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yegarts · 2 years ago

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Edmonton Arts Council celebrates the achievements of 20 local professional artists

The Edmonton Arts Council, City of Edmonton, and Edmonton Community Foundation are pleased to announce the 2022 recipients of the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund awards.

Twenty (20) artists have been awarded a 2022 Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund award. Each award is $15,000, for a total of $300,000.

"We are so pleased to support and celebrate these 20 inspiring artists,” said Sanjay Shahani, Executive Director of the Edmonton Arts Council. “Our diverse arts community is one of the forces that brings our city together and makes the Edmonton region a vibrant and exciting place to live. The 2022 recipients demonstrate commitment and excellence in their respective disciplines, helping to foster an exciting ecology of creation and expression in Edmonton."

“Congratulations to this year’s recipients of the EATF,” said Tina Thomas, CEO of Edmonton Community Foundation. “We are thankful for the creative contributions this cohort of recipients have made to our city, and we look forward to the new works that they will produce with support from this important initiative."

The Edmonton Artists' Trust Fund (EATF) recognizes an artist’s work and contribution to the community. The $15,000 awards provide financial stability for artists to renew, develop, create or experiment. These awards are supported by the proceeds from the Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund, held by the Edmonton Community Foundation.

Recipients of the 2022 Edmonton Artists’ Trust Fund:

Clockwise from top left: AJA Louden, photo by Leah Louden; Ann Vriend, photo by Johwanna Alleyne; Connor Yuzwenko-Martin, photo by Alexa Hickox; Dylan Toymaker, photo supplied by the artist.

Adrian (AJA) Louden (he/him) is a Jamaican-Canadian artist committed to challenging the negative perceptions of street-based art and making art accessible and relatable. His Aerosol Academy series uses the lens of graffiti and street art to get youth excited about art making and art history, and he is an active mentor working to remove barriers and support emerging artists.

Ann Vriend (she/her) is a two-time Maple Blues Award songwriting recipient, a Maple Blues Keyboardist of the Year nominee, an Edmonton Music Award and Alberta Centennial Award recipient, and has sold nearly 30,000 albums off-the-stage in her under-the-radar yet critically acclaimed international career. She is a passionate advocate for empowerment and respect for the members of her inner-city neighborhood of McCauley, Edmonton.

Connor Yuzwenko-Martin (he/him) is a Deaf creator, public relations specialist, actor, producer, and playwright. He is currently writing and producing his first original script, After Faust, in partnership with RISER Edmonton. He is also launching The Invisible Practice, a hybrid Deaf arts collective and public relations agency.

Dylan Toymaker (he/him) is a light design and installation artist. His focus is on creative placemaking through the sculpture of light and shadow. As a designer, creator and curator, his practice involves environmental and architectural public art events. Dylan has created and curated art for the Flying Canoe Volant festival and many other Alberta festivals.

Clockwise from top left: Gail Sidonie Šobat, photo by Geoff McMaster; Katrina Beatty, photo by Ian Jackson; Kevin Cardinal, photo provided by the artist; Lianna Makuch, photo by LV Imagery.

Gail Sidonie Šobat (she/her) is an author, creator-director of YouthWrite®, SpokenWord Youth/Adult Choirs, and is an instructor in MacEwan’s Communications program. Her work has won a number of awards, is published in academic and literary journals, anthologies, broadcast on radio, and performed on stage.

Katrina Beatty (she/her) is a filmmaker whose work includes short and feature films, web series, music videos and multi-media projections. She was awarded “Outstanding Music Video” at FAVA Fest in 2018 for her concept and direction of Juno Award winning band Whitehorse’s video “Pink Kimono”. More recently, Katrina produced the Telefilm funded feature film Before I Change My Mind, which premiered at the Locarno Film Festival in August 2022.

Kevin Cardinal (he/him) is a Cree acrylic painter/muralist who uses art to represent teachings, principles, knowledge, and understandings gained from attending ceremonies throughout the years. Kevin’s work reflects his search for inner peace, healing, and balance. His painting style is inspired by the bold black lines, and vibrant colors of the woodland style of art.

Lianna Makuch (she/her) is a Ukrainian Canadian playwright, performer, director, and co-Artistic Producer of Pyretic Productions. Her work has garnered awards and recognition nationally and in Ukraine, including the Shevchenko Foundation’s 2020 REACH Award. By exploring themes connected to her Ukrainian identity, she endeavours to create empathetic performance experiences with universal impact.

Clockwise from top left: Lindsey Walker, photo by Briane Jang; Louise Casemore, photo by Jody Christopherson; Madeline LeBlanc, photo provided by the artist; Mat Cardinal, photo provided by the artist.

