The Oct. 15 application deadline is fast approaching for a long-time annual arts institution on the Coast, the Arts Council-administered triple awards program: the Gillian Lowndes Award, the Louise Baril Memorial Music Award and the Anne and Philip Klein Visual Arts Award. All give recognition to artists in various disciplines along with a cash prize that helps considerably with their next endeavour.
Local theatre performer Sandi McGinnis was a recipient in 1991. She remembers Gillian Lowndes as a dancer and a young mother, who had studied dance in India and was vice-president of the Arts Council at the time of her death. She was just 29 when she succumbed to cancer. Her family wished to make a memorial legacy to other artists, not necessarily dancers, and their trust money has grown over the years. For many years, a family member, sometimes Lowndes' daughter, now grown up, made the presentation or asked McGinnis to do so.
The Lowndes award has been given to many of the Coast's arts stars since 1982 when Sheila Karsten took the first award for theatre. Visual artists such as Maurice Spira (1984), Jim Krieger (1986), Gale Woodhouse (1990) and Donna Balma (1992) have all been selected. Some recipients have passed on, such as Trudy Small (1989), or moved away, such as Patrick Hughes (1994). Musicians have also won: Ken Dalgleish (1987), Blaine Dunaway (1996), Serena Eades (1999) and Kathleen Hovey (2000). Authors have been honoured: Betty Keller (1985) and Peter Trower (1997). Dancers have continued to benefit from the young dancer's legacy: Maggie Guzzi (1995) and Katherine Denham (2002). In 2004, for the first time, the award went to a photographer, Alan Sirulnikoff, and in 2005, for the proponent of a unique art form, Roberts Creek mandala artist and designer Robert Marion.
The Louise Baril Award honours musicians, mostly young ones, and is designed to give them a bursary towards future musical education. McGinnis remembers that Baril was "vibrant in the music community." She sang in a choir and organized the Countryside Concerts series, forerunner to the present day Coast Recital Society, until her death in 1995. Many of the young people who have earned the award have returned to Coast stages repeatedly to the delight of audiences who have watched them grow professionally, such as mezzo soprano Patricia Hammond (recipient 1996) who now lives in England and gave a performance at the Arts Centre just last fall, vocalist Dora Brooks (2003) who was frequently seen in local pantomime productions and Erin MacDonald (2002) who performed on cello last year at the Heritage Playhouse. Rising star pianist Mark Andrews won in 1997 along with Rick Thurber, while brother Neal Andrews won in 2004.
Dorothy Fraser, past president of the Arts Council and awards organizer, asks the music bursary recipients to perform at the awards ceremony, usually held in early November. The process, says Fraser, starts with the Arts Council inviting the public to submit letters describing why a particular artist is worthy of nomination and including examples of the artist's work. Usually, others will write in to support the nomination -the more letters of support, the better. Then the three or five volunteer judges will confer and have what Fraser describes as a very lively discussion. "They take their job seriously," she said.
The third award is tailor made for seniors. The legacy of artists Anne and Philip Klein gives this annual visual arts award to those mature artists who came to their new passion late in life. For example, Michael Prior, formerly an engineer, took up weaving late in life - a skill that appealed to his sense of precision. Margaret McKean began to paint only two years before her 2003 win at age 72, after attending a local arts retreat where she worked with Coast artist Ursula Medley. The retired physiotherapist fell in love with art and developed her talent during the Arts Centre's life drawing classes.
Those wishing to submit a recommendation for an award before the Oct. 15 deadline should contact the Arts Centre at 604-885-5412 for the exact criteria in each category.
