The impact individuals and businesses have on the local art scene in Lethbridge was celebrated at the 20th annual Mayor’s Luncheon for Business and the Arts on Tuesday.
The event, which the Allied Arts Council puts on, includes half a dozen awards to artists, businesses and organizations who have contributed to the art community in the city. These awards include recognizing up-and-coming artists such as Lev Zienchuk, who was given the Aspiring Artist Award and Kort Woycheshin, who was given the Young Artist Award. The awards also recognized Donna Gallant, who received the AACE Individual Award, the AACE Business of the Year, which was awarded to Strudlebrand and the AACE Service Organization, which was given to the Lethbridge Folk Club.
Mary Anne Crow Healy was recognized with the Joan Waterfield Memorial Award for her work over nearly five decades advocating and advancing the Niitsitapi culture. The Executive Director of the Blackfoot Canadian Cultural Society and Blackfoot Family Lodge Society says the people who lift her are those that she works with everyday.
“There’s a saying for that, they’ve been tooting my horn and I really appreciate that,” Crow Healy says. “I’m not an artist. I don’t sing, I don’t dance, but they [the artists] share their art with me, and I appreciate them.”
Currently, the award winner is working on projects including developing transitional housing and an art gallery on the Blood Reserve. These projects are examples of her commitment to support and empower the Indigenous Community.
“The youth that I work with today they are amazing. All summer, we’ve been out in Waterton, they’ve been performing, and they’re learning the best about themselves.”
“Art is art. Art is the language of the soul. It’s the highest form of being, and the people that do the art, they are sharing it.”
Crow Healy is also involved in the International Peace Powwow, which started back in 2000, with people coming from all over North America to take part.
“They’re all dancers, they’re all artists, they’re drummers, they’re all singers, and what I find amazing is that as a watcher, there’s a synchronicity of coming together, of the dancer, the song, and the watcher, it all comes together, and there’s power in that,” she says. “It releases this energy that just makes you feel really good.”
She adds that one of the driving forces behind the powwow is how it is good for the heart.
