The Canadian Conference of the Arts announces its National Arts Awards winners for 2005

Bul­letin 36/05

Ottawa, Sep­tem­ber 13, 2005 – The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) is pleased to announce Nini Baird and Roch Car­rier as its national arts award win­ners for 2005.  The 2005 National Arts Awards cer­e­mony will take place at the National Arts Cen­tre in Ottawa on Sep­tem­ber 28, 2005 from 6-9pm.  

The Keith Kelly Award for Cul­tural Lead­er­ship will be pre­sented to one of Canada’s long time arts advo­cate Nini Baird. A West Van­cou­ver res­i­dent for many years, Nini Baird has devoted 40 years to the man­age­ment; pro­mo­tion and fund­ing of the arts and edu­ca­tional broad­cast­ing in British Colum­bia, with exten­sive expe­ri­ence on the munic­i­pal, provin­cial, fed­eral and inter­na­tional lev­els.  Her career reflects her com­mit­ment to the impor­tance of art and artists in the lives of Cana­di­ans of all ages.  She was a found­ing mem­ber of the BC Arts Coun­cil in 1996 (Vice Chair 1998–2001, Chair 2001–2003).  She cur­rently serves as Chair of the TELUS Van­cou­ver Com­mu­nity Board as well as on the boards of British Colum­bia Film and the Leon and Thea Koerner Foun­da­tion.  She was TELUS Foun­da­tion Advi­sory Board (Chair) until 2004 and board mem­ber of Van­cou­ver Arts Sta­bi­liza­tion (VAST) until 2005.  In 1993 she was named a mem­ber of the Order of Canada.

Oksana Dex­ter, Cul­tural Ser­vices Man­ager for West Van­cou­ver said of Baird, “For many of us, Nini Baird has been a role model.  She has suc­cess­fully nav­i­gated through the polit­i­cal shoals in a vari­ety of high-level roles to achieve key mile­stones in cul­tural lead­er­ship, and I believe that this award more than any oth­ers would hon­our the essence of her life­time com­mit­ment to the cul­tural devel­op­ment of Van­cou­ver, British Colum­bia and Canada.”

The Keith Kelly Award for Cul­tural Lead­er­ship has been awarded annu­ally since 1998, when it was estab­lished to rec­og­nize the lead­er­ship shown by the for­mer National Direc­tor of the CCA dur­ing his tenure from 1989–98. It is pre­sented to a Cana­dian who has made a sig­nif­i­cant con­tri­bu­tion to the arts through advo­cacy work or the devel­op­ment of cul­tural pol­icy, or who has oth­er­wise demon­strated lead­er­ship in the field. The award is an inscribed medal designed by Ottawa medal­lic artist Susan Taylor.

The Diplôme d’honneur will be pre­sented to a pro­lific con­tem­po­rary Que­be­cois author, Roch Car­rier. Roch Car­rier has a num­ber of works to his credit, and has received many prizes and hon­ours, among them the 1991 Stephen Lea­cock Prize for humour for Prayers of a Very Wise Child.  His inspi­ra­tion often has an auto­bi­o­graph­i­cal source, and he likes to describe the lives of peo­ple here and else­where. Roch Car­rier is also known for his books for chil­dren, most notably The Hockey Sweater. Roch Car­rier is, with­out doubt, one of the most-read Que­be­cois authors in Canada. He has served as Canada’s National Librar­ian from Octo­ber 1, 1999 to May 25, 2004.

“Through his writ­ings and his actions, Roch Car­rier, the Que­bec author who has also lived in New Brunswick and Ontario, touches peo­ple of all ages and all back­grounds. He has an abil­ity to tell sto­ries based on char­ac­ters and sit­u­a­tions well grounded in real­ity that depict deep con­cerns. He is also very com­mit­ted to the devel­op­ment of per­ma­nent cul­tural insti­tu­tions. Both aspects crys­tal­lize, in my view, the fun­da­men­tal role that the artist plays in com­mu­nity devel­op­ment,” says film­maker Marie Cadieux about Roch Carrier.

The Diplôme d’honneur is pre­sented annu­ally to in recog­ni­tion of a sus­tained con­tri­bu­tion to the cul­tural life of the coun­try, whether through vol­un­teer activ­ity, men­tor­ing, patron­age, indi­vid­ual arts prac­tice or other rec­og­nized sup­port. More than 70 of the vision­ar­ies and cre­ators of Canada’s rich cul­tural iden­tity, includ­ing Glenn Gould, Mau­reen For­rester, Oscar Peter­son, and Pierre Juneau have been rec­og­nized since the award’s incep­tion in 1954. The award is in the form of a sil­ver tal­is­man designed by the late West Coast craft­smith, Bill Reid.

Recip­i­ents of the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts National Arts Awards are selected by the CCA’s Awards Com­mit­tee, based on nom­i­na­tions received from CCA members.