CCA Announces 2004 National Arts Awards Winners

Ottawa, Novem­ber 10th, 2004 — A dynamic hus­band and wife team with a his­tory of cul­tural patron­age and one of the shin­ing lights of the the­atre com­mu­nity will receive the Cana­dian Con­fer­ence of the Arts’ 2004 National Arts Awards at a cer­e­mony in Regina on Novem­ber 19, 2004. The CCA is pleased to announce John and Bar­bara Poole and Mal­lory Gilbert as the award win­ners for 2004.

The Keith Kelly Award for Cul­tural Lead­er­ship will be pre­sented to one of Canada’s most respected arts man­agers, Mal­lory Gilbert. Gen­eral Man­ager of the Tar­ragon The­atre for more than 25 years, Gilbert has also worked tire­lessly as a vol­un­teer and advo­cate in the the­atre com­mu­nity, serv­ing actively on the board of the Pro­fes­sional Asso­ci­a­tion of Cana­dian The­atres (PACT), the Toronto The­atre Alliance, and on the advi­sory boards of the Uni­ver­sity of Toronto, Arts Admin­is­tra­tion Pro­gram, and George Brown The­atre Arts Pro­gram. She was only the third per­son named as an Hon­orary Life Mem­ber of PACT ear­lier this year when the orga­ni­za­tion rec­og­nized her 20 years of work as a vol­un­teer mem­ber of their board, includ­ing time as a regional rep­re­sen­ta­tive, as Vice Pres­i­dent, as Pres­i­dent, and as Past President.

Cathy Smal­ley, PACT’s Exec­u­tive Direc­tor from 1987 to 1992, said of Mal­lory: “I can’t think about my years at PACT with­out think­ing of Mallory…She stands with you when things are tough, and is ready to cel­e­brate when things go well. Her unshake­able com­mit­ment to PACT, her wis­dom and sup­port, her gen­er­ous gifts of time and energy — well, there’s no ques­tion that I was a bet­ter Exec­u­tive Direc­tor, and PACT a stronger orga­ni­za­tion, because of Mallory.”

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 Alberta phil­an­thropists John and Bar­bara Poole. Active mem­bers of their com­mu­nity in Edmon­ton for close to 40 years, the Pooles took advan­tage of the extra time they had after the sale of their fam­ily busi­ness in 1977 to give back to the city in earnest. Notably, they stepped in to revive the dor­mant Edmon­ton Com­mu­nity Foun­da­tion in 1989, and have since watched it grow into a model of suc­cess for community-based orga­ni­za­tions. The Foun­da­tion, which was with­out fund­ing when the Pooles took an inter­est in it, now has assets of over $150 mil­lion, and has dis­trib­uted $45 mil­lion to edu­ca­tion and var­i­ous charities.

It has been noted that it is dif­fi­cult to rec­og­nize all of the Pooles’ work, as it is often done qui­etly, with lit­tle fan­fare. Arts orga­ni­za­tions such as the Edmon­ton Sym­phony, the Alberta Bal­let, the Citadel The­atre, the Glenbow-Alberta Insti­tute, and the Lieu­tenant Gov­er­nor of Alberta Arts Award Foun­da­tion have all ben­e­fited from the Pooles’ gen­eros­ity and com­mit­ment to their community.

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.

For more infor­ma­tion on CCA Awards, see http://www.ccarts.ca/en/awards/

This year’s cer­e­mony will be held Fri­day, Novem­ber 19, 2004 from 6:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. at Danbry’s (1925 Vic­to­ria Avenue, Regina — near the Hotel Saskatchewan Radis­son Plaza). (Atten­dance is by invi­ta­tion only.)