(AlbertaIndex, March 27, Thursday) --- Alberta is honouring its artists and wildlife conservationists.

    To recognize the achievements of the province’s visual arts community, the government through the Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA), has created a new Visual Arts Award which carries a prize amount of $50,000.

 

The award will recognize an individual or group that has made an outstanding contribution to visual arts in the province.

The Tommy Banks Performing Arts Award and the Grant MacEwan Literary Arts Award were also revised and increased to $50,000 each to provide similar recognition to individuals or groups in the performing and literary arts. The awards are helping to achieve the goals and strategies laid out in Alberta’s new Cultural Policy – the Spirit of Alberta.

“The arts, in all of its forms, significantly contribute to our quality of life and help to make Alberta one of the most exciting and vibrant places in Canada,” said Lindsay Blackett, Minister of Culture and Community Spirit. “The Alberta government is proud of the wealth of creative talent that exists in this province and is committed to supporting our arts community.”

“Supporting our artistic community is fundamental to the fabric of Alberta and to the future growth and well-being of the province,” said Audrey Luft, Chair of the Alberta Foundation for the Arts Board.

This year’s awards will be presented in September. Nomination deadline is May 1.

Separately, the province has honoured five of its fish and wildlife champions for their exceptional conservation efforts.

Merv Kopperud (Medicine Hat), Tom Bateman (Lethbridge), Kelly Semple (Sangudo), Neil Downey (Red Deer), and Dr. Charles Bird (Erskine), are the newest members of the Order of the Bighorn, Alberta’s most distinguished wildlife conservation award.

Ted Morton, Minister of Sustainable Resource Development, said:

“The five newest members of the Order of the Bighorn have demonstrated significant leadership in conservation. The Order of the Bighorn is proof not only that people can make a difference, but also that it takes people to make that difference happen.”

The award recipients were honoured at a gala banquet in Edmonton on March 7. The reception was hosted and co-sponsored by Alberta-Pacific Forest Industries Incorporated, Ducks Unlimited Canada, Devon Canada Corporation, Shell Canada Limited, TransCanada Pipelines Limited and the Alberta government.

The Alberta government established the Order of the Bighorn in 1982 to recognize outstanding contributions to fish and wildlife conservation by individuals, organizations and corporations.

Customarily, recipients have demonstrated a commitment to conservation over many years. Including the five new awards, 108 of the honours have been awarded since the Order was established. Alberta’s official mammal, the Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, was the inspiration behind the name of the award.

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