NLIS 2
December 28, 2005
(Tourism, Culture and Recreation)
Cultural highlights of
2005 year-end review
Although the most significant cultural
event of 2005 was undoubtedly the opening of The Rooms, the entire
cultural sector enjoyed an exciting and successful year, Tom Hedderson,
Minister of Tourism, Culture and Recreation said today.
"Since becoming the minister responsible
for culture, I have had the opportunity to meet with members of our
various cultural industries and I am very impressed by the incredible
talent, passion and accomplishments of our artists in Newfoundland and
Labrador," he said. "From literature to film, many of our own were
recognized on a national and global level. This government recognizes
the importance of supporting the growth of our cultural industries and
we made a substantial financial investment in our creative communities
this year. I am very proud to be able to say that it is literally
impossible to list all the cultural events and individual achievements."
Some of the highlights of 2005 include:
Literature
Newfoundland remained firmly on the
literary map this year with new novels garnering national acclaim,
including Joan Clark's An Audience of Chairs, Michael
Crummey's The Wreckage, and Alison Pick's The Sweet Edge.
The novel Alligator by Lisa
Moore was shortlisted for the 2005 Giller Prize, Canada�s most
prestigious literary honour.
Ed Riche's novel The Nine Planets
won the Winterset Award as well as the Thomas Head Raddall Atlantic
Fiction Award. Mr. Riche was also named Artist of the Year by the
Newfoundland and Labrador Arts Council.
Down to the Dirt
by first-time novelist Joel Hynes and The Big Why by Michael
Winter have both been nominated for the 2006 International Impac
Dublin Literary Award.
Media Arts
With almost $25 million in
production activity, 2005 was the best year to date for the film
industry. Major projects include the Above and Beyond
miniseries, the comedy Young Triffie's Been Made Away With
and the pilot television show Rabbittown.
Mary Walsh received a Gemini Award
for her role in the miniseries Hatching, Matching and Dispatching
(nominated for three Gemini Awards in total).
Battery Radio, a St. John's based
production company that specializes in radio documentary features,
won several major awards this year, including the esteemed 2005 Prix
Italia in Milan, Italy for the music documentary The Wire. As
well, the Battery Radio documentary feature The Man who Sang
Goodbye was named top Radio News/Current Affairs program by the
Canadian Association of Journalists.
George Street TV,
a half- hour comedy variety show, was picked up by The Comedy
Network.
Music
In November, Music NL, the
province's music industry association, awarded the Lifetime
Achievement Award to Dick Nolan for his contribution to the music
community in November. Sadly, Mr. Nolan passed away in December.
Shallaway, formerly the Newfoundland
Symphony Youth Choir, was awarded the top honour for youth choirs at
the prestigious 37th Annual Tolosa International Choral Festival in
Spain.
Promising newcomers such as Rex
Goudie, who was a finalist in the CTV Canadian Idol competition, and
The Novaks hit the scene this year.
Kevin Collins won Songwriter of the
Year at the Irish and Country Music Magazine Awards in Kildare,
Ireland.
Theatre
Theatre Newfoundland and Labrador's
production of Robert Chafe's play Tempting Providence
successfully completed an international tour with performances in
Australia and Tasmania.
Two local playwrights were nominated
for the Siminovitch Prize in Theatre: Robert Chafe for Tempting
Providence and Berni Stapleton for The Pope and Princess Di.
The Rooms
The official opening of The Rooms on
June 29 drew a crowd of about 4,000 people for the grand occasion.
The Rooms, a state-of-art facility built to preserve and promote the
province�s arts and heritage, was very successful in its first
summer season. There were over 80,000 visitors from the opening to
the end of September.
Visual Arts
There have been several major
exhibits since the opening of the Art Gallery of Newfoundland and
Labrador in The Rooms, including The Shepherds: Two Lives in Art,
featuring the work of two of Newfoundland's most significant
artists, Reg and Helen Parsons Shepherd.
Lori Doody received the award for
Emerging Artist of the Year from the Newfoundland and Labrador Arts
Awards.
The National Gallery of Canada
marked the 70th birthday of Christopher Pratt, one of Canada's most
celebrated painters, with an exhibition representing his
achievements over the last four decades.
Also of note, five of the eight people
inducted into the Order of Newfoundland and Labrador in November 2005
were from the cultural community: Tim Borlase for his contribution to
the arts and culture of Labrador for the past thirty years; Tom Cahill
for his work on stage, television and radio; Susan Knight through her
work as a musician, choral director particularly with Shallaway, and
Festival 500; Ingeborg Marshall for her work on the history, ethnography
and archaeology of the Beothuk Indians of Newfoundland; and Shane O'Dea
for his work in researching, documenting and maintaining our
architectural heritage.
This year marked the 100th anniversary of
Mina Hubbard's trek across Labrador from North West River to Ungava Bay.
A series of events in North West River, Labrador commemorated this
adventure.
Media contact:
Susanne Hiller, Communications, (709)
729-0928, 728-7762 Carolyn Chaplin, Communications, (709) 682-5093
2005 12 28
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