The mayor and Abingdon Town Council honor the recipients of the third annual Arthur
Campbell Community Service Award, the highest honor given by the Council.
The community service award recognizes the extraordinary contributions to the town
and/or people of Abingdon, Virginia, Southwest Virginia or those from Abingdon who have
made extraordinary contributions on a state or national level.
The recipients of the third annual Arthur Campbell Community Service Awards are Sam
and Jan Hurt and Joella Johnson Barbour.
The Hurts moved to Abingdon in 1999 and embraced the community with a voluntary
effort to create and share high-quality art in every possible public place. Both artists (Jan in
mixed media and Sam in photography), they participated in and helped initiate many public
art projects. They include "Tarot Card Art," "Gotcha Covered: An Exploration of Clothing,
Costume and Masks, "Seeking the Sacred Source: Artists and Spirituality, "The Apron Project" and "Who's Afraid of Virginia's Wolves." Jan is co-curating a large exhibit at William King Museum of Art, "Mapping the Cosmos," which opens in February.
Barbour was chosen because of her activities with the Blacks Fort Chapter of the Daughters
of the American Revolution, the Overmountain Victory Trail Association, the Historical
Society of Washington County, Virginia, and the Fields-Penn Property Oversight Committee.
