CCA Bul­letin 35/06

August 23, 2006

Just the facts

The Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts (CCA) is pleased to announce Pat Durr and Bluma Appel as its National Arts Awards win­ners for 2006. The 2006 National Arts Awards cer­e­mony will be hosted by the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor of Ontario, the Hon­ourable James K. Bartle­man, at Queen’s Park in Toronto on Sep­tem­ber 15, 2006.

The Diplôme d’honneur will be pre­sented to arts activist, Bluma Appel, while the Keith Kelly Award for Cul­tural Lead­er­ship will be pre­sented to one of Canada’s long time arts advo­cates, Pat Durr.

Over the course of her career in the cul­tural sec­tor that spans over 50 years, Bluma Appel has ded­i­cated immea­sur­able hours and finan­cial resources, not only to the­atre but to opera, orches­tras and artist-run coops. “The list of ben­e­fi­cia­ries is prob­a­bly longer and more exten­sive than we will ever know,” writes Alberta G. Cefis, Chair of Opera Ate­lier. An Offi­cer of the Order of Canada and recip­i­ent of the Order of Ontario, Bluma Appel has sat on the Boards of many cul­tural insti­tu­tions over the years includ­ing the Ontario Crafts Coun­cil, the Cana­dian Opera Com­pany, Opera Ate­lier, the Nia­gara Sym­phony, Tele­film Canada , the Ontario Tril­lium Foun­da­tion, the Royal Ontario Museum , and the Kennedy Cen­tre in Wash­ing­ton. Besides pro­vid­ing finan­cial awards for the Dora Mavor Moore Awards and the Cana­dian Com­edy Awards, she has estab­lished schol­ar­ships at the Royal Con­ser­va­tory of Music. A recent recip­i­ent of an Hon­ourary Doc­tor­ate from the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto, Dr. Appel con­tin­ues to flour­ish in her many diverse causes.

Con­tribut­ing over four decades to Cana­dian arts and cul­ture, Pat Durr has been relent­less and suc­cess­ful in secur­ing the rights of artists in mat­ters of copy­right, tax­a­tion, as well as health and safety. An activist ded­i­cated to both local and national affairs, Pat Durr has exten­sive expe­ri­ence tena­ciously defend­ing Cana­dian visual artists before fed­eral and munic­i­pal gov­ern­ments. “Highly intel­li­gent, per­sis­tent and ana­lyt­i­cal, she uses rea­son and strat­egy to step by step dis­man­tle bureau­cratic road­blocks,” writes Jen­nifer Dick­son, C.M.

Tell Me More.

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.

The Diplôme d’honneur is pre­sented annu­ally 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, Pierre Juneau and Roch Car­rier have been rec­og­nized since the award’s incep­tion in 1954. The award is in the form of a sil­ver tal­is­man desig ned by the late West Coast craft­smith, Bill Reid.

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.

Bluma Appell, 2006 recip­i­ent of the CCA Diplôme d’honneur

Per­haps the great­est mon­u­ment to Bluma Appel’s achieve­ments is the the­atre named in her hon­our. Reopened in 1983, the St. Lawrence Centre’s main stage was dubbed the Bluma Appel The­atre rec­og­niz­ing the sig­nif­i­cant finan­cial con­tri­bu­tion that greatly facil­i­tated the theatre’s rebuilding.

Bluma Appel’s ded­i­ca­tion has been felt not only within the cul­tural sec­tor but in mat­ters of health as well. Along with her hus­band, Bram Appel, she has led a nutri­tion and art edu­ca­tion pro­gram at an ele­men­tary school in North Bay, Ontario . She is Founder and Chair of the Cana­dian Foun­da­tion for AIDS Research (Can­FAR). She helped estab­lish the Clin­i­cal Sim­u­la­tion Learn­ing Cen­tre (SINS Lab) at the Fac­ulty of Nurs­ing, Uni­ver­sity of Toronto. The sim­u­la­tion learn­ing cen­tre will have the capac­ity to edu­cate Nurses in post grad­u­a­tion train­ing skills, i.e. infec­tion con­trol using the SARS room. The Infec­tious Dis­ease Iso­la­tion Room, which is the only train­ing facil­ity of its kind in North Amer­ica , bears her name.

Over time, Bluma Appel has repeat­edly put her own cred­i­bil­ity on the line to sup­port what she believed in and has never com­mit­ted to a cause or project half-way. Her pas­sion radi­ates from every­thing she does and end­lessly inspires those around her.

