By Helen Musa
The 2011 Citynews Artist of the Year award has gone to sculptor Michael Le Grand. At the ACT Arts Awards ceremony on November 29, held at M16 Studios in Griffith, actor and artist Max Cullen presented Le Grand with a cheque to the value of $1,000 from Citynews. Queanbeyan glass artist Harriet Schwarzrock joined with Citynews in presenting Le Grand with a glasswork.
Le Grand, who works out of his home studio in Murrumbateman, said it had been a good year for him, with a major exhibition at the Canberra Museum and Gallery and that he was touched and honoured by the recognition that this award from the arts community in Canberra, where he was raised.
One of Australia’s most important sculptors, his public artwork is highly visible in Civic, with his landmark red Japanese-style “gates” on London Circuit and a new blue work recently installed in Darwin Place. He has shows work regularly in Sydney’s Sculpture by the Sea, where he has exhibited 11 times.
The child of Canberra art pioneers Henri and Riek Le Grand, he has devoted his life to sculpture, rising to the position Head of the Sculpture Workshop at the ANU School of Art, which he describes as “the best institution around.”
One of the movers behind Florida’s sculpture events, the ANU’s Sculpture Walk, the Australian National Capital Artists studio facilities and the National Sculpture Forum, Le Grand is an experimenter, a teacher and a daringly outspoken advocate for the arts in Canberra.
The awards evening, hosted by the Canberra Critics’ Circle, also featured the Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance’s Green Room awards. The 2011 MEAA Green Room Award went to Andrea Close for excellence and professionalism in all her theatre practice and the MEAA Peer Recognition Award for 2011 is presented to Imogen Keen for her outstanding contribution, collaboration and innovation in theatre design.
The Critics’s Circle own awards were as follows:
For
Musicals
Presented to
Christine Forbes
For
her powerful and moving performance in the central role as the mother, Mrs Johnstone in the Queanbeyan City Council’s production of the Willy Russell musical Blood Brothers, directed by Stephen Pike.
For
Musicals
Presented to
Supa Productions
For
its outstanding production of Avenue Q, directed by Garrick Smith, musical direction by Rose Shorney, Choreography by Jordan Kelly.
For
Musicals
Presented to
David McCallum
For
his extraordinary, charismatic performance as Jesus Christ in Queanbeyan Players’ production of Jesus Christ Superstar designed and directed by Kelda McManus.
For
Musicals
Presented to
Chris Neale
For
his achievements in theatre lighting design throughout the year, most particularly for his work on Queanbeyan Players production of Jesus Christ Superstar.
For
Theatre
Presented to
Jim Adamik
For
his mastery of comic acting in Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Funny Money and The Imaginary Invalid, in which he showed his capacity to range through children’s theatre, mannered comedy, and the classic farce of Molière.
For
Theatre
Presented to
Free Rain Theatre
For
an electrifying production of Edward Albee’s Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf, directed by Cate Clelland.
For
Theatre
Presented to
Canberra Repertory Society
For
an hilarious and poignant production of The Pig Iron People by John Doyle.
For
Theatre
Presented to
Canberra Youth Theatre and The National Library of Australia
For
the collaborative production, Retrieval, which saw the library’s foyer, exhibition spaces and stacks transformed into places of performance.
For
Theatre
Presented to
Imogen Keen
For
her transformative, creative design solutions to challenging theatrical texts.
For
Visual Arts
Presented to
Jenni Kemarre Martiniello
For
her contemporary interpretation of traditional utilitarian objects, highlighting both their innate beauty and the ongoing loss of the Aboriginal cultures from which these object originated, and drawing the audience’s attention to the intricate details of Indigenous women’s craft by reworking traditionally woven eel and fish traps in glass.
For
Visual Arts
Presented to
Robert Foster
For
his innovative use of sustainable lighting that is both imaginative and creative. In particular for his Ossolite Lighting Project called The Journey at ACTEW, and his exhibition Strange Planet featuring examples of this lighting at the Gallery of Australian Design in April this year.
For
Visual Arts
Presented to
Nikki Main
For
Her solo exhibition of glass sculptures at Beaver Galleries in September, based on the movement of water in the landscape and its impact on the environment, demonstrating her concerns and continue her exploration of how to capture water in glass. She has also shown in several local exhibitions this year.
