This year, SK Arts is launching a new event to honour artists and arts organizations, and we invite you to come out and enjoy a fun evening of celebration with the arts community. Arts of Celebration will be hosted by comedian and actor Dakota Ray Hebert on Monday, May 27, 2024, at the beautiful Darke Hall in Regina. The evening, which recognizes the arts and their impact, includes mainstage performances by Belle Brown-McEwen, Gabriel “Arch Angel” Ehijie, Karley Parovsky and Dara Schindelka.
Cellist Amelia Borton and caricature artist Corrina Rasmussen-Turner will be creating live work during the opening reception. In addition, pieces from a number of the evening’s honorees will be featured in an exhibition of artwork from SK Arts’ Permanent Collection.
SK Arts' 75th Anniversary Celebration (2023), Photo Credit: Mark Greschner
In a call earlier this year, SK Arts received nomination for artists and arts organizations whose work in the last 18 months was considered worthy of celebration, and SK Arts will honour all of those recommended at this soirée. This new event, Arts of Celebration, will honour more than 70 artists and arts organizations, and marks an attempt by SK Arts to celebrate our province’s arts community while moving away from a traditional awards format. The agency believes that this will allow SK Arts to celebrate more artists than the Arts Awards allowed and encourage those building their artistic dreams.
SK Arts’ CEO, Michael Jones, says, “For years, SK Arts has hosted an annual Arts Awards event, but we were always struck by the number of amazing nominations we received for individuals and organizations that we could not honour in that type of ceremony.”
He continued, “We wanted to move away from the traditional ‘winners and losers’ format of an awards show and find something that would really reflect the wide spectrum of arts practiced in this province – from the community level all the way up to our most recognized national and international artists. We strongly believe that everyone’s work is worthy of this sort of acclaim, and we couldn’t be more pleased with the calibre of nominations that we received.”
Lottery draws will be held, throughout the evening, to award cash prizes to some of the honorees, but the random nature of that type of draw should avoid suggesting that the work of some is considered more or less worthy of support – everyone that was nominated by the community will be honoured that night.
The SK Arts team says the agency will review Arts of Celebration after its debut to determine its viability as a long-term replacement for the Saskatchewan Arts Awards.
The full list of 2024 Arts of Celebration honourees is available here, on SK Arts’ website. Tickets are available here on Darke Hall's events page.
