(Toronto — March 10, 2010) The Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD) is proud to announce that alumnus and Honorary Fellow Terry Ryan has been awarded the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts for Outstanding Contribution. Canada’s foremost distinction recognizing career achievement in the arts, the award honours Ryan for his role in the development of Kinngait Studios, the renowned printmaking centre in Cape Dorset, Nunavut. Kinngait Studios celebrated its 50th anniversary this past October.
“For 45 years, Terry Ryan worked to provide Cape Dorset artists with the tools — and the inspiration —to help define the North and its people. As manager of West Baffin Eskimo Co-operative (now Kinngait Studios), he was a jack of all trades: arts advisor, justice of the peace, coroner and occasional powder monkey, blasting overburden to expose stone for sculpture. He initially distributed pencils and paper, engaged master printmakers, initiated visiting artists programs and fine craft projects, and developed a domestic and international marketing network.
Ryan brought to his work his own sensibility as an artist, his practical know-how, an innovative spirit and a great love and respect for the North and its people.” — Canada Council for the Arts
The other winners of the Governor General’s Awards for Visual & Media Arts are: Haida sculptor Robert Davidson, filmmaker André Forcier, painter Rita Letendre, video artist Tom Sherman, photographer Gabor Szilasi and painter Claude Tousignant. Glass sculptor Ione Thorkelsson won the Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in fine crafts. For their biographies, images and video interviews, visit the Canada Council website.
“I salute these artists who, through their unique vision and immense talent, open our eyes wide to all those things, in us and around us, that we look at without really seeing,” said her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada.
The Governor General of Canada will present the 2010 Awards at a ceremony at Rideau Hall on Wednesday, March 31 at 6 p.m. In addition to a $25,000 prize, the winners will each receive a work created by Tony Urquhart, winner of a 2009 Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts.
The Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media arts has also been awarded to OCAD alumni Michael Snow (2000), David Rokeby (2002) and Garry Neill Kennedy (2004), professors John Scott (2000) and Ian Carr-Harris (2007), and retired faculty member Nobuo Kubota (2009). Alumnus Kevin Lockau was awarded the Saidye Bronfman Award in 2009.
An article profiling Terry Ryan’s contributions appears in the Winter 2010 edition of Sketch magazine, the biannual magazine of the Ontario College of Art & Design.
About the Ontario College of Art & Design (OCAD)
The Ontario College of Art & Design (www.ocad.ca) is Canada’s “university of the imagination.” OCAD is dedicated to art and design education, practice and research and to knowledge and invention across a wide range of disciplines. The university is building on its traditional, studio-based strengths, adding new approaches to learning that champion cross-disciplinarity, collaboration and the integration of emerging technologies. In the Age of Imagination, OCAD community members will be uniquely qualified to act as catalysts for the next advances in culture, technology and quality of life for all Canadians.
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For more information and images please contact:
Sarah Mulholland, Media & Communications Officer, OCAD
416.977.6000 Ext. 327 (mobile Ext. 1327)