Media Package

31st ArtsNL Arts Awards

Saturday, May 28, 2016

Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre

Stephenville, NL

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

ArtsNL announces provincial Arts Award winners

Saturday, May 28, 2016 (Stephenville, NL) – ArtsNL presented the 31st ArtsNL Arts Awards tonight at the Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre in Stephenville, NL.

Six awards honouring the accomplishments of Newfoundland and Labrador’s artists were presented. The winners are:

ArtsNL Hall of Honour Award: Jim Payne CBC Emerging Artist Award: Latonia Hartery Memorial University Arts in Education Award: Fergus O’Byrne ArtsNL Patron of the Arts Award: Stewart McKelvey Cox & Palmer Arts Achievement Award: Michael Crummey BMO Bank of Montreal Artist of the Year Award: Danielle Irvine

“It’s always a pleasure to take the awards back on the road, as we do every second year, and it’s very exciting that this year we see their return to the island’s west coast,” says ArtsNL executive director Reg Winsor. “The ArtsNL Arts Awards continue to celebrate the professional arts and cultural work and successes generated by the many talented artists, groups, and arts organizations in Newfoundland and Labrador. ArtsNL is proud to play its role in fostering the creation and enjoyment of the quality artistic work these individuals create, regardless of artistic discipline.”

“As we celebrate the finalists and those who have received honours this evening, we also acknowledge the strong collective output and achievement of our province’s vigorous arts and cultural sector,” ArtsNL Chair Stan Hill added. “As a whole, they and tonight’s honourees, continue to push their creative limits - gaining abundant success, leading our provincial arts and cultural sector to significantly contribute to the Newfoundland and Labrador economy.”

Nominations for the awards are submitted by the arts community, arts organizations, and the general public. Council members of ArtsNL vote by secret ballot to select the finalists and winners. Winners of the CBC Emerging Artist, Memorial University Arts in Education, Cox & Palmer Arts Achievement, BMO Bank of Montreal Artist of the Year awards receive a $2,500 cash prize and a piece of artwork. The inductee to the ArtsNL Hall of Honour and the ArtsNL Patron of the Arts Award receive a piece of artwork.

For information contact: Joshua Jamieson Communications Officer, ArtsNL Office: (709) 726-2212, ext. 203 Mobile: (709) 746-6531 [email protected] www.artsnl.ca About the ArtsNL Awards

The annual ArtsNL Awards Show and Gala honours the accomplishments of Newfoundland and Labrador’s artists. Nominations for the Arts Awards are submitted by the arts community, arts organizations and the general public. Members of Council vote by secret ballot to select the finalists and winners.

Winners of the CBC Emerging Artist, Memorial University Arts in Education, Cox & Palmer Arts Achievement, BMO Bank of Montreal Artist of the Year awards receive a $2,500 cash prize and a piece of artwork. The inductee to the ArtsNL Hall of Honour and the ArtsNL Patron of the Arts Award receive a piece of artwork.

The Awards

The ArtsNL Hall of Honour Award 2015 - recognizes a person, group, or organization that has made a distinguished lifetime contribution to the cultural life of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The CBC Emerging Artist Award 2015 - recognizes new and undisputed talent. It is awarded to an emerging artist, group or arts organization that has earned significant recognition for a piece of work or a generally out-sized impact on the scene.

The Memorial University Arts in Education Award 2015 - recognizes an artist who has made an outstanding contribution to arts in education in Newfoundland and Labrador over a period of years.

The ArtsNL Patron of the Arts Award 2015 - recognizes a person, business, or organization that has demonstrated an ongoing commitment to the arts in Newfoundland and Labrador through innovative, community, or sustained support of artistic activity.

The Cox & Palmer Arts Achievement Award 2015 - recognizes a practicing artist who has made an outstanding contribution to the cultural life of Newfoundland and Labrador over a number of years.

The BMO Bank of Montreal Artist of the Year Award 2015 - recognizes the art or activity of a person, group or organization that has made an outstanding contribution to the cultural life of Newfoundland and Labrador in 2015.