For
Visual Arts
Presented to
Craft ACT
For
A series of exhibitions titled The Elements held throughout 2011 celebrating the 40th anniversary for this visual arts organisation. The exhibitions were sensitively curated to showcase the work of prominent craftspeople working in the Canberra region.
For
Visual Arts
Presented to
Ann McMahon
For
her exceptionally fine and complex installations conceived and executed this year and exhibited in Canberra Museum and Gallery's Imitation of Life: Memory and Mimicry in Canberra Region Art.
For
Dance
Presented to
Liz Lea
For
her creative use of archival materials from Canberra’s collecting institutions in her solo work 120 Birds.
For
Dance
Presented to
Elizabeth Cameron Dalman
For
Sapling to Silver, an absorbing, poignant collection of choreographic vignettes, created for the Mirramu Dance Company, carefully woven together in an evocative celebration of her significant dance career.
For
Music
Presented to
David Mackay
For
his dedication to the pursuit of excellence with his ensemble, the Oriana Chorale, a group of amateur singers encompassing a diverse range of ages and vocal qualities to consistently present concerts of an exceptionally high standard.
For
Music
Presented to
Dominic Harvey
For
his outstanding contribution to music in Canberra through 20 years of conducting the Canberra Youth Orchestra, challenging young ACT musicians to perform, at a high level, complex works from the orchestral repertoire, as evidenced in the September 2011 performance of works by Penderecki, Bruch, Chabrier, Nielsen and Kabalev.
For
Music
Presented to
Annette Sloane
For
her outstanding contribution to jazz and popular music, particularly as lead singer of ‘Annie and the Armadillos’, and for the production of a high quality CD recording celebrating the musical life of Peggy Lee.
For
Music
Presented to
Alpha Gregory
For
her outstanding contribution to the community through music, particularly as artistic director of the Woden Valley Youth Choir. Through Alpha’s skill and expert musical direction, the choir has reached exemplary standards and has gained a world-wide reputation for excellence in the field of youth choral singing.
For
Music
Presented to
For The Fallen
An Anzac Day concert performed during the 2011 National Folk Festival presentation which commemorated, celebrated and paid tribute to Australians lost in conflict since Gallipoli. Devised by Sebastian Flynn, programmed and scripted by John Shortis and narrated by Peter J. Casey.
For
Writing
Presented to
K. J. Taylor
For
“The Fallen Moon Trilogy,” a three-part novel, the final book of which was published in the past year. For the way in which she has created a “secondary world” where people interact with griffins. Taylor has garnered a strong following among young readers.
For
Writing
Presented to
Kathy Kituai
For
her initiative in setting up Tanka workshops for Canberra poets and for her lifetime of involvement in literature and the arts in Canberra.
For
Writing
Presented to
Irma Gold
For
her sharply observed collection of short stories, Two Steps Forward, published in Affirm Press’s Long Story Shorts series, and for editing the non-fiction book, The Sound of Silence: Journeys Through Miscarriage.
For
Storytelling
Presented to
Melanie Tait
For
Her initiative “Now Hear This,” public storytelling sessions at The Street Theatre, in which eight people from around the Canberra community are asked to tell a story from their life. Supported and promoted by ABC 666, this has helped revive an endangered form.
For
Film
Presented to
documentary maker
Robert Nugent
For
His work, Memoirs of a Plague, which examines man’s ancient relationship with the locust and for his world-class documentary, practice.
For
Film
Presented to
Marisa Martin
For
her innovative contribution to animation, recognised internationally and seen in the past year in her work Tegan, the Vegan.
The 2011 Canberra Critics’ Circle is:
Bill Stephens . Alanna Maclean . Frank McKone . Peter Wilkins . Joe Woodward . Meredith Hinchliffe . Kerry-Anne Cousins . Helen Musa . Anni Doyle Wawrzynczak . Cris Kennedy . Simon Weaving . Stella Wilkie . Malcolm Miller . Jennifer D. Gall . Glenn Burns . Michelle Potter . Samara Purnell . Simone Penkethman . Clinton White . Ian McLean