What peo­ple say about Bluma Appel:

“Cana­dian the­atre would prob­a­bly not exist in its rel­a­tively healthy state with­out the work that Bluma has given to it. A fair amount of money, yes. But thou­sands of vol­un­teer hours and ideas have made the dif­fer­ence.” — Joan Chalmers, arts advo­cate and volunteer

“She has been and still is par­tic­u­larly involved with the­atres, muse­ums, orches­tras, opera com­pa­nies, artists’ coop­er­a­tives and film pro­duc­tion. She is, with­out doubt, one of the most, if not the most gen­er­ous per­son in Canada.” — Jean-Louis Roux, C.C., C.Q., mem­bre Société Royale du Canada

“Her spec­trum of inter­est, influ­ence and activ­ity, includes the largest inter­na­tional orga­ni­za­tions and the small­est of local orga­ni­za­tions — opera, the­atre, music, com­edy — the list of ben­e­fi­cia­ries is prob­a­bly longer and more exten­sive than we will ever know.”

“Bluma, while a phil­an­thropist, brings much more than finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions to the causes she sup­ports. She is a con­sum­mate net­worker, bring­ing together peo­ple and orga­ni­za­tions.” — Alberta G. Cefis, chair of Opera Atelier

“There is no one in this coun­try that can boast the same con­tri­bu­tion to the artis­tic, cul­tural, polit­i­cal, social or health sec­tors — let alone all of them!” — Mar­tin Bragg, Artis­tic Pro­ducer CanStage

” The Grande Dame of Cana­dian The­atre ” — The­atre News

Pat Durr, 2006 recip­i­ent of the CCA Keith Kelly Award for Cul­tural Leadership

Although Pat Durr has ded­i­cated her life to sup­port­ing other artists, much of her advo­cacy work is informed by her own artis­tic prac­tice as a painter and print­maker, a prac­tice she reg­u­larly put on hold when­ever she felt an advo­cacy issue needed atten­tion. Despite her numer­ous oblig­a­tions she has indeed suc­ceeded in main­tain­ing a vital art prac­tice and con­tin­ues to exhibit work nation­ally and internationally.

Early in her first of two terms as National Rep­re­sen­ta­tive for Cana­dian Artists’ Rep­re­sen­ta­tion (1980–84, 2002-05), Patt Durr suc­ceeded in mov­ing CARFAC’s national office to Ottawa. More recently, she has been Project Man­ager in a joint CARFAC/CAHSP effort to develop CARFAC ser­vices for indige­nous and north­ern artist com­mu­ni­ties in the Yukon and Nunavut. Dur­ing her tenure as a Board mem­ber of the CCA (1984–86), she chaired the Copy­right and Tax Com­mit­tees — the lat­ter being instru­men­tal in pre­sent­ing the con­fer­ence Tax­a­tion and the Arts. In 1995, she chaired a suc­cess­ful national com­mit­tee of visual arts experts con­vened by the CCA that rec­om­mended alter­na­tives that would allow the Canada Council’s Art Bank to remain open. As the Vice-Chair of Health and Wel­fare Canada’s ad-hoc Com­mit­tee on Health Haz­ards in the Arts and Crafts (1982–86), Pat Durr has also been heav­ily active in ensur­ing safety in artists’ stu­dios. She orga­nized both sem­i­nars and pub­li­ca­tions on health and safety which reached Artists in Cana­dian stu­dios and uni­ver­si­ties. This mate­r­ial was sub­se­quently dis­sem­i­nated in the USA and England.

What peo­ple say about Pat Durr:

“She has worked not only with intel­li­gence and tenac­ity, but also with grace, humour and style” — Char­lotte Wilson-Hammond, RCA

“I do not know of any other artist with as long and as fear­less a track-record as Pat in advo­cacy for artists and the arts. Her gen­eros­ity — her unfail­ing will­ing­ness to take on yet another cam­paign or cause or assign­ment — is absolutely remarkable.She has never lost touch with young and emerg­ing tal­ent and con­tin­ues to give her best wher­ever and when­ever asked to do so.”- Joce­lyn Har­vey, Arts consultant

“She has con­tributed sig­nif­i­cantly to the evo­lu­tion of cul­tural pol­icy in Canada. Her con­tin­ued dili­gence to increase aware­ness and sup­port for the arts in Canada makes her a remark­able asset to the cul­tural com­mu­nity.” — April Brit­ski, National Direc­tor CARFAC

“She showed incred­i­ble gen­eros­ity dur­ing her two terms as CARFAC National Rep­re­sen­ta­tive, because she worked full-time (with no finan­cial remu­ner­a­tion) and led CARFAC through some very chal­leng­ing sit­u­a­tions. Dur­ing these years, she was not able to devote her­self to her own cre­ative prac­tice as an artist. In a milieu which is often ego­tis­ti­cal, her gen­eros­ity of spirit and unselfish­ness are incred­i­ble” — Jen­nifer Dick­son, C.M., R.A.

For more infor­ma­tion on the CCA Awards, visit our web­site.