooms large and small over a career spanning nearly 50 years. He was managing editor of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer for the last nine years of that newspaper’s print existence, during which the paper won several national awards for investigative and narrative journalism. McCumber is the author of three nonfiction books: “X-Rated: The Mitchell Brothers (Simon & Schuster), made into a film starring Charlie Sheen and Emilio Estevez; Playing off the Rail: A Pool Hustler’s Journey (Random House); and The Cowboy Way: Seasons of a Montana Ranch (Avon). He is the co-author, with investigative reporter Andrew Schneider, of the book “An Air that Kills: How the Asbestos Poisoning of Libby, Montana Uncovered a National Scandal” (Putnam), based on a story Schneider broke while working with McCumber at the Seattle P-I. During his time at the San Francisco Examiner, where he was Sunday editor, city editor and an assistant managing editor, he edited Hunter S. Thompson’s weekly column for about three years. He subsequently served as the editor of two of Thompson’s books. He was the founding editor and publisher of the magazine Big Sky Journal. McCumber was a finalist for a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for a series of stories he directed and helped to write on a defense-industry scandal in Tucson, Arizona.
Paolo Monico is an Italian-American filmmaker based in New York. He is a member of the Directors Guild of America and in the past 20 years, he has been a character animator, a cartoonist, a storyboard artist, an assistant production designer, an assistant director, a director and a father. He has directed a TV movie and more than 150 commercials for clients like Coca-Cola, MTV, Honda, Playstation, Procter & Gamble, Volkswagen, Vodafone and many others. Some of his ads have been featured on Shots Magazine or shortlisted at the Cannes Advertising Film Festival. In 2015, he wrote, directed and produced his first short film, THE MOTHER, starring Mary Testa, Boris McGiver, Michele Hicks and Sylvia Kauders. The multi-award-winning film is a love-letter to his father who passed away in 2002 from mesothelioma.
Tony Rich is a photographer who has literally served “in the trenches” as an industrial hygienist and environmental technician in the consulting field for the past 20 years, specializing in asbestos-related work, including: inspection surveys, abatement monitoring/sample analyses, project management, regulatory compliance, and worker training. He has also received microscopy training from McCrone Research Institute for identification of bulk asbestos via polarized-light microscopy (PLM). Through the course of his occupation and personal endeavor, Tony has developed an extensive and compelling collection of asbestos-related photographs, product materials, artifacts, historical books, industry documents, film archives, and other related media which have been utilized in a multitude of applications for various organizations worldwide, including, but not limited to: product and material research, asbestos awareness education blogs, informational presentations, corporate and governmental training programs, regulatory guidance documents, science and trade publications, university textbooks, museum exhibits, and even as legal evidence.
Jordan Zevon, 2017 Keynote Speaker, and ADAO’s tremendous National Spokesperson, is a teacher, singer, and songwriter. Jordan was executive producer for his father, Warren Zevon’s, final album The Wind. He also co-produced Enjoy Every Sandwich: The Songs of Warren Zevon, which features an all-star cast of singers and musicians. Jordan recently released his own EP entitled Jordan Zevon which is available from CDBaby.com. Jordan’s immeasurable commitment to asbestos victims and concerned citizens has provided a united voice that will continue to help ensure that their rights are fairly represented and protected, while raising public awareness about the dangers of asbestos exposure and often deadly asbestos related diseases.