Mayor's Arts Awards (article by the Camrose Booster)

By Lori Larsen, Camrose Booster

The City of Camrose Arts Council has developed a new and exciting program aimed at acknowledging and celebrating artistic achievement and contributions to the arts in Camrose.

“The Camrose Arts Council is spearheading a new program called the Mayor’s Arts Awards,” explained Camrose Arts Council chair Steven Hansen. “There will be two award categories.”

The first category features the Creator Award, recognizing the achievement of either an individual or group demonstrating or creating or performing art.

“This particular award includes a cash prize of $2,500,” noted Hansen. “We live in a community that has strong artistic creators across a variety of fields and we want to be able to bring them together and celebrate their achievements.”

The Creator Award is by nomination and can include nominations by others or self-nominations and may be presented for recent work or a body of work produced over time.

Nominations for the Creator Award opened on April 11 and will close on June 30. The nominations will be adjudicated over the summer with the recipient, as well as short-listed nominees, announced on September 21.

“The Creator Award nominations will be reviewed and adjudicated by a volunteer jury appointed by the Mayor’s Arts Award committee with representation across artistic fields,” explained Hansen. “We have been very intentional about having a wide variety of people with artistic experience, education or creativity be our adjudicators.”

Hansen said that while there is no doubt adjudicating nominations across a variety of artistic genres will be challenging, the Council and subsequent adjudication committee are looking forward to seeing the quality of submissions that will be coming from the Camrose art community.

The second category features the Arts Champion Award, a non-cash award aimed at recognizing either an individual, group or business that has made extraordinary contributions to the arts. “That could be by way of volunteerism, or advocacy of development of arts in the community,” said Hansen. “This award is to recognize not a creator of art, but a promoter, advocate or developer of art in the community.”

The Arts Champion Award will be curated by a Mayor’s Arts Award committee (a committee of the Camrose Arts Council) that will essentially be seeking out and creating a short list that will then be adjudicated.

In keeping with the 2016 Arts and Culture Master Plan, the Mayor’s Arts Awards have been in development for some time now with a goal of making this an annual initiative, piloted in the next two-year budget plan.

“As the chair of the Camrose Arts Council, I feel proud that I live in a community that wishes to express its acknowledgment and its celebration for the arts. Not every community does that.” 

Find out more about the Mayor’s Arts Awards, including criteria, nomination information and forms here.

(Pictured left to right are City of Camrose Recreation and Culture Manager Tanya Pattullo, members of the Camrose Arts Council Mayor’s Arts Award Committee Angela Vanouck, Charlene Brown, Agnes Hoveland, and Dave McDougall, standing by City of Camrose Mayor PJ Stasko. Missing from photo are members of the Mayor’s Arts Award Committee president Steven Hansen, Joel Morello, and Arlo Grundberg.)