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2019 Endowment Awards Recipients

Awards from the Foundation were first made in 2007. Awards have been made in years when funds have been available from the growing endowments, or when funds have been donated for specific annual awards.

These awards are made possible because of the generosity of our endowment donors. Thank you for your vision, commitment and support of Saskatchewan Artists.

We acknowledge the current and past volunteer Board of Trustees for their efforts in supporting the work of the Foundation.

In 2019, the designated endowment funds provided 6 awards of $5000 each.

The Foundation gratefully acknowledges the expertise of the Saskatchewan Arts Board for the facilitation of the adjudication process.

CARLA HARRIS (Regina) – The Colleen Bailey Memorial Fund

Carla Harris is a disabled queer writer, performer and interdisciplinary artist from Treaty 4 territory, living in Regina, Saskatchewan. As a spoken word poet, she has taught writing experimentation and performed at Verses Festival in Vancouver (2017) and Saskatoon Poetic Arts Festival (2018). Her first chapbook, Obtain No Proof, was released in 2020 with the Dis/Ability Series of Frog Hollow Press. Rooted in music, theatre & writing, the arts continually lift her to appreciate her disabled experience, while gradually working to bring harder stories forward.

She is currently writing her first collection of creative nonfiction poetry as a disabled sexual assault victim, exploring the nuance of trauma and mental illness when masked by the victim’s existing chronic health condition. She serves on the boards of Sage Hill Writing, Listen To Dis’ Community Arts Organization and the Regina Word Up Collective, searching to help arts organizations develop inclusive solutions to help all marginalized folks explore their own creativity.
* Featured Artist

JEWEL CHARLES (Saskatoon) – The Dick and Jane Fund

Jewel Charles, 19, is a Woodland Cree from the Lac La Ronge Indian Band in northern Saskatchewan on Treaty Six Territory. She is in her first year at the University of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon, SK.

She likes reading, volleyball, loves the outdoors and started painting at 3 years old. She won the 2018 SaskTel Youth Awards of Excellence for Performing/Fine Arts Category. She is an Indigenous artist and was commissioned by Saskatchewan Polytechnic, University of Saskatchewan, Lac La Ronge Indian Band and the Saskatoon Police Service to name a few. In 2019, she painted a mural representing Indigenous peoples for Evan Hardy Collegiate. In addition, she taught art classes, ages 5 – 12, for Indigenous and International children.

Jewel facilitated a workshop on Colonialism on Canvas: A Youth Perspective at the 2018 Canadian Roots Exchange National Youth Gathering. It is a brief historical and contemporary view of Indigenous peoples using the Five Stages of Colonialism in her voice through art. Recently, March 2021, she presented this art workshop online for the Common Ground Project, Prince Albert, SK.

As a school project, Jewel created a children’s book and it was translated into the Woodland Cree, TH dialect. It has made its way across Canada. Jewel received a Saskatchewan Arts Board Award to write a second book for teens that has Cree translations and Cree syllabics. This book is a collection of literary writings throughout her high school years. Currently, Jewel is in the ITEP (Indigenous Teacher Education Program) and wishes to teach Indigenous Studies and Art.
* Featured Artist

JUDY WENSEL (Regina) – The Harry Nick Kangles Fund

Judy Wensel lives in Treaty 4 (Regina) and works in theatre across Canada as a director, creator, performer and educator. Her work emphasizes connection to place and community and through her deep interest in collaboration she has conceived and directed numerous interdisciplinary creation-works and community art initiatives with organizations and artists including FadaDance, Wolf Willow Band, Swamp Fest and the Cathedral Village Arts Festival. Her theatre directing work includes productions of contemporary Canadian work, ensemble-based devised creations, and new play premieres.

As an educator, she has worked extensively with youth and adults through Common Weal Community Arts, Saskatchewan Cultural Exchange Society, Theatre Saskatchewan, Neutral Ground Artist Run Centre, Canadian Improv Games, Globe Theatre School and as Artist in Residence with Listen to Dis’ Community Arts.