Fortis Properties

Arts Hall of Honour

Inductee for 2015

Jim Payne

Jim Payne’s four decade spanning career has included many highlights for the native of Notre Dame Bay, NL. As a professional musician, Payne is a vocalist, plays guitar, accordion, mandola, tin whistle, and violin. He’s also known as an actor, writer, stepdancer, and arts educator.

His projects have generated numerous solo albums, compilation appearances, and the production of records for a team of other artists. His deceptively simple lyrics always poetically encapsulate stirring emotions that are anchored in Newfoundland and Labrador tradition and the province’s greatest tragedies and joys.

Payne operates his own recording label, SingSong Inc., which has several award-winning albums in the midst of more than 30 available titles. SingSong also produces concerts and special events featuring traditional and contemporary music, storytelling, and dance. Beyond solo efforts, Payne is one third of the comedy music trio WickedAltogether alongside Pete Soucy and Fergus O’Byrne. He’s a member of a traditional music quartet A Crowd of Bold Sharemen, and often performs as a duo with O’Byrne.

Payne and O’Byrne are well known to schools too through their unwavering commitment to take ArtsSmarts and School Touring Program funded projects to the most isolated regions of the province. Sometimes, that means traveling by boat and ferry to small schools where arts-focused encouragement, education, and inspiration become the orders of the day. He’s appeared on stage in productions of Newfoundlanders Away, Hold Fast, and Hamlet which he not only acted in, but also composed a score for. Rising Tide’s Summer in the Bight Theatre Festival in Trinity enjoys his skills as Music Director, and Payne is a regular cast member in their annual REVUE production.

Payne’s music is heard on radio and television as part of documentaries and videos. He’s appeared at major festivals in North America and Europe, and performed in Japan and Australia. Payne has represented Canada at international events like a symposium in Kagoshima focused on artists who create music that becomes part of local traditions. On that occasion he was one of five world musicians selected, and the only one from North America.

Jim has been honoured with a Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Medal, the Cultural Tourism Award, ArtsNL’s Arts in Education award, and ArtsNL’s Arts Achievement Award. When John Joe Pidgeon, Marystown’s legendary accordionist passed, the family felt Payne’s presence was imperative because Pidgeon always said “Jim Payne was the keeper of the songs of our province.”

CBC Emerging Artist Award

Recipient for 2015

Latonia Hartery

Bay D’Espoir native Latonia Hartery is making her presence known through her work in the provincial film industry. To date she has directed three independent short films and two CBC documentaries, she has line producing credits on six short CBC documentaries, and was a field producer for DocZone twice. The 2012 episode of Land and Sea she directed was one of the series’ highest rated programs ever reaching 360,000 viewers.

Her first film that she wrote/directed and produced, called Escape Routes, was funded by Canada Council for the Arts and was screened at the Nickel Independent Film Festival, and at festivals in Calgary and New York.

In 2014 Latonia directed the independent film Sadie which screened at festivals across Canada and in 38 countries into 2015 including the Air Canada En Route Film Festival, the Kerry Film Festival in Ireland, and recently at the National Screen Institute Film Festival. The short was also chosen from 900 submitted films from 56 counties to be part of the 10th Women in Film and Television International Short Film Showcase.

Hartery was selected to participate in the Reykjavik International Film Festival Talent Lab to study with David Cronenberg in 2015.

She is currently a producer on Wanda Nolan’s upcoming short Crocuses, she is writing a feature- Teflon Dons funded by Telefilm, and is the director/writer for a Morag Loves Company produced documentary Sifting Viking Secrets in development.

Memorial University

Arts in Education Award

Recipient for 2015

Fergus O’Byrne

Fergus O’Byrne moved from Dublin to Canada in 1967, becoming a founding member of the Irish folk band Ryan’s Fancy. The band recorded over a dozen albums, and toured North America and Ireland for 14 years. They were also featured in a CBC series under the same name for five years. O’Byrne then went on his own, continuing to produce and record new music with Jim Payne, and others. He’s been a guest on many recordings for other folk greats including Minnie White, Shanneyganock, The Punters, Great Big Sea, and Jim Fidler.

