Stef Paquette, local actor with role in Hard Rock Medical.
More than 150 community leaders applauded the contributions of Greater
Sudbury artists last night at the second Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts.
The organizers of theevent, the Sudbury Arts Council and the ROCS, in association with the Creative Consortium,
handed out three awards to well-known local artists, which were presented to Jamie Dupuis
(Desjardins Outstanding Emerging Artist), Stef Paquette (Sudbury Skin Clinic | Lefebvre
Business & Real Estate Law Outstanding Mid-Career Artist) and Ann Suzuki (Autumnwood
Exceptional Achievement in the Arts).
Each prize came with a bursary, for a total of $7,500 awarded to excellence in the arts in 2015,
compared to $3,500 last year.
“The generosity and the support that we’ve received from the private sector is truly wonderful and have made these bursaries possible. I also wish to thank
each and everyone that attended our annual fundraiser. Your support is essential and all
proceeds go to next year’s bursaries”, declared Sudbury Arts Council vice-president and cohost
of the evening, Carole Rumball Lesar.
“Artists are often asked to raise money for good causes. This Celebration raises money for
artists to enable them to continue to pursue their art”, added Martin Lajeunesse, co-host and a
member of the Regroupement des organismes culturels de Sudbury (ROCS).
The Desjardins Outstanding Emerging Artist is presented to a young professional artist for
the excellence and creativity of her/his artworks or performances. “Alessandro Costantini,
Jamie Dupuis and Dani Taillefer all demonstrate vitality, talent and creativity worthy of this
award, and we expect to continue to hear great things from all of them”, commented the jury.
After thorough deliberations, Jamie Dupuis impressed the jury the most, with his innovation,
his commitment to excellence and especially his beautiful original guitar compositions.
The Award for Outstanding Mid-career Artist, sponsored by the Sudbury Skin Clinic and
Lefebvre Business & Real Estate Law, is presented for the first time in 2015 to a mid-career
artist that has between 10 and 20 years of professional practice and has contributed to the
development and betterment of the arts community.
All three finalists are multi-talented artists who contribute in so many ways to so many art forms
and practices in Sudbury. In the end, the jury chose Stef Paquette, who is at the peak of a career
that includes excellence in music, acting in film, theatre and television and he is renowned for his
generous and ongoing commitment to the community at large. Other finalists were Dayv Poulin
and Pandora Topp.
The Autumnwood Award for Exceptional Achievement in the Arts is awarded to a
professional artist for his or her exceptional contribution to the arts, through an extensive body
of works in one or several disciplines, as well as through her/his contribution over time to the
development and betterment of the arts community.
“All of the finalists in this category have exceptional bodies of work and have made major
contributions to the arts in Sudbury and beyond. Both Dan Bédard and Iona Reed Pukara have
forged careers of music excellence and innovation that have inspired generations of musicians,
and both of them would be worthy recipients of this award”, shared the jury. In the end, the
jury chose to honour Ann Suzuki for her consistent commitment to beauty, originality and
excellence in design and for her years of work building the foundations for a thriving visual arts
and crafts sector in our city.
A jury of independent judges who work in the arts and culture community spent many hours
deliberating on the winners. A special thank you to jury members Laurie McGauley, Matthew
Heiti, Paul Loewenberg, Will Morin and Nicole Poulin. Calls for next year’s nominations will be
issued in early January 2016.
The Sudbury Arts Council and the ROCS wish to thank all generous sponsors of the 2015
Celebration: RBC & Dominion Securities, Sudbury Real Estate Board, Fidelity Investments,
Desjardins, Sudbury Skin Clinic, Lefebvre Business & Real Estate Law, Autumnwood Mature
Lifestyle Communities, Science North, Studio123, Copy Copy, Northern Life, Le Voyageur, Le
Loup FM, Sudbury Living, BMO Bank of Montreal and TD Asset Management.
