Tops in arts
Awards night honours the best.
In a way, Mike Enns and Debbie Slade are living bookends of the St. Catharines arts community.
At the annual St. Catharines Arts Awards Saturday night at Brock University’s Sean O’Sullivan Theatre, Enns was presented the emerging artist award while Slade — the retiring director of the soon to be defunct Centre for the Arts at Brock University — was presented the Making a Difference Award.
Enns the rookie was recognized for his work while Slade, the veteran, was honoured for a lifetime promoting the arts in the city.
For Slade, the award comes as she says goodbye to the organization she has shepherded since 1987. The Centre for the Arts will be folded into the new Performing Arts Centre downtown and will be helmed by Steve Solski.
It’s not that Slade wouldn’t love to work in the new centre.
But, she says, there just comes a time when a person knows it’s time to move on.
“I think with a new centre and new energy, the new director really needs a chance to put his own stamp on it,” said Slade, who programmed more than 1,400 shows for Centre for the Arts as director.
She said Saturday night’s award wasn’t just about her.
“What did that one football coach say? A coach is only as good as his team? Well, that is the same with me,” Slade said.
“I could not have done the things I have done without the amazing people I have had around me, making it possible.”
Enns, meanwhile, is just becoming part of the community Slade has been such a key figure in.
“I do feel like the new kid on the block, yes,” said Enns, a filmmaker who also won an emerging artist award for a documentary presented at Niagara Integrated Film Festival. “I am only now making the connections with the arts community.”
Enns said when he began making films, he felt a little crazy and alone in his efforts. But as he becomes part of the larger community, he has found kinship he expected.
“Now I think, ‘Yes, I am crazy, it’s beautiful and these people are crazy like me,’” he said. “It really does make a difference when you have the support of a community like this.”
Those connections are changing the way he approaches film, he says.
Enns wants to pull other disci- plines into a film project that are different than others he has done.
“Today, arts and film can be downloaded so easily. I would like to create a film project that has to be experienced and cannot be downloaded,” he said.
For instance, he said, he would like to try to have the Niagara Symphony not just score a film project, but also perform the music at a screening of the final movie.
There were four other awards handed out Saturday night.
Chris and Catharines Lowes, of Mahtay Cafe, were given the Patron of the Arts award. Janis Barlow won the Volunteer in the Arts award. Duncan MacDonald was awarded the Established Artist trophy and Dena Colling Gelentso won the Arts in Education Award.
The evening also featured live performances including chamber music by Momentum Choir, a spoken word performance by KT Job and Lindsay Jack, and a tribute to Swan Lake done by the dads of Ballet Etc — the same performance that previously raised $50,000 for the Walker Family Cancer Centre.