Honours for

Guelph Arts Council

Members

Over the past few months, several Guelph Arts Council members have been honoured for their achievements in this community and beyond. So we would like to take a moment to pass on the good news to Arts in Guelph readers.

 

No surprise perhaps is the news that world-famous children’s author and storyteller Bob Munsch has been named to the Order of Canada. Certainly, there can be no question that this hon-our is well-deserved, given that he has endeared himself to a couple of generations of children (as well as their parents and grandparents), through his often humorous stories about everyday events. His book Love You Forever was a children’s best-seller. Munsch continues to write and publish with regularity, and when he isn’t home here in Guelph, he can be found performing in various other communities across the country.

 

Another well-deserved honour goes to Pat McCraw, who has recently received the Ontario Medal for Good Citizenship. A lifelong volunteer, she has volunteered her time and energy to so many Guelph organizations that it is impossible to list them all here. Among them are Guelph’s Family and Children Services, Save the Children Canada, YM-YWCA, United Way, Canadian Federation of University Women and, most recently, Guelph Community Foundation. She also has a long association with Guelph Arts Council.

 

This spring, three Guelph Arts Council members were among the eight named by the YM-YWCA as Women of Distinction. Helen Brimmell, who received the award in the Arts and Culture category, is a past president of Guelph Arts Council. For many years she wrote about the arts for various news publications, and she has just compiled a history of Guelph Creative Arts Association to mark that organization’s 50th anniversary. Other awards went to Jeanne Forsythe (Community Life), whose community involvements included work on the River Run Centre capital fundraising campaign; and Janet Wardlaw (Lifetime Achievement), long associated with the Department of Family and Consumer Studies at the University of Guelph.

 

Guelph calligrapher Susan Nelson (and long-time Guelph Arts Council volunteer) has recently received recognition of a different sort. Her work, produced in collaboration with a watercolour artist friend from BC, graced the cover of the July/August issue of Somerset Studio, a prestigious American magazine devoted to paper arts, art stamping and letter arts.

 

Another Guelph artist Alison Bailey Smith (who can often be found around the Guelph Arts Council office these days) has been featured in the August issue of Canadian Living. Also, her collaborative piece with Karen Dueck received the Ed Harder Construction Prize at the 20th annual Insights Juried Exhibition at Wellington County Museum, and her “metal millinery” creations won her the David Kaye Award for Fibre at the Toronto Outdoor Art Show in July. At that same show, Ryan Price of room twenty-three in Guelph garnered the Atelier GF Printmaking Award.

 

A Guelph arts organization has also distinguished itself over the past few months. Guelph Youth Singers captured first-place honours in two categories at the Provincial Music Festival this spring. The group also won international acclaim at the 1999 American Choral Directors Association convention in Chicago. Guelph Arts Council is proud to have been a catalyst, along with Guelph Chamber Music Society (now Musica Viva), in helping to establish Guelph Youth Singers in 1991.

 

We know that this list is not complete, and that there are, no doubt, other Guelph Arts Council members who deserve recognition. One thing is certain though – the above-listed accomplishments are a tribute both to the strength of the Guelph community as a whole, and to the vibrancy of the local arts and culture scene.
Guelph Arts Council extends hearty congratulations to all.

 

 

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