Awards

Marie Hélène Allain was born and lives in Saint-Marie-de-Kent, New Brunswick. Her sculptures, which emphasize stone, have been exhibited, commissioned and collected in Canada, the United States and Europe. The Société culturelle Kent-Sud honored her in 2018 at the inauguration of the Marie-Hélène-Allain Art Gallery at the Centre culturel in Bouctouche. In 2014, the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation launched the Marie-Hélène-Allain Excellence Scholarship to encourage exploration and creative innovation among mid-career artists.

Born in the Miramichi farm community of Keenan and now living in Fredericton, Wayne Curtis has written nineteen books, several dozen newspaper and magazine articles, and a film script for CBC television which was based on his award winning short story, The Dance. Described by Alistair MacLeor as “a master of short fiction” Wayne has written seven collections of short stories, eight books of non-fiction (essays), three novels and a book of poetry.

Ray Legere is a world-renowned fiddle and mandolin player, a household name for music lovers across the Maritimes, and a resident of Sackville, New Brunswick for the past 35 years. From New Brunswick, Ray tours the world and records with the top musicians in many musical genres. Ray has toured internationally with artists such as Rita McNeil, John McDermott, Bowfire, and Michelle Shocked. In 2017-2018 he was seen touring with hit NB acts Tomato/Tomato, Laurie LeBlanc, Christian “Kit” Goguen, and the classical woodwind quintet Ventus Machina.

Born in Edmundston, Robert Pichette is the author of more than twenty books addressing the history of Acadie and New Brunswick. His texts are characterized by their rigor in both subject matter research and mastery of the French language. A model of the classical humanist, he was the Deputy Minister of Premier Louis J. Robichaud and the first Director of New Brunswick’s Ministry of Cultural Affairs. He co-authored the New Brunswick Official Languages Act and created the flag of the province. He has been a member of the Order of New Brunswick since 2006.

Since 1970, Peter Powning has lived and worked as an artist in the hills of southern New Brunswick. While Powning’s award-winning work is shown internationally, it is imbued with qualities distilled from a life lived close to the silence, space and seasonal rhythms of his home and of the fields, forests and shorelines of Canada’s east coast. Known as an inveterate experimenter and risk-taker, he works in a wide range of media, often combining glass, cast bronze, stone, ceramics and steel.

Stephen Tobias is a theatre artist, cultural promoter and arts policy advisor who has spent the bulk of his career in Saint John. A graduate of the Conservatory Acting Program at Dalhousie University, Stephen co-founded the Saint John Theatre Company in 1990 in order to provide opportunities for local theatre practitioners. Stephen has led the company as a board member, director, actor and fund-raiser in order to grow the company into a major force in provincial theatre production.

A recipient of the Strathbutler Award, and many other grants and awards, Suzanne Hill’s intellectual and lyrical paintings tirelessly explore where we are and how this affects us. As her exhibition titles – Weir, Lost Horizons, High WaterMark – suggest, the NB landscape is often a metaphor for the philosophical inquiry that results in her large-scale canvases and installations.

2016 Lieutenant-Governor’s Award for High Achievement in English Language Literary Arts M. Travis Lane’s poetry has always been diverse, resisting the critics’ need for tidiness. Though her concerns are often feminist, environmental, civic, and political, her poetry transcends such labels. She shifts easily from lyric to monologue to epigram to song to riddle, drawing inspiration equally from the natural world and the world of art and imagination. Inquisitive, musical, humane, her voice is instantly recognizable once heard.

Born in Maisonnette, New Brunswick, Jules Boudreau is the eldest of eleven children. His first glimpse into the art world came when his father bought him a Grolier youth encyclopedia. As a young man, Boudreau formed his first amateur theatre group with a close friend, upon the latter’s inspired return from a trip to Montreal. Collaboration is an important element of Boudreau’s work; he always appreciates the work of directors, who add new dimensions to his scripts.

Born in England in 1949, Thaddeus Holownia immigrated to Canada in 1954. He grew up in a Polish home blessed with original art and a modest library of art books. Holownia twice received the Paul Paré Medal from Mount Allison University in recognition of excellence in teaching, creative activity, research, and community service. Internationally acclaimed, Thaddeus Holownia lives in beautiful Jolicure, New Brunswick.

A renowned writer, Jacques Savoie was initially introduced to the arts through music. Growing up in Edmundston, he was heavily influenced by his mother, a classically trained pianist. Recently, his detective series 5 secondes has allowed him privileged access to a new audience through social media, a unique reader–author rapport that embodies the modern aspect of his work. Jacques Savoie continues to be a multidisciplinary artist, adapting his books for film, television, and ballet.

The youngest of eleven children, Compton grew up on a busy PEI farm where a balance between order and freedom prevailed. The author of four collections of poetry, scholarly books and essays, Compton won the Governor General’s Award for Poetry in 2005 for Processional. A former teacher and Writer-in-Residence at UNB Saint John, she developed and directed the acclaimed Lorenzo Reading Series.

Dobrovolskiy grew up in a close-knit family in Kiev, Ukraine, surrounded by music and books. He has worked in Europe, South America and now, Atlantic Canada, where he co-founded Atlantic Ballet Theatre of Canada in 2001. Dobrovolskiy believes that art is about community, and that the theatre is a place of sharing, discovery and discussion.

Raised on a farm in the Hungarian countryside, Anna Torma’s father was an amateur painter and her mother and grandmothers worked with textiles — for practical reasons, out of necessity — but often it was also an access point for spiritual fulfilment. As a visual artist, Torma collaborates often with curators, galleries, artist-run centres and museums. She has several ongoing projects working with textiles and the making process itself, along with others that have conceptual and narrative focus.

