Four community awards presented annually by the Sunshine Coast Arts Council were announced on Sept. 29 during a ceremony in Sechelt.
Varya Moysey-Rubin, who received the Gillian Lowndees Award for sustained achievement and artistic growth, attended the event accompanied by eight vocalists, dancers and instrumentalists. After the formal presentation, the ensemble rendered selections from Moysey-Rubin’s musical revue Songs from the Underworld, which were originally staged as part of her summer youth musical theatre intensive in Gibsons.
Painter Deb Wills received the Anne and Phillip Klein Visual Arts Award. The Louise Baril Memorial Music Award for a musician beginning advanced studies went to cellist and Elphinstone Secondary graduate Cael Read. Marg Penney, a lifelong volunteer leader and advocate for inclusive communities, was presented with the Frances Wasserlein Memorial Award.
“These four community awards are really important to the vibrant arts and culture of our Sunshine Coast,” said Sue Inglis, who has led the arts council’s awards committee for eight years. “They allow us to pause and to recognize some of the amazing artists, performers and behind-the-scenes leaders, all who support and advance the widely-acclaimed and often-said [expression], ‘The Sunshine Coast is so full of amazing artists and talents and events.’”
Inglis emphasized that the origins of each award also commemorate artistic luminaries in the community. The longest-running prize, the Lowndees Award, was originally instituted in honour of Gillian Lowndes, a young dancer and former vice-president of the arts council who died of cancer in 1981.
“Since I moved here nine years ago, one of the really beautiful things is how I’ve been welcomed into the creative community here,” said Moysey-Rubin. “I’ve had opportunities that I probably wouldn’t have had had in the city. Given that I was raised by a theatre critic, I think that I can legitimately say that I’m finally proud of my work.”
The Wasserlein award, instituted by members of Frances Wasserlein’s book club in memory of her advocacy for women and LGBTQ2+ rights, recognizes contributions by a volunteer in the arts and culture sector. Marg Penney was nominated by members of the Pender Harbour Music Society, which Penney joined in 1998. “Her involvement exemplifies her ability to put her great skills to work,” said Inglis. “Over two decades, Marg led the group through perilous and joyous times with grace and calm optimism.”
Penney led the creation of a concert committee, instituted jazz and chamber festivals, and supervised the renovations of the Pender Harbour School of Music.
“It was only when I moved to Pender Harbour that I looked around and saw all the things that wouldn’t happen if it weren’t for volunteers,” recalled Penney. She now works in community advocacy as a resident of Silverstone Care Centre in Sechelt, leading a joint residents and family council. “I guess once a person is a squeaky wheel, you’re always a squeaky wheel,” Penney laughed.
Michael Klein, the son of Anne and Phillip Klein whose award recognizes an artist who began a discipline in adulthood, provided a biographical sketch of his parents’ artistic and political interests. Recipient Deb Wills worked as a registered nurse for 35 years before retiring to Gibsons where she started to paint more regularly, using acrylic and mixed media collage to depict abstract landscapes and seascapes. Wills’s showcase Dementia: What Lies Beneath was featured at the Gibsons Public Market this year.
“Painting brings her much joy,” said committee member Christina Symons. Wills, also an active volunteer, was unable to attend the ceremony in person.
Also absent (due to illness) was Cael Read, whose Louise Baril Memorial award is named for a former member of the arts council board and director of the Countryside Concerts in the early 1990s. Read has been a perennial performer in the Sunshine Coast Festival of the Performing Arts and was one of a trio of cellists featured at Sechelt’s BachFest in February. Read also won the Ross Brougham Award for Cello from the Coast Recital Society earlier this year and is now an arts undergraduate at the University of BC.
“I’ve been watching him since he was a young kid,” said Sandi McGinnis, a member of the selection committee. “He has performed many years and I’ve been a great admirer of his cello playing.”
Detailed information about the awards and this year’s recipients will appear at the artscouncil website at sunshinecoastartscouncil.com.