Judy has been an Artistic Associate with Curtain Razors Theatre (Regina) since 2015 and the Associate Artistic Director with Sum Theatre (Saskatoon) since 2019. Judy has a BFA in Acting from the University of Regina and is a graduate of the Directing Program at National Theatre School of Canada in Montréal.
* Featured Artist

JESSICA MORGUN (Saskatoon) – The Jane Turnbull Evans Fund for the Arts

Jessica Morgun was born and raised in Treaty 6 Territory. I have spent most of my life in around the city of Saskatoon. I am endlessly interested in what it means to be a human being and what my role is as an artist and individual in this current time and place. These questions propelled me to complete an Education Degree (Visual Arts Major, University of Saskatchewan 2006) and later, a theological degree in Vancouver (MA in Christian Studies, Regent College 2012). I recently completed my MFA (University of Saskatchewan, 2017) and have been able to show my work locally and in Western Canada.

My work is drawing-based, site specific, and relational – sometimes involving interviews or personal objects. The work I produce revolves around questions of materiality and the strangeness of objects that populate everyday life. Throughout my work as an artist, teacher, and sometimes-writer, I have been seeking to connect with and encourage other artists, to make work that sets the stage for moments of introspection and relation, and to be interminably challenged by work of others.
* Featured Artist

AMALIE ATKINS (Saskatoon) – The Shurniak Fund

Amalie Atkins lives and works in Saskatoon. As a multidisciplinary artist noted for her films and video installations, she creates cinematic fables through a blend of film, performance, textiles, installations, and photography.

Atkins has exhibited nationally including the Art Gallery of Ontario, Central Art Garage, Gallery 44, The Ottawa Art Gallery, Eastern Edge, Struts Gallery, La Centrale, FADO and Biennale Nationale de Sculpture Contemporaine. Her work has shown internationally at Moving Image, NYC; 12:14 Contemporary, Vienna; USC Art Gallery Queensland; The Academy Gallery, Tasmania; Gerald Moore Gallery, UK; and Kunsthaus Tacheles, Berlin. Her work has been included in major survey exhibitions, most notably, Oh, Canada at the MASS MoCA; DreamLand: Textiles in the Canadian Landscape at the Textile Museum of Canada, Toronto; and Road Show East, which toured in Eastern Europe.

Atkins was the recipient of the Locale Art Award for western Canada (2011) and long-listed for the Sobey Art Award in (2012, 2013). Her photographs have appeared on the covers of Canadian Art MagazineVisual Arts NewsGrain MagazineCV2, and MUZE magazine (Paris). Her solo exhibition we live on the edge of disaster and imagine we are in a musical toured to the MacKenzie Art Gallery, Regina; Southern Alberta Art Gallery, Lethbridge; and College Art Galleries, Saskatoon. Where the hour floats, was selected for Capture Photo Fest at Evergreen Art Gallery, Coquitlam (2019). Remai Modern premiered her most expansive 16 mm film project to-date and was reviewed by Amy Fung in ARTFORUM. Recent exhibitions include: Fairy Tales (Owens Art Gallery, Sackville); Ever Elsewhere: Siting a Mennonite Imaginary (The Reach, Abottsford, BC) and in A New Light: Canadian Women Artists at the Embassy of Canada (Washington, DC).
* Featured Artist

KRYSTLE PEDERSON (Saskatoon) – The Cameco Endowment for Indigenous Artists

Krystle Pederson is a Cree/Metis actor singer/songwriter. She is a recipient of CBC Future 40 Award, shorted-listed for the Saskatchewan Arts Awards for Emerging artist as well as a nomination in the YWCA Women of Distinction Awards.

Krystle’s list of acting credits includes a supporting role in a Saskatchewan film Run: Broken Yet Brave; Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre: The (Post) Mistress; Sum Theatre’s Little Badger and the Fire Spirit; National Arts Centre’s Gabriel Dumont Wild West Show; Red Sky Theatre: Mistatim; Ferre Play Theatre: Penelopiad; Persