Amber Edwards Wins 12th Emmy

The 50th Annual New York Emmy® Awards took place on April 1 at the Marriott Marquis in Times Square and Newtown resident Amber Edwards picked up her 12th career Emmy Award during Sunday’s ceremony. Ms Edwards and Susan Wallner shared the Emmy for Magazine Program for an episode of State of the Arts, a New Jersey Public TV program for which Ms Edwards is the senior producer and Ms Wallner is the series producer.

Ms Edwards has been the host and producer of NJN’s Emmy Award-winning program State of the Arts, which interviews major figures of fine and performing arts and also presents segments on cultural issues and events, since 1988.

The Emmy she won last weekend was for an episode of State of the Arts that aired on September 30, 2005. That edition of State of the Arts focused on stories that found the artistic elements in four New Jersey homes and gardens. The program introduced viewers to a sculptor, Ricky Boscarino, whose five-acre property, called Luna Parc, is a work of art not usually open to the public; two neighbors, Silas Mountsier and Graeme Hardie of Nutley, N.J., who have been gardening together for more than a decade — in separate but complementary gardens across the street from one another; Morven Museum & Garden, a Colonial estate in Princeton that formerly served as the New Jersey Governor’s Mansion and is now a museum-in-progress; and the country garden setting of The Importance of Being Earnest created by The Shakespeare Theatre of New Jersey during its 2005-06 season.

State of the Arts is celebrating its 25th year on the air and can now claim 26 Emmys during its reign as the longest running local arts show in the country. Prior to Sunday’s awards ceremony, the program’s most recent Emmy had been in 2006 when it was awarded a Mid-Atlantic Emmy for Outstanding Magazine Program/Special.

The 2007 New York Emmy Awards were was hosted by New York Chapter President Jane Hanson.

Nominations were announced on February 8 at the studios of CUNY-TV. NJN Public Television had a total of seven nominations over five categories this year. State of the Arts received four nominations — two in the Arts Program/Special category for Prince Charming (which Ms Edwards would have shared with that edition’s producer, Christopher Benincase) and Sign of the Times; and two in the Magazine Program category, one each for the episodes House & Garden and Wired. The network was also nominated in the categories of Interview/Discussion Series, Environment, and Craft Specialty: Musical Composition/Arrangement.

The Emmy for Magazine Program received by Ms Edwards and Ms Wallner was the only win this year for NJN Public Television.

Emmys, presented by The National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, are the most prestigious honors and most coveted peer-recognition symbols of distinction in television. The New York chapter of the Academy was founded in 1955 by Ed Sullivan.