Lindsey Walker (she/her) is an award-winning singer-songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, composer, and theatre performer. Lindsey wrote the score and lyrics for ren & the wake, an original semi-immersive musical created with Catch the Keys Productions. She also composed the score for the podcast “Natural Life” and composed the sound design for the theatre productions Re:Construct (Donkey Dog Theatre) and Shock Me Electra (Theatre Network Young Company).

Louise Casemore (she/her) is an advocate, performer, and two-time Sterling Award winning playwright. Original works include OCD, GEMINI, and Undressed, which recently premiered with Alberta Theatre Projects. She remains active in the national community by way of dramaturgy, research, and as an Artist Consultant focused on HR mechanisms for arts organizations.

Madeline LeBlanc (she/her) is a visual artist who strives to create inclusive spaces for audience participation, highlighting issues of accessibility in the industry. Her artwork may appear lighthearted and fun, but beneath the surface lies important commentary on the dynamics of classism in the art world and the pressure put on artists and markets by art collectors.

Mat Cardinal (he/him) is from Wabasca, Alberta and a proud member of the Bigstone Cree Nation. Mat is the lead singer of The Prairie States, a nine-time Country Music Alberta Award recipient and nominee for Songwriters of the Year 2022 at the Canadian Country Music Awards. Mat takes his role as a mentor for Indigenous youth seriously as his hard work/passion for performing/songwriting make waves in the music industry.

Clockwise from top left: Michelle Campos Castillo, photo by Fern Facette; Mouraine, photo provided by the artist; Nauzanin Knight, photo by Motif Photography; Reckie Lloyd, photo provided by the artist.

Michelle Campos Castillo (she/her) is a graphic designer and artist born in El Salvador. She has received several public art commissions from the City of Edmonton, including Platanos at the Belvedere Transit Centre, and is finalizing artwork for the Valley Line West LRT. She is currently working on a graphic memoir titled Colonia, based on her life in El Salvador during the country’s civil war.

Mouraine (he/him), who immigrated from Sudan at an early age, makes soulful hip-hop with a reverence for place and community, and a strong political sensibility. His debut EP Bigger Dreams was released in 2021.

Nauzanin Knight (she/her) is the CEO/Director of 1844 Studios. She got her start as a published writer, going on to write, direct and produce numerous films. Nauzanin is an alumnus of Women in the Director’s Chair, Sundance Collab (2020), BANFF Spark (2020) and ReelWorld (2021). An ardent contributor to her community, Nauzanin has led projects including, “Building Inclusive Networks in the Film & Television Industry” (Telefilm, CMF, 2021).

Reckie Lloyd (he/him) is a visual artist and the founder of Sangea Academy, a West African drumming and dance entity that shares the power of percussion with Canadians. During the Covid 19 Pandemic, Reckie found himself rediscovering his love for fine arts, refining his painting techniques and creating from a mature perspective.

Clockwise from top left: Robbie Townsend, photo provided by the artist; Tai Amy Grauman, photo by Emilie Igiotti; Vikki Wiercinski, photo by Cooper O'Hara; Tia Ashley Kushniruk, photo by Kendra Epik.

Robbie Townsend (AKA Father Bobby) (he/him) is a Juno nominated music producer, songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. He has built a reputation as an artist-focused producer, placing value on the song above all else, with the goal to create a specific colour palette for each project he takes on, helping artists discover, shape and redefine their sounds.

Tai Amy Grauman (she/her) is an actor, playwright, director and producer of Métis, Cree and Haudenosaunee heritage. She is currently defending her thesis for her MFA in theatre practice at the U of A with a focus on her artistic research of 'Metis women's love stories' and is adapting 'Romeo and Juliet: A Metis love story' as well as adapting her play 'You used to call me Marie...' into a limited film series.

Tia Ashley Kushniruk (亚女弟) (she/her), a queer woman of Chinese-Ukrainian settler heritage, has been affiliated with the Cirque Du Soleil since 2013 and is a frequent collaborator of Jake W. Hastey (Toy Guns Dance Theatre). Tia is the inaugural recipient of the CONFLUENCE Fellowship from Catalyst Theatre and is a current company member of Shay Kuebler/RSA. In addition to theatre and dance, Tia is also an illustrator and animator.

Vikki Wiercinski (she/her) is an artist, ceramicist and designer focused on weaving together ceramic sculpture and drawing. She also works as the lead organizer of the Royal Bison Art and Craft Fair and creates textile and surface designs for her Mezzaluna Studio project.

#yegarts #yeg #edmonton art #EATF #EdmontonCommunityFoundation

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