Coach House Books

Literature – Cultural Industries

Coach House Books is one of Canada’s foremost small presses, publishing innovative fiction, poetry, drama and non-fiction of exceptional literary merit. Since its inception in 1965 as Coach House Press, Coach House Books has nurtured the careers of some of Canada’s best-known writers, including Michael Ondaatje, bpNichol, Nicole Brossard, Christian Bök, Jonathan Goldstein, Linda Griffiths, Anne Michaels, Michael Redhill and hundreds of others. Its titles have been nominated for such prestigious awards as the Griffin Poetry Prize, the Governor General’s Award, the Trillium Award, the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and the Toronto Book Award. Coach House is a living museum of the literary and printing history in Canada, and it is one of only three Canadian publishers to print its books in house.

Afua Cooper

Literature – Toronto

Afua Cooper is an award-winning poet, author, historian, curator, performer, cultural worker and recording artist. Ms. Cooper has published five books of poetry, including the award-winning Memories Have Tongue and her newest work, Copper Woman. Her poems have been recorded, translated into several languages and anthologized in national and international publications.

A dynamic dub poet, Ms. Cooper has performed at the Toronto Harbourfront International Reading Series and Diaspora Dialogues. She is also a respected chronicler of Canada’s Black history. Her most recent book, The Hanging of Angélique, is a national bestseller and was nominated for the Governor General’s Award. She is also writing a series of historical novels for young adults.

David Earle

Dance – Guelph

David Earle is one of Canada’s most beloved choreographers. In a distinguished career spanning the past 40 years, he has created more than 140 dance works. Mr. Earle was a co-founder and artistic director of Toronto Dance Theatre, and led the company to acclaim in New York, Europe and Asia. Among his many honours and awards are a Gemini Award, the Dora Mavor Moore Award, the Order of Canada and France’s Grand Prix International de vidéo-dans de Sète.

Mr. Earle launched Dancetheatre David Earle (DtDE) in 1997 to provide a forum where younger artists could draw inspiration from his work. He has choreographed 41 new works with DtDE, and in 2001, made a permanent home for the company in Guelph. DtDE continues to present Mr. Earle’s work both nationally and internationally.

Michael Fortune

Crafts – Lakefield

Michael Fortune, a contemporary furniture master, is renowned for his innovative designs for one-of-a-kind objects in wood, commissioned residential furnishings and limited edition items. His work has appeared in exhibitions worldwide and in 1993, he became the first woodworker to receive the prestigious Prix Saidye Bronfman, Canada’s highest award in the crafts.

Mr. Fortune has consulted in Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico on developing sustainable craft industries. He has also volunteered his expertise to revitalize vocational training in secondary schools throughout North America, and has spearheaded a contemporary apprentice program that gives emerging craftspeople opportunities to work alongside established makers.

Guelph Jazz Festival

Music – Guelph

The Guelph Jazz Festival is one of Canada’s most influential music festivals. Since its founding in 1994, it has earned critical acclaim for presenting innovative jazz and creative improvised music in a community setting. The festival features a main stage program showcasing Canadian and international artists, a free downtown jazz tent, an educational colloquium that looks at jazz’s influence on society and culture, and a jazz around town series.

Over the years, the festival has expanded its offerings to include the mainly off-season Jazz in the Schools program, which exposes elementary, high school and university students to teaching from highly improvisational jazz artists. The festival has also commissioned and presented three original jazz operas, Passages, Québécité, and In Place of Wishes.

Hot Docs

Media Arts – Cultural Industries – Toronto

Hot Docs Canadian International Documentary Festival was founded in 1993 to showcase and support the work of Canadian and international documentary filmmakers and to promote excellence in documentary production. It has become North America’s largest documentary festival and an essential international market event for broadcasters and distributors from around the world. In 2008, Hot Docs’ attendance grew 25 per cent to 85,000 and it hosted a record 2210 industry delegates, accredited media and sponsors. In addition to the 172+ films that were featured in more than 240 public screenings, Docs for Schools, Hot Docs’ educational program, also held free screenings of festival films for more than 22,000 students in Toronto and the GTA.

The Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People

Theatre – Toronto

The Lorraine Kimsa Theatre for Young People (LKTYP) is the largest non-profit theatre company for young audiences in Canada. At the centre of LKTYP’s artistic policy is a desire to have a positive and lasting impact on the emotional, social and intellectual development of young people. The theatre uses live performance to help children, youth and their families identify with the issues they face today, and provide a platform to address these challenges in an entertaining way. LKTYP presents new Canadian plays, innovative works and classics from children’s literature throughout theseason. A multi-faceted centre for learning through the arts, it offers weekend performances for family audiences, integrated, weekday school programs for students, scheduled workshops for teachers and a year-round drama school.

Ron Noganosh

Visual Arts – Ottawa

Ron Noganosh is a highly regarded sculptor and installation artist who transforms everyday items into art works that are funny, imaginative and thought-provoking. Mr. Noganosh is best known for using junk material such as beer caps, auto parts and discarded toys in a scathing commentary on issues such as ecology, racism, and socioeconomic hierarchies. His art has won critical acclaim in exhibitions at Canada’s National Gallery, the Canadian Museum of Civilization and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of the American Indian in the United States. His work has also been exhibited in national museums and galleries in Japan, Australia, Mexico, France, Germany and Russia. Mr. Noganosh has worked as a zoo keeper, sign painter, scrap dealer, art professor and alligator wrestler to support his art.

Ojibwe Cultural Foundation

Arts Centre – M’Chigeeng

The Ojibwe Cultural Foundation was established in 1974 to preserve, revitalize and further enhance the language, culture, spirituality and traditions of the Anishinaabek people. Serving 15,000 people from 17 First Nations communities, it conducts and facilitates research, develops educational resources to increase the knowledge and use of the Anishnaabek language and promotes cross-cultural awareness within and between First Nations communities and with non-native communities. In an area with the highest number of native artists per capita in the world, the foundation works closely with craftspeople and artists to coordinate the promotion and distribution of locally produced native arts and crafts, art works and performing arts products. It promotes Anishinaabe art to galleries all over the world, such as Italy and Switzerland.

Alex Pauk

Music – Toronto

Conductor/composer Alex Pauk has taken new music in Canada out of the concert hall and into the community with his focus on commissioning, performing and promoting new works by Canadian composers. He is a prominent figure in the field of film music scoring, conducting and production, winning the 2007 Molson Prize for the Arts. In 1983, Mr. Pauk founded Toronto’s award-winning Esprit Orchestra focusing on contemporary classical music. His “Toward a Living Art” program with Esprit has provided 1,500 students annually with a range of musical experiences, including sitting in with Esprit musicians at rehearsals and performances, composing for Esprit and attending special student concerts and workshops. Through his innovative programming, recordings, performing art videos and DVDs, Mr. Pauk have been a leader in developing and promoting Canadian music at home and abroad.

RÉseau Ontario

Performing Arts – Ottawa

Réseau Ontario has changed the landscape of the arts, culture and arts education in French-speaking Ontario. Founded in 1997, it has brought together a network of 22 multidisciplinary and specialized presenters to showcase Francophone culture in communities across Ontario. In 2007-08, Réseau Ontario presented nearly 500 shows, reaching more than 80,000 people. Through its school program, Salut!, Réseau Ontario works with 375 schools to provide 60,000 students with access to the arts and activities with professional artists. Réseau Ontario also provides professional mentoring for presenters, and organizes Contact Ontarois, an annual marketplace of presenters, producers and artists.

Tim Whiten

Visual Arts – Toronto

Tim Whiten is an internationally recognized Canadian artist who has been active in the visual arts community for over 40 years. He has exhibited his work in major exhibitions of drawing and sculpture throughout North and South America, Mexico and Asia. Mr. Whiten is highly respected by his peers and he has been instrumental in influencing generations of aspiring artists, as Professor of Fine Art at York University since 1968. His artistic pursuits incorporate a variety of non-traditional materials from his daily experience, including glass, gum, hair, mud, blood, coffee grinds, juice containers and mirrors in his quest to conceal or reveal our place in the physical world. Mr. Whiten is represented in many private, corporate and public collections, including Canada’s National Gallery, the Art Gallery of Ontario and the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art.