MEDIA RELEASE

www.banffcentre.ca

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 1, 2001
Banff, AB

Joanne Morrow, director of The Banff Centre for the Arts, recently announced the first group of recipients of the Paul D. Fleck Fellowship in the Arts. "This year’s Fleck Fellows have distinguished themselves by demonstrating remarkable creative versatility in their careers," says Morrow. "We look forward to seeing how their work will develop over the period of their residencies at The Banff Centre."

The Paul D. Fleck Scholarship Trust was established upon the death of this former president of The Banff Centre (1982-1992). Since then, the Fleck family has pledged to match the contributions of Banff Centre friends, donors, alumni, and faculty to this endowment. The Fleck Fellowships in the Arts provide a valuable contribution to the professional development of artists, and allow them to create new work at The Banff Centre in the fields of Aboriginal Arts, Media & Visual Arts, Music & Sound, Theatre Arts, and Writing & Publishing.

The inaugural recipients of the Paul D. Fleck Fellowships in the Arts are the following:

Byron Chief-Moon, Choreographer/Dancer. Blood Reserve, AB/Vancouver, BC
Louise Bernice Halfe. Poet. Saddle Lake Reserve, AB/Saskatoon, SK
Veronica Tennant, Choreographer/Director. Toronto, ON
Diana Thorneycroft, Visual Artist/Photography. Winnipeg, MB
Peter Schuyff , Visual Artist/Painting. New York, NY
Larry Weinstein, Producer/Writer. Toronto, ON
Kelly-Marie Murphy, Composer. Dartmouth, NS
Heather Schmidt, Composer/Pianist. Calgary, AB
Jacqueline Gosselin, Choreographer. Montreal, QC
Cathy Nosaty, Composer. Toronto, ON
Julie Trimingham, Writer/Director. Calgary, AB

"The Banff Centre is proud to announce the first group of Fleck Fellows honoured in the memory of a great Canadian cultural innovator and thinker," concludes Morrow. "Their track records have shown they are capable of creating exciting new work in a diversity of art forms. The Banff Centre will provide the environment for new discovery and creative expression in all the arts fields we serve."

ARTISTS’ BIOGRAPHIES
BYRON CHIEF - MOON (Choreographer/Dancer) is a Blood Indian whose work as an actor, visual artist, and playwright led him to co-found the Coyote Arts Performance Association, a multimedia dance theatre company dedicated to incorporating the Blackfoot language, traditional Blackfoot stories, dances, and songs into contemporary new works.

LOUISE BERNICE HALFE (Poet) Cree poet Louise Bernice Halfe’s acclaimed anthology of life-writings by Native women, Writing the Circle: Native Women of Western Canada, won third prize in the League of Canadian Poets’ national poetry contest, and was followed by two award-winning books of poetry: Bear Bones and Feathers (winner of the Milton Acorn Award, 1996) and Blue Marrow (shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award in Literature, 2000).

VERONICA TENNANT (Choreographer/Director) After a career in dance that featured the position of Prima Ballerina with The National Ballet of Canada and her consequent naming as an Officer of The Order of Canada in 1975, Veronica Tennant’s work as a director and producer of television has been honoured with Geminis, the Silver Medal in the New York Television Festival, and the International Emmy Award in 1999.

DIANA THORNEYCROFT (Visual Artist/Photography) Visual artist and photographer Diana Thorneycroft has exhibited and lectured on her work across North America as well as in Edinburgh and Tokyo, and her work is represented in the collections of Roziso State Museum and Exhibition Center, Moscow; the Winnipeg Art Gallery; the Canadian Museum of Contemporary Photography; and the Canada Council Art Bank.

PETER SCHUYFF (Visual Artist/Painting) After the success in the 1980s of painter and visual artist Peter Schuyff’s "Neo-Geo" paintings, he rekindled his love-affair with art-making during an artistic residency at The Banff Centre in 1997, and his subsequent work has been celebrated and exhibited all over the world in hundreds of solo and group shows.

LARRY WEINSTEIN (Producer/Writer) Since 1979, when Larry Weinstein co-founded Rhombus Media, he has become Canada's preeminent director of films on musical subjects, awards for which include numerous Geminis, a 1986 Academy Award nomination, a 1988 Primetime Emmy nomination, and a 1993 International Emmy.

KELLY - MARIE MURPHY (Composer) obtained a MMus and a Ph.D in Composition, and has been awarded numerous prizes including first prize and a People’s Choice Award in the CBC Young Composer’s Competition (string quartet category) and first prize in the Young Composer’s Commission for Electro-Acoustic Music in Dance.

HEATHER SCHMIDT (Composer/Pianist) Composer and pianist Heather Schmidt has received national and international recognition through performance, broadcasts, commissions, and awards in Canada, the USA, and Europe, the most recent of which were First Place, the Audience Choice Award, and the Maestro’s Choice from the Millennium Foundation at the 2000 Canadian Concerto Competition.

JACQUELINE GOSSELIN (Choreographer) co-founded DynamO Theatre which, since its beginnings in 1981, has performed across Canada, the United States, Europe, South America, the Middle East, and Asia, and has been invited to feature in such international events as Montreal's Place des Arts, New York's Lincoln Center, Bern's Dance Festival, Singapore's Victoria Theater, Glasgow's Mayfest, Limoges' Festival des francophones, as well as festivals in Adelaide, Berlin, and Tokyo.

CATHY NOSATY (Composer) Since 1985, Cathy Nosaty has worked in Canadian theatre as a composer, musician, musical director, and sound designer, and her theatre scores include productions at Toronto’s Young People’s Theatre, Theatre Direct, Youtheatre, Theatre New Brunswick, Prairie Theatre Exchange, Carousel Players, The Globe Theatre, Factory Theatre, Theatre Passe Muraille, and Manitoba Theatre Centre, in addition to numerous independent theatre, film, and video projects.

JULIE TRIMINGHAM (Writer/Director) has written and directed a number of acclaimed short films (one of which was nominated for a 1998 Genie Award for Best Short Drama) in addition to creating spoken-word and arts-based films and music videos.

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The Banff Centre is Canada's only post-secondary institution dedicated to the arts, leadership development, and mountain culture. Programs are designed to enrich professional practice beyond the realm of traditional education. The Centre's unique mountain environment and multidisciplinary setting reflect a commitment to personal growth and lifelong learning.

For more information:

Catherine Callary, media relations consultant, ph: 403.762.6487
Lachlan Mackintosh, marketing coordinator, ph: 403.762.6670

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