Cheticamp native Ronald Bourgeois, Chair of The Nova Scotia Masterworks Awards Foundation has announced that the total value of prizes for The Lieutenant Governor of Nova Scotia’s Masterworks Arts Award is increased to $37,000 for 2011. Finalists will each receive $3000 with the winner being awarded $25,000. Nominations close April 29th.
Acknowledging the call for nominations, Her Honour, the Honourable Mayann E. Francis, O.N.S., said “During my tenure and travels in the past five years, I have seen and experienced the incredible talent of Nova Scotians. Art enriches people’s lives across this province and country, but its strength goes beyond just economics and culture. Art helps us to understand and appreciate the rich tapestry and heritage that surrounds us.”
Now in its sixth year, the multidisciplinary award celebrates all forms of contemporary art including design, theatre, landscape art, dance, visual arts, literature, film, music, new media and more. The list is extensive. The main criteria are that the entire work have had its first public presentation within the past five years, and that it have a strong connection to Nova Scotia. The finalists and the winner are selected by an arm’s length jury of artists over the summer with presentation of the award in the fall.
The nomination form, with detailed guidelines updated for this year’s competition, is available from the website at www.nsmasterworks.ca. Submissions must be postmarked on or before April 29, 2011.
Cape Breton native Don Domanski won the 2008 prize for his poetry collection All Our Wonder Unavenged while the 2006 prize went to Ted Cavanagh, Richard Kroeker, Roger Mullin, Alden Neufeld, and 23 designer/builders of the Faculty of Architecture and Planning, Dalhousie University for Le Théâtre Petit Cercle, an outdoor children’s theatre in Cheticamp.
