The 2012 Shelley Award honoree has combined a businessman’s savvy with a lifelong passion for arts and culture to provide leadership and stewardship to a long list of arts and culture activities in his home community of Tucson and across Arizona.

Darryl Dobras

Darryl Dobras, who recently completed two terms on the Arizona Commission on the Arts (including 3 years as the chair), also has served on the boards of Arizona Theatre Company, Tucson Museum of Art, the Arizona Humanities Council, Tucson Museum of Arts, Center for Creative Photography (University of Arizona), the Arizona Heritage Foundation and Patronatos de San Xavier. He has been named the winner of the 7th annual Shelley Award.

The Shelley Award is named in honor of former Arizona Commission on the Arts Executive Director, Shelley Cohn, and is presented to an individual who has advanced the arts through strategic and innovative work in creating or supporting public policy beneficial to the arts in Arizona.

As a leader in the nonprofit arts community and on the state commission, Dobras has been instrumental in advocating for and ensuring the sustainability of arts in culture in Arizona. His long and remarkable commitment has extended through both good economic times and bad, and has been especially critical in helping the arts and cultural community navigate through the recent difficult times.

Mr. Dobras is president of DBD Investments, Inc., a privately held investment company operating in Tucson since 1975 with a focus on early-stage investments in start-up companies. He also was a founder of the state-chartered Territorial Bank in
Tucson (1980), which was subsequently sold to Arizona Commerce Bank.

In addition to his service to the arts and culture community, he has served on the boards of the University of Arizona Foundation, Arizona Town Hall, Downtown Tucson Partnership, Community Foundation of Southern Arizona and the Downtown Development Corporation, and has been a member of the Art That Heals Committee of the Corondolet Foundation.