Arts Champions

2006

In honour of Arts and Culture week, ArtStarts presented awards to its arts champions for their work in BC schools and communities in 2006. The awards, presented on March 30, 2006 went to

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From L to R: Dawn Quast, George Littlechild, Valerie Dare & Bergen Amren)

George Littlechildwas honoured for his track record as one of BC’s finest artists and authors, and for his outstanding work with young learners. George is widely recognized as one of the leading First Nations visual artists working in Canada today and is also the author and illustrator of five children's books including the award-winning, This Land is My Land. George has worked extensively in schools and recently completed an artist residency in Courtenay titled Tsolum River: From an Aboriginal perspective at Tsolum Elementary, which reflects his interests of cultural heritage, visual arts and storytelling.

Dawn Quast was honoured for her dedication to bringing performing artists into not only schools in Prince Rupert region but the smaller communities along highway 16, and the Queen Charlottes. Booking and touring this area of BC can be challenging: The distances between communities are long. The roads, which are often gravel, can be treacherous. The weather can be extreme in the winter, and many schools are accessible only by ferry or float plane. Nonetheless, Dawn has persevered in introducing some of BC’s top artists to students who might not otherwise have this opportunity. Anne Glover, Grupo America, Green Thumb Theatre, Max-I-mime and the Bluesberries are just a few of the first rate performers who have toured this area of the province. Although Dawn retired in 2003, she continues to organize and book cultural performances as a volunteer.

Valerie Dare and the Jabulani World Music Society (Formerly known as the Britannia World Music Society) were honored for the innovative way they have combined music, learning, and their development of young, emerging musicians. Valerie is the founder and managing director of Jabulani. Formed in 2001, Jabulani has rapidly become one of North America’s leading youth ensembles performing world music. The 14-piece group of 12-16 year-olds plays with the infectious exuberance of youth and the skill and self-assurance of seasoned artists. Valerie herself is a passionate and tireless World Music aficionado has been involved with teens since 1988 as a teacher-librarian at Britannia Secondary, where she coordinates its successful world music program. She has coordinated numerous music-based residencies and performances involving Taiko drumming, marimba, West African drumming and dance and Samba music, and started the renowned VSB marimba project, which keeps on growing. She recently received the Canadian Teacher's Federation Hilroy Fellowship Award for Innovations in Education

 

The Assembly of BC Arts Councils presented its awards at the Annual Conference in Mission, April 20-23.

The winners are:

Cathy Stubington lives in Enderby where she is artistic director of Runaway Moon Theatre, a professional theatre company that specializes in creating collaborative theatre projects that bring artists and the public together to promote participation in and appreciation of the arts. She has been producing theatre with puppets and actors in unusual settings for twenty-five years. She is particularly interested in the role of the artist in community: how to present difficult social issues through art, the influence of community involvement on arts practice, and the value of arts in community. Cathy was artistic director for one of the first Artists and Community pilot projects administered by the Assembly of BC Arts Councils in 1997. The production of the community play Not the Way I Heard It involved hundreds of residents in celebrating the community, while approaching some of its underlying social and historical issues. Another Runaway Moon project, Enough is Enough was a shadow play developed in collaboration with the Spallumcheen Band Health Department and presented on the largest drive-in movie screen in North America. Cathy has also used her puppetry for development education and health education. She has facilitated the creation of puppet shows with the Spallumcheen Band Health Board on AIDS, diabetes and addiction awareness, and has volunteered her time and energy, sharing puppetry techniques with rural indigenous health workers in Chiapas, Mexico.

Steve Berna, formerly CEO of the Municipal Finance Authority – a bank owned by all BC's municipalities – is Chairman of the Arts and Cultural Highway Foundation. The Arts and Cultural Highway Foundation is a not-for-profit association of artists, arts organizations, commerce, tourism and community leaders active that encourages the vision and talents of local artists across the creative media, and supports initiatives to market their artwork in BC and internationally. It has created a network of West Coast communities working to bring together innovative commerce and creative talents throughout the Vancouver Island, the Gulf Islands and the Sunshine Coast, and to act as a catalyst for change in the transition from a resource-based economy to an arts, tourism and cultural Renaissance for the coastal region. Steve became involved with the Arts and Cultural Highway through his work as with the Municipal Finance Authority. He travels throughout BC to meet with municipal councils and discuss local finance and economic situations and alternate solutions to resource based economies. It is this look into the untapped “hidden economy” coming from the arts that prompted him to push the idea of arts as one of the drivers for a new economy in small towns and to lend his support to the ongoing efforts of the Arts and Cultural Highway.

The Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Society. From its conception, the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Centre has been a beacon of community arts and cultural development in downtown Vancouver. Jointly operated by the Roundhouse Community Arts and Recreation Society and the Vancouver Park Board the Roundhouse it is a unique facility with a multicultural mandate dedicated to building community through arts and culture - an arts oriented community centre whose initiatives reach well beyond its doors to serve all of Vancouver. The Roundhouse fosters community development through the arts by facilitating projects and programs that are accessible to and engage the community, that bring professional artists and non-professionals together in new ways. Over the past nine years, the Roundhouse has built many enduring relationships with artists and arts organizations, fostered cultural integration and civic involvement through its programs, and initiated and collaborated on many groundbreaking community arts projects, forums, celebrations and events.

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