Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts
Lea Collins
Lea Collins has been involved with every aspect of the visual arts in Saskatchewan. She served as Executive Secretary, and then as Director, of the Saskatoon Art Centre, and was on the Mendel Art Gallery Building Committee. In 1964, Ms. Collins joined the Saskatchewan Arts Board as its Visual Arts consultant. Her commitment and hard work over the next 13 years at the Board provided a firm foundation for the Permanent Collection that exists today. Lea Collins was involved in organizing the first seven of the Saskatchewan Arts Board's annual juried exhibitions. She was a catalyst for Saskatchewan artists, recognizing and encouraging potential. She brought a combination of imagination, enthusiasm, and practicality to her work.
Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts
Ernest Lindner
Member of the Order of Canada, 1979
One of Saskatchewan's best known and loved visual artists, Ernest Lindner was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Arts Board. Born in Vienna in 1897, he had no formal training as a visual artist but was a frequent participant at the Emma Lake Artists' Workshop in the 1950's and 1960's. He worked as a bank clerk, a farm labourer and a commercial artist and illustrator before becoming an art instructor. His media included oil, acrylic, watercolour, egg tempra, pencil, lithography, printmaking, linocut, woodcut, copper relief, and murals. A portraitist of some note, his best known work is high realism of forest and other nature subjects.
Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts
W.O. Mitchell
Officer of the Order of Canada, 1973
W.O. Mitchell was born and raised in Weyburn, Saskatchewan. He is celebrated for his contributions to the field of Canadian literature through his own novels, short stories, radio scripts and stage plays, and through his teaching, He led the first writing workshops sponsored by the Saskatchewan Arts Board at what was to become the Saskatchewan School of the Arts, and was head of the Banff Writing Workshop in Alberta for many years. His most famous novel is Who Has Seen The Wind, first published in 1947. He is also well known and loved for a series of radio dramas, Jake and the Kid, written and broadcast in the 1950's.
Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts
William Riddell
Saskatchewan Order of Merit, 1994
Officer of the Order of Canada, 1974
William Riddell is celebrated for his contributions as the longest-serving Chair of the Saskatchewan Arts Board, his leadership in developing the Regina Conservatory of Music and the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery, and his unfailing encouragement and development of art education in the province. Following his retirement from university administration, Dr. Riddell had an active career as a historian, writing, among others, the history of the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery.
Lifetime Award for Excellence in the Arts
David Smith
David Smith is celebrated for his role in the establishment of the Saskatchewan Arts Board in 1947. As Director of the Adult Education Division in the Department of Education, he strongly advocated creative activities as a complementary aspect of any adult education program. He also was instrumental in the creation of the Qu'Appelle Valley Centre for Residential Adult Education, the Group Development Institute and the Saskatchewan Public Affairs Council. He later worked as a UNESCO representative in Thailand, and as a consultant on national and international social and educational projects.