The 38th annual Arts NL awards were held in Stephenville on Friday night to a sold out show, featuring musical acts from folk to beat boxing. Six awards were handed out.
The 38th Annual Arts Awards took place on Friday night, drawing artists and supporters of the arts from across the province for a night of recognition and celebration.
Over 300 people came from far and wide to take in the awards show at the Stephenville Arts and Culture Centre.
After three years of holding off on in-person awards ceremonies, the busy night was a welcome change to Melanie Martin, executive director of Arts NL.
Melanie Martin, executive director of Arts NL, was happy to see the awards show taking place in person once again. (James Grudic/CBC)
“I’ll never take it for granted again, that’s for sure,” she said. “That energy level and that enthusiasm that the crowd has for art and supporting the artists.”
“It’s a beautiful thing to get to do this all together again.”
The Sherman Downey Band performed to a lively crowd at the arts awards as one of many musical performance acts. (James Grudic/CBC)
Musical performances from a wide range of artists from the Sherman Downey Band to guzheng artist Jing Xia were woven through the evening. The crowd was lively and excitable, and filled nearly every spot in the 435-seat theatre.
Jing Xia performed a piece on her guzheng to an enchanted crowd. Xia won the award for Emerging Artist in 2022. (James Grudic/CBC)
The award for Artist of the Year went to PerSIStence Theatre Company from St. John’s. Founding member and former chair of the company Jean Graham was there to accept the award.
Jean Martin accepted the award for Artist of the Year on behalf of PerSIStence Theatre Company, of which she was a founding member. (James Grudic/CBC)
She remarked on the company’s achievement as something of an unlikely success story.
“This company started as a bit of a dream. Oh yeah, a feminist theatre company, that’s something that will really work,” she said, adding that PerSIStence have always been steadfast in their business ethics with things like paying staff a living wage.
St. Michael’s Print Shop was awarded as Patron of the Arts, with executive director Christeen Francis accepting the award.
Francis expressed her gratitude for the award, noting the added significance to the recognition as St. Michael’s Print Shop approaches its 50th anniversary in 2024.
Christeen Francis (right), executive director of St. Michael’s Print Shop, accepted the award for Patron of the Arts on behalf of the shop. (James Grudic/CBC)
“Thanks to all our past, present and future members – without you, the print shop would not be possible,” said Francis.
Anne Pickard-Vaandering took home the award for Arts in Education for her work in education and public programming at The Rooms. In an impassioned acceptance speech, she emphasized the importance of arts education as well as the need for inclusively and accessibility to the arts for all.
Anne Pickard-Vaandering took home the award for Arts in Education for her work as an educator at The Rooms in St. John’s. (James Grudic/CBC)
“I wish the words accessibility, diversity and inclusion were not necessary,” she said. “I hope one day in the not too distant future, we will have built a world that appreciates and welcomes everyone.”
Susan Sherk was recognized for the Hall of Honour Award. In her acceptance she called back to her longtime advocacy for the arts as a significant economic driver.
Susan Sherk (right) was given the Hall of Honour Award. (James Grudic/CBC)
Not in attendance were two more winners who accepted their awards remotely.
St. John’s comic strip artist Wallace Ryan was given the Artist Achievement award, and gave his acceptance speech in video format.
Inuk filmmaker Jessica Brown won the Emerging Artist Award, accepting her award remotely from Ontario.
LONDON (AP) — With a few daubs of a paintbrush, the Brontë sisters have got their dots back.
More than eight decades after it was installed, a memorial to the three 19th-century sibling novelists in London’s Westminster Abbey was amended Thursday to restore the diaereses – the two dots over the e in their surname.
The dots — which indicate that the name is pronounced “brontay” rather than “bront” — were omitted when the stone tablet commemorating Charlotte, Emily and Anne was erected in the abbey’s Poets’ Corner in October 1939, just after the outbreak of World War II.
They were restored after Brontë historian Sharon Wright, editor of the Brontë Society Gazette, raised the issue with Dean of Westminster David Hoyle. The abbey asked its stonemason to tap in the dots and its conservator to paint them.
“There’s no paper record for anyone complaining about this or mentioning this, so I just wanted to put it right, really,” Wright said. “These three Yorkshire women deserve their place here, but they also deserve to have their name spelled correctly.”
It’s believed the writers’ Irish father Patrick changed the spelling of his surname from Brunty or Prunty when he went to university in England.
Raised on the wild Yorkshire moors, all three sisters died before they were 40, leaving enduring novels including Charlotte’s “Jane Eyre,” Emily’s “Wuthering Heights” and Anne’s “The Tenant of Wildfell Hall.”
Rebecca Yorke, director of the Brontë Society, welcomed the restoration.
“As the Brontës and their work are loved and respected all over the world, it’s entirely appropriate that their name is spelled correctly on their memorial,” she said.