O’Byrne is a deeply involved volunteer with the Young Folk at the Hall initiative, which just turned 15. A free two week workshop for youth from seven to 18 to pursue interest in singing and folk music, before a performance benefiting the Neil Murray Stage for emerging talent at the annual Folk Festival.

So successful, O’Byrne expanded it to other areas like , Stephenville, Marystown, Appleton, and many others – an achieved goal as a result of ArtsNL funding, and other support. Again, proceeds from performances have gone to local organizations with the purpose of creating more arts-focused opportunities for youth.

Through the initiative, as well as ArtsSmarts and School Touring Program funded projects, O’Byrne has mentored countless budding talents in the province, like half of last year’s CBC Emerging Artist Award winning duo, Aaron Collis.

O’Byrne has organized and produced the St. John’s Canada Day concert on Confederation Hill since 1999, and was the chair of the 2010 Junos Education Committee when they were in St. John’s.

He’s been nominated for multiple ECMAs, and received the Dr. Helen Creighton Lifetime Achievement Award in 2004 as part of Ryan’s Fancy. In 2010 he received MusicNL’s Music Educator of the Year and he then in 2011, the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Newfoundland and Labrador Folk Arts Society.

Patron of the Arts Award

Recipient for 2015

Stewart McKelvey

An inspired corporate citizen, the Stewart McKelvey law firm has remained committed to a longstanding philosophy to support the arts and cultural sector in Newfoundland and Labrador.

They established themselves as a regular supporter of the professional artistic endeavors of Artistic Fraud of Newfoundland, Atlantic Light Theatre, Lady Cove Women’s Choir, the Newfoundland Symphony Orchestra, Newman Sound Men’s Choir, the Kiwanis Music Festival, Sorensen School of Dance, and the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival – and that’s just the 2015 sponsorships. The firm has also supported the Wreckhouse International Jazz and Blues festival, among many others over the years.

Named one of the best employers of 2015, Stewart McKelvey is amongst the top 20 largest law firms in Canada. A number of its partners are involved with professional arts organizations as board of director’s members such as Colm Seviour – an original member of the Lady Cove Women’s Choir board. Seviour guided them through incorporation in the early days and continues to volunteer with them years later.

The firm also brokered a relationship between the choir and the Ice Caps (whom they also support). That led to the choir singing the anthems at hockey games, with informative performance video playing - leading to exceptional audience awareness.

Stewart McKelvey partner Bruce Grant sits on the board for Newman Sound Men’s Choir and aside from being a proud advocate for them, Grant secured the patronage of Sam Roberts as the Honorary Patron of the choir. The firm brokered the same arrangement with the Ice Caps for Newman Sound, as well. Grant has additionally sat on the board for Atlantic Light Theatre since its 2014 inception.

In the case of the Tuckamore Chamber Music Festival, again the firm is not only a supporter financially, but also through partner Tauna Staniland who is Vice-Chair on their board. These are just a few examples of how involved and invested the members of the Stewart McKelvey team get when it comes to the arts.

There is a clear and demonstrated workplace culture at Stewart McKelvey to embrace, celebrate, and foster the arts and cultural sector. They don’t just throw money out, they put in time and effort to support professional artistic endeavours from any angle they can. And, that is what adds up to make Stewart McKelvey the 2015 ArtsNL Patron of the Arts.

Cox & Palmer

Arts Achievement Award

Recipient for 2015

Michael Crummey

Internationally recognized and critically acclaimed, Michael Crummey’s body of work spans writing, film, and stage. Holding an M.A. in English Literature from Queen’s University as well as a B.A. (Hons.) in English Literature and Sociology from MUN, his professional writing career was kick-started in 1986 when he won the Gregory J. Power Poetry Award.

His first publication was a poetry collection, Arguments with Gravity, in 1996 and he’s authored 10 works in fiction and poetry since - four of them Canadian bestsellers. His work’s also included in numerous anthologies.

Crummy’s books have been adapted to film, such as his poetry collection Hard Light, which was developed into a highly successful NFB documentary directed by Justin Simms in 2012. He was a co-writer for the upcoming CBC documentary on Beaumont Hamel set to air this summer, and he wrote the NFB animated short 54 Hours in 2014. On stage, his work inspired Artistic Fraud’s After Image and Salvage: the Story of a House.

