Award winners

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The Vancouver foundation announced July 10 that a jury has chosen 13 recipients of its Visual Arts Development Award 2002, which has a pot of $56,000 to be divided among them. Three of the recipients are Aboriginal. The money, administered by the Contemporary Art Gallery, will help these emerging and mid-career artists and artisans to develop their work.

Aboriginal recipients are Christopher Auchter (Skidegate), a Haida artist and animator; Troy Hunter (Cranbrook), a photographer; and Chris Paul (Saanichton), a jewelry maker.

According to a foundation press release, Christopher Auchter "graduated from the Emily Carr Institute of Art and Design. He will examine the Haida narrative and physical layout of houses and poles in the World Heritage site on Haida Gwaii. This enquiry will lead to his translation of traditional stories. His mentor will be Michael Nicoll Yakgulanaas, cartoonist, writer and political activist."

Troy Hunter, who occasionally contributes to Raven's Eye, "has been in the B.C. Festival of the Arts for several years. He is also vice-president of the Indigenous Arts Service Organization. He plans to learn about underwater photography and video as well as editing digital video. He will explore the Ktunaxa/Kinbasket fishing grounds and the loss of salmon and sturgeon in the Kootenays."

Chris Paul "attended K'san, the International School of West Coast Art, and has apprenticed with Roy Henry Vickers. Chris will apprentice with a west coast jewelery artist. He will learn to engrave metal and the fine metal work of jewelry. Learning jewelry making will enable him to express himself in another medium of West Coast art."

The award is available to British Columbia artists and artisans from all cultures. This year there were 150 applicants.