Following a recent donation of $20,000, the New Brunswick Museum plans to expand the permanent Sheila Hugh McKay collection of art by Strathbutler Award winners as well as develop strategic initiatives in promotion of New Brunswick’s contemporary visual art.
The funds were generously donated by the Sheila Hugh McKay Foundation, the same foundation that presents the biennial Strathbutler Award: a $25,000 award in recognition of artists and craftspeople who have excelled in their fields while also making a substantial contribution to the culture of our province.
The New Brunswick Museum will also be using this money to take on new projects and improve some of the existing visual arts programs. These plans include engaging new voices in critical writing for exhibition catalogues, sponsoring short artist residencies or collaborations; and supporting research projects related to the province’s visual arts.
“Encouraging the province’s artists and artisans to engage with the resources of the New Brunswick Museum is always an exciting prospect,” says New Brunswick Museum’s Curator of Cultural History & Art Peter Larocque.
“This infusion of funds from the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation Inc., will also allow us to respond to initiatives like focused artist-residencies as well as to spotlight visual artists’ new work and to foster a deeper appreciation of the province’s remarkable wealth of creativity. We also look forward to adding a work to the New Brunswick Museum’s Sheila Hugh Mackay Collection of Strathbutler Award Winners by the most recent laureate, Herménégilde Chiasson.”
Past winners of the Strathbutler Award also include: Paul Mathieson (2015), Susan Vida Judah (2013), Herzl Kashetsky (2011), Linda Rae Dornan (2010), David Umholtz (2009), Anna Torma, (2008), Dan Steeves (2007), Brigitte Clavette (2006), André Lapointe (2005), Janice Wright Cheney (2004), Thaddeus Holownia (2003), Gordon Dunphy (2002), Gerard Collins (2001), Rick Burns (2000), Suzanne Hill (1999), Roméo Savoie (1998), Freeman Patterson (1997), Marie Hélène Allain (1996), Nel Oudemans (1995), Kathy Hooper (1994), Peter Powning (1993), Tom Smith (1992) and John Hooper (1991).
For more information on the Strathbutler Award you can learn more online at the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation.