The Jazz Network Foundation
Awards & Recognition
Honors reflecting Bill Foster’s extraordinary cultural service to Detroit and to jazz.
Recognition of a life in service
Awards tell only part of the story, but they record the city’s gratitude for Bill Foster’s enduring contribution to jazz and public culture.
Jazz Guardian Award
Presented by the Detroit Jazz Festival in 2007 in recognition of Foster’s longstanding service as an advocate, organizer, and defender of the music.
Spirit of Detroit
Presented by the City of Detroit in 2013, honoring extraordinary commitment to the people and cultural life of the city.
Knight Arts Challenge
Support in 2013 affirmed the forward-looking Jazz-Off concept as a model for artistic development and civic storytelling.
Detroit Jazz Hero
Named Detroit’s 2014 Jazz Hero, recognizing a life defined by advocacy, activism, altruism, and belief in jazz.
Detroit Jazz Hero · 2014
The greater measure of Bill Foster’s legacy is found in the artists he supported, the audiences he gathered, and the spaces he created for jazz to keep living.