Dallas Market Center, producer of the ARTS Awards, and ART, the creative home furnishings network, announced the panel of independent judges for the 29th annual ARTS Awards.
The ARTS Awards, presented each January during the Dallas Total Home & Gift Market, is the premier awards program in the U.S. honoring the home industry. The 29th annual ARTS Awards winners will be revealed during a gala event on Friday, January 19, 2018. The distinguished judging panel selects winners from categories including Manufacturers, Retailers, Product Designer, Interior Designer, Sales Representative, and the Green Award. Specialized awards including Academy of Achievement are selected separately.
The judges for the 29th annual ARTS Awards are Dixon Bartlett, Jan Cregier, Susan Inglis, Connie Lineberry, Jaye Ann Mize, and Greg O’Neal.
Dixon Bartlett is a highly regarded furniture industry executive currently serving as Chief Creative Officer for Norwalk Furniture as well as Managing Director for Bunakara. After college, Bartlett joined This End Up Furniture Company, helping manage its growth from 11 to 230 stores. In 2000 he joined lifestyle retailer Storehouse and traveled the world to bring together the very best elements of an eclectic modern merchandising mix. In 2007, along with long-time business associate Caroline Hipple, Bartlett formed HB2 Resources, a consulting service in the areas of strategic and tactical business planning, product and showroom design, as well as cultural and employee development. Today, in addition to his corporate roles, he serves as a consultant to a broad range of home furnishings companies.
Jan Cregier serves as the National Board President of the Interior Design Society (IDS), a nationwide organization serving residential interior designers. Under her leadership as National President, IDS has implemented new strategies to increase its value to members resulting in record breaking years for several programs, including their National Conference and Designer of the Year Competition. Creiger previously held the position of President of the IDS Chicago Chapter. For over 20 years, Cregier’s passion has been creating stunning interior spaces that express her clients’ vision and personality. She founded her Chicago-based firm, Interior Expressions by Jan, to fulfill that passion and has produced many award-winning designs. Creiger received Designer of the Year awards the past 5 years, most recently winning the Whole Home Design category.
Susan Inglis, executive director of Sustainable Furnishings Council (SFC) and founder of From the Mountain, has more than 25 years of experience working with artisans and in sustainable manufacturing in the home furnishings, fashion, and gift industries. Inglis’ direction of the SFC has gained national attention and brought the organization widespread recognition as the primary source for verified sustainable home furnishings. Inglis has spoken on behalf of SFC throughout the U.S. and abroad and has inspired many companies to adopt a sustainable platform for the future. As a consultant, she has worked in 27 countries on five continents providing services ranging from identifying procedures for insuring the sustainability of a natural resource base to market-led product development and how to access new markets effectively. She received the 2009 WithIt WOW Award for Education. Inglis exclusively serves as the Green Award judge and reviews only the manufacturing finalists’ submissions.
Connie Lineberry’s career in publishing began with Knight Ridder newspapers, followed by stints with Landmark Newspapers and Gannett. Lineberry was hired by Steve Pond, founding publisher of Furniture Today, in 1981 to launch a marketing services department. Over the years, Lineberry has worked as a marketing executive in partnership with countless furniture and home accent companies to help develop advertising and marketing content for a range of industry publications as the family of trade publications continued to expand. She served as the Publisher of Home Accents Today on two separate occasions, as Vice President of Marketing, and as Executive Vice President of Creative Brand Services. Today she runs a successful consulting practice that advises a range of home furnishings companies on industry best practices including product development and marketing.
Jaye Anna Mize is the Home Interiors Director for the trend-forecasting agency Fashion Snoops. With a passion for trend psychology, technology, and design, Mize has branched across fashion into home interiors through her development in trend forecasting over the past 12 years. Working with major brands worldwide, Mize spends her time covering international events and analyzing key cultural influencers within the home and interior markets to produce macro and micro projections.
Greg O’Neal is CCO (Chief Collaboration Officer) + Co-Founder of CUR8, a new company that serves as a marketplace for leading edge home products that are smart, “made here,” and/or healthy. O'Neal has been curating, designing, and licensing products for the national and international home furnishings industry for over 24 years including residential and commercial interior design as well as product design collaborations with some of the largest manufacturers and retailers in the global marketplace. For Austin, Texas-based home décor company Four Hands, O'Neal served as the key design and visual merchandiser. Since 2004, he has independently owned his design firm Philosophy Design, which has worked in the senior care, restaurant, boutique hotel, and retail segments as well as designed home furnishings and lighting products for a multitude of wholesale brands and licensees. In 2016 O'Neal joined forces with his former client, CUR8 CEO+ Co-Founder Jasmine Jaco, to develop a marketplace that brings the best of “what’s next” to the professional interior design community.
ARTS Awards finalists each submit a creative digital presentation varying by category that may include product development, marketing, merchandising, and/or company differentiation examples. In November, the judges will convene in Dallas to review each individual or company submission. Once all components of judging are complete, a designated independent accounting firm tabulates and secures the scores until the winners are announced for the first time at the ARTS Awards gala.
