Up for Mayor’s Arts Award!

Nominees announced for Edmonton Mayor’s Arts Awards

Edmonton Journal article by Elizabeth Withey

EDMONTON — Roots musician Corb Lund, circus performer Annie Dugan and the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra are three of eight artistic “ambassadors” nominated for a new Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts award.

Their names were among dozens announced Friday morning by the Professional Arts Coalition of Edmonton for the annual mayor’s arts awards, to be handed out April 29.

The new ATB Financial Ambassador of the Arts Award recognizes an individual or organization that has succeeded, on a national or international level, in enlightening audiences and promoting the Edmonton, cultural, performance or visual art scene in an extraordinary way. The winner gets $2,500.

Also on the shortlist for the new award are musicians Ben Sures and Tommy Banks, Rapid Fire Theatre, Wishbone Theatre’s Michael Peng and Chris Bullough, and Jonathan Christenson of Catalyst Theatre.

For the 2013 Edmonton Book Prize, which will be given out at the same event, fiction, poetry and a history of denim will duke it out for the $10,000 prize.

Up for the city’s book prize are Tim Bowling for his novel The Tinsmith (Brindle & Glass), Nora Gould for her debut collection of Prairie poems, I see my love more clearly from a distance (Brick Books), and Catherine Cole for Piece by Piece: The GWG Story (Goose Lane Editions), a history of the Great Western Garment Company, which started in Edmonton.

Edmonton Journal arts reporter Fish Griwkowsky is one of five nominees for the John Poole Award for Promotion of the Arts. Also on that shortlist are Edmonton philanthropist Sir Francis Price, Citadel marketing director Joyce Labriola, CBC RadioActive’s The In Crowd columnists and Ania Sleczkowska.

There are 14 nominees in the emerging artist category, including Harcourt House artist-in-residence Alexis Marie Chute, non-fiction writer Danielle Metcalfe-Chenail, Edmonton Public Library writer-in-residence and rapper Omar Mouallem, and Jason Lee Norman, writer and creator of the 40 Below Project, an anthology on winter.

Citie Ballet’s Francois Chevennement, Northern Light Theatre’s Trevor Schmidt, Opera Nuova’s Kim Mattice Wanat and Theatre Yes’s Heather Inglis are all up for the Dialog Award for Excellence in Artistic Direction.

And the Edmonton International Film Festival producer Kerrie Long is in the running for the Syncrude Award for Excellence in the Arts, along with Miki Andrejevic (Festival of Ideas), Linda Huffman (ArtsHab), Tom McFall (Alberta Craft Council) and Ritchie Velthuis (sculptor).

John Mahon, the Edmonton Arts Council’s executive director, has been nominated for the Atco Gas Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement, alongside Douglas D. Barry, a visual artist, teacher and arts visionary with the University of Alberta’s Faculty of Extension.

The Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts happens Monday, April 29 at the Winspear Centre. Mayor’s award categories are worth $1,000 and sponsored awards are worth $2,500. Tickets to the event range from $15 to $80 and can be purchased at winspearcentre.com.

Update: I didn’t win, but had a fabulous time with nominator Natasha Deen and my hubby! Congrats to Omar Mouallem, who took the prize in our category.