His most recent novel and #1 Canadian Bestseller, Sweetland, was a finalist for the Governor-General’s Award and landed on the 2016 Canada Reads longlist. It was named Indigo’s Canadian Fiction Book of the Year and Best Book of the Year by Maclean’s and The Globe and Mail. His other titles, such as Galore, have been up for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and River Thieves was a Giller Prize finalist and won the 2001 Winterset Award. A year later, Crummy would win the Artist of the Year award from ArtsNL.

He’s been involved with numerous universities as well as the Banff Arts Centre and as a faculty member or author-in-residence, and sat as a Board Member for Riddle Fence for six years. He’s appeared at dozens of literary festivals nationally and internationally in over half a dozen countries.

In 2015, Crummey was awarded the inaugural Writer’s Trust Fellowship recognizing him as a “leading writer of his generation” building upon his 2008 honour from the Trust, receiving the Timothy Findley Award for an outstanding body of work by a mid-career writer.

BMO Bank of Montreal

Artist of the Year

Recipient for 2015

Danielle Irvine

Director, producer, and teacher Danielle Irvine is the winner of the John Hirsch Prize and the Siminovitch Protégé prize. She has over 100 directorial credits and holds a diploma from the first ever graduating class of the National Theatre School.

From outdoor theatre to the Barbara Barrett Theatre, LSPU Hall, and the Arts and Culture Centre mainstage, Irvine has worked in many mediums including classical and musical theatre, chorale, as well as film and TV just this year. She’s been involved with Wonderbolt, RCA Theatre, Shakespeare By The Sea and others.

At Perchance Theatre, she’s been a director and artistic director for a number of seasons, growing attendance by 22%. She also directed a new performance piece, conceived by Kellie Walsh and written by Jonathan Munro, featuring Lady Cove Women’s Choir. Danielle was the director for Theatre St. John’s production of The Little Mermaid and she directed her first video series for a fixed exhibit opening at The Rooms this summer on World War One.

In film and TV, her credits include shows like Republic of Doyle and a national TV film Anne of Green Gables, staring Martin Sheen. She’s also done casting for Maudie – a film about Maude Lewis, Braven, and the upcoming Netflix series Frontier.

As an educator, she was again involved with MUN as a professor for Directing the Play 4400. Irvine participated in her first ArtsNL funded ArtsSmarts project this year, and was involved in the Provincial Drama Festival and several Eastern School District drama festivals as an adjudicator and in workshops.

Artwork by

Mike Gough

Originally from Corner Brook, Mike Gough graduated from Grenfell College in 2007 with a BFA in Visual Arts. He completed his Masters in 2010 from Central Saint Martins and was a part of four group exhibitions at the Witham Gallery and Empire Gallery, among others in London, England.

In total his work has been shown as part of more than 35 solo and group exhibitions, the most recent of which was 30 + 1 at the Christina Parker Gallery, where he has an upcoming solo exhibition soon. Also still on the horizon is a group show called Architec Tonic coming up at the 2 Rooms Contemporary Art Gallery in Duntara,NL.

Michael’s work is included in many public, private and corporate collections. He’s been shortlisted for the EVA Emerging Artist of the Year in 2012 and the ArtsNL 2012 CBC Emerging Artist Award. In 2015, Gough won EVA’s inaugural People’s Choice Award.

Gough has been continually developing his potent contemporary aesthetic and his skills as a professional visual artist. He uses primal, visceral, and intuitive mark making combined with intimate thoughtful lines to explore ways of recording, responding and remembering.

For the 31st ArtsNL Arts Awards, he’s created a brand new series called AT NIGHT, a collection of nocturnal paintings designed to explore relationship between land, sky, and water - inspired by the idea that islanders always feel the ‘pull of the island’ while away. Each piece in the series is 20” x 20” on cradled birch panel done in acrylic, pastel, and graphite with gold leaf accents.

In creating the series, Gough investigated people’s identity and where we place ourselves in landscape as we continue to grow among things that remain constant.