With the St. Catharines Arts Awards on May 30 set to be the last celebration at the Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, it’s fitting that numerous Brock faces are among the nominees.
The awards recognize excellence across all areas of artistic creation and contribution, celebrating emerging and established artists, as well as volunteers and patrons.
Since 2005, the awards have been an annual gathering for the St. Catharines arts community, with Brock staff, students and alumni consistently well represented. This year is no exception, with seven nominees who are connected to the University.
Nominees from the Brock community include
• Sarah Milan, human geography student, nominated in the Emerging Artist Award category;
• Carly Manley, honours music alumna; and Catharine Parayre, associate professor in Modern Languages, Literatures and Cultures; both nominated in the Arts in Education category;
• Duncan MacDonald, associate professor and Chair of Brock’s Visual Arts department, nominated in the Established Artist Award category;
• Debbie Slade, director of Brock Centre for the Arts; and Marcie Bronson, curator of art and registrar at Rodman Hall; both nominated for the Making a Difference Award;
• Sara Palmieri, marketing and sales manager for the Centre for the Arts; and Janis Barlow, former Arts Administration lecturer; both nominated for the Volunteer in the Arts Award.
The awards ceremony takes place at 8 p.m. on May 30. Tickets are available by donation and should be reserved in advance. For information call 905-688-5550 x 3257.
Since Brock is partially sponsoring the event, I would not be surprised if the winners already have been chosen. The write-up does not mention the other names of the nominees, totally ignores the rest of the other fine artists, musicians and actors.
With these kinds of events (especially) when Brock is involved, they tend to be very cliquey. Within our community, Brock has an alumni organization that could rival the Illuminati. I go into these events not expecting much as a regular citizen (non-Brock affiliate), that way I never get disappointed. I agree with Cassandra that most likely, the winner has already been chosen. Just my opinion. On another note, there has been noticeably very little “exposure” or publicity for the artists this year compared to last year.
It is indeed unfortunate that the article does not mention all of the nominees though that wasn’t the objective of the article.
They can be found on the city website at:
http://www.stcatharines.ca/en/livein/ArtsAwards.asp
Yes, Brock partially sponsors the event. This is the role and responsibility of one of the largest cultural presences in the region. The winners have indeed been chosen though this has nothing to do with Brock and the sponsors do not know the names of the winners. The Culture Committee of the City of the City of St. Catharines has an excellent track record for due diligence and responsible arms-length processes that use the peer jury system common to arts and culture policy in Canada. Thee Municipal Act provides very clear guidance on matters of (conflicts of) interest.
Congrats to the students, alumni, staff and faculty of Brock for being so engaged in the cultural economies of the region.