Melvin Gallant’s life journey is eclectic. In the early 80s, he actively participated in the founding of the Association of Acadian writers that he ran for several years. He is also the founding chair of the journal Égalité, a magazine of political analysis. He is the author of essays, adult novels, poetry, youth novels, all related to Acadie. He is currently revising the English translation of the Métis de Beaubassin, so that English speakers can learn about the life of Acadian ancestors.

Playwright, actor, dramaturge, director, arts administrator, coach and mentor, Jenny Munday is always ready to defend her medium. A 30 year career that has seen Munday work with companies across the country and receive numerous residencies and awards for her work.

For Janice Wright Cheney, textile-based media and techniques resonate with meaningful historical associations. Works may be embroidered, knit, hand-dyed, felted or sewn from recycled materials. Recent works have been created from old fur coats, hand-made felt, readymade taxidermy forms, velvet and onionskins. Her work has been shown both nationally and internationally and is represented in several permanent collections.

Édith Butler was born in the tiny village of the Acadian Peninsula in 1942. Édith writes her own music, usually on guitar or piano. She has sold more than 1.5 million albums, been honoured with her own Canada Post stamp, and received the Order of Canada and a Governor General’s Award for Lifetime Achievement. Today, Édith lives in Quebec’s eastern Townships, but she visits New Brunswick often and still thinks of it as home.

“Most of us live small lives.” M.T. (Jean) Dohaney is talking about herself, as well as the characters she creates in her best-selling books. The Fredericton-based writer has five novels, a memoir, and numerous short stories to her credit. Arguably her best-known creation is the indomitable Bertha Corrigan. Jean Dohaney has just completed her sixth and final novel. She intends to concentrate on short stories in future.

No matter the medium — acrylics, collage, or any form of printmaking — David Umholtz’s work exhibits underlying purpose and direction leavened by genuine experimentation and play. Along with his own creative work, David has devoted countless hours to teaching others and serving the arts scene. David’s prints and paintings have been exhibited across North America and internationally, and he has taught printmaking in the United States and Canada.

One of the most sought after set and costume designers in Canada, Patrick Clark is a designer sans frontières. He has created award-winning designs for new work in small, experimental spaces, for Shakespearean and classical theatre, and for huge musicals in vast performance spaces. He is a theatre artist of the highest quality; one who sees and truly understands the art form.

France Daigle has been part of the New Brunswick literary milieu for more than thirty years. Born in Dieppe, she is one of the most prominent Acadian authors, with a reputation extending far beyond her native region. Her work is studied not only in Canada, but also in countries that are particularly interested in Acadian history and culture. She is also featured in several literary anthologies, and her novels have been praised by the public and critics alike.

A marvelous storyteller with a tremendous appetite for life, painter and engraver Yvon Gallant has managed, throughout the years, to preserve a sense of wonder that infuses each of his works. A tribute to joy and to life, his paintings depict tales in much the same manner as authors write them. His artistic work has been featured in more than eighty solo and group exhibitions in Atlantic Canada, across Canada, and abroad.

Chantal Cadieux lives and breathes dance. Her name has become synonymous with the growth and development of dance in Acadie. As long as she can remember, the art of dance has been at the centre of her universe. She is an engaged as well as an accomplished artist who has devoted herself to this medium with conviction, commitment and energy, sharing her love, passion and vision of dance for more than 35 years.

For almost forty years, singer and songwriter Calixte Duguay has nurtured the collective imagination of Acadians and Francophones throughout the world. A musician, poet, cultural worker, music arranger and producer, Calixte Duguay is especially well known as a lyricist, composer and singer. Through his insightful writing that often reflects his sharp intelligence, his sense of humour and his poetic spirit, Calixte Duguay has paved the way for many singers who have followed in his footsteps.

Beth Powning’s first published novel, The Hatbox Letters, was a national bestselle and  a Globe and Mail Best Book of 2004. Her most recent novel, The Sea Captain’s Wife, is also a national bestseller. Her short fiction has been published in numerous literary journals including Prism International, Canadian Fiction Magazine and the Antigonish Review, and broadcast on CBC radio’s Anthology, Audio Stage and Atlantic Airwaves.

Hockey player, Olympian, soldier of fortune: these are just three of the careers a young Raymond Fraser considered before settling on his true calling: writing. In poetry, fiction, or non-fiction, Raymond Fraser possesses the rare talent of truth telling. Wielding his trademark dry wit, his keen ear for dialogue, and an ability to wring truth from every line, he is, as Farley Mowat has said, “the best literary voice to come belling out of the Maritimes in decades.”

Rino Morin Rossignol’s educational background was in visual arts, but over the years he has worked in many different areas, as a non-fiction writer, poet, novelist, playwright, journalist, political strategist, translator and communications specialist. In all of these activities, Rino Morin Rossignol’s work is guided by his love of the French language. Over the last three decades, he has published works of theatre, four collections of poetry, a novel, and numerous essays.

Roméo Savoie is one of Acadie’s most important visual artists. As one of the first wave of contemporary Acadian artists, he has made a significant contribution to creating a richer and more dynamic cultural climate not only in New Brunswick but throughout the Atlantic region. So far, Romeo Savoie’s artistic career has stretched over 45 years; during that time he has remained steadfastly committed to a highly personal exploration in his art, which is firmly rooted in contemporary art practices.

Marcel-Romain Thériault works in theatre, dividing his time and his professional activities among acting, directing, teaching and writing. For over 30 years, he has been taking part in numerous productions, first as an actor, then as a director, and more recently as a playwright. Passing his knowledge and skills on to future generations has been one of his ongoing commitments.