A star-studded lineup of local leading lights earn recognition as Arts Council for Monterey County’s Champions of the Arts.

At the 67th Golden Globe awards last Sunday, Mo’Nique clipped Penelope Cruz for best supporting actress; Avatar earned best picture; Michael C. Hall won best actor for Showtime’s Dexter; and Robert Downey Jr. seized not just best actor in a feature film, but best acceptance speech.

There was glibness, glitz and glamour to the whole affair – and also an effervecence, a feeling its relevance will dissolve with a few Tweets, office debates and fashion critiques. The awards show that reaches deeply into the real-world lives of Monterey County creative folk happens a week later at Seaside’s Embassy Suites, when the Arts Council for Monterey County unfurls its annual Champions of the Arts gala.

“It’s like holding up our best mirror,” says Arts Council Executive Director Paulette Lynch. “It’s about the arts as transformative, powerful and fun.”

The evening will be emceed by poet/librarian-about-town Garland Thompson, appointed with fine dining and wining, harbor a silent auction fundraiser and scored by music from Andrea’s Fault and others. The awards themselves – hand-crafted by sculptor Larry Fischer of Monterey Sculpture Center – are broken down into categories, including Lifetime Achievement, which goes this year to Disney artist/illustrator Ron Dias.

Artist/author Belle Yang – author of timeless children’s books – will be honored with the Luminary distinction for her rare ability, as Lynch says, to “cross cultural boundaries” and “show people how to access their extra strength through friendship and love.”

The Nonprofit nod will go to Tonatiuh Danzantes del Quinto Sol, an 18-year-old dance organization founded by Ramon Silva to teach primarily East Salinas kids Mexican folklorico dance that connects them to their roots and keeps a vibrant culture moving.

Other well-deserving arts advocates include former librarian Carol Diggory Shields, author of 21 books including Saturday Night at the Dinosaur Stomp, who will receive the Professional award. Painter and arts advocate Carla Baldassari will be thanked for her work as the first trainer and mentor of the Arts Council Professional Artist in the Schools program with the Educator award. Korean and Vietnam wars veteran Ewalker James – who says “My grandmama gave me [my name], and you didn’t argue with grandmama” – will take home the Philanthropist award for his toil as a civil rights advocate, a champion of Seaside’s cultural life, and work with the Monterey Jazz Festival and Blues Festival.

A posthumous Volunteer award will be given to William F. Stone, who died on Aug. 22, 2009, two weeks before the opening of his retrospective exhibit at his beloved Carmel Art Association. Painter Dick Crispo – in one of the video vignettes the Arts Council’s Michael Huston created for all the recipients – says of Stone: “A remarkable, remarkable man and a good friend… I think his whole life was an art form.” Stone was notified, before he died, of the award. “We need to value our treasures,” Lynch says. “We see you, we hear you, we’re grateful.”

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One such treasure is Lifetime Achievement award recipient Ron Dias, 72 years old with a neat dome of white hair. He still emanates a youthful zeal when talking about illustration, animation and Disney, for which he’s worked, on and off, more than 50 years. He channels this energy during a tour of his cozy converted “shed” studio in the backyard of a modest house in Marina he shares with his partner of 32 years, Howard Blair.

He savors talking about his “Everchanging Wall” – tacked up with his illustrations from Sleeping Beauty and The Secret of Nimh. He narrates his stories with his hands, like puppets. He plies carefully through portfolio pieces, recalling detail upon detail. He opens cabinet doors to reveal source material of dozens of childrens’ and art books, DVDs, posters and sketches. He calls me “Walt.” Dias is animated, happily consumed in his work, which got its spark when he was 6 years old, upon seeing Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

“All of a sudden here’s this elegant, European style film,” he says. “I was amazed at the emotional power. It was like magic.” His course was set. At 18, after formal study, he won a nationwide stamp-drawing contest, which won him an invite to Disney in summer of 1956. After intensive training under savvy mentors, his class of junior animators went right to work on Disney’s then-largest budgeted film, Sleeping Beauty.

It was an auspicious start to a career that would bring life to Warner Bros’ Daffy Duck and Bugs Bunny and grace major projects like Hannah Barbera’s Jonny Quest on to his Disney’s Golden Books series and his last film, Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

“Don’t call me an animator,” he says. “I’m an artist and illustrator. Animation is thousands of drawings with” – he plucks the pen from my hand and holds it up in the air.

“This is not work,” he says in a gentle baritone, “it’s my life.”

THE CHAMPIONS OF THE ARTS gala takes place 5-11pm Saturday, Jan. 23, at Embassy Suites, 1441 Canyon Del Rey Blvd., Seaside. $85/person; $600/table of 8; $750/table of 10. 622-9060, http://www.artsformontereycounty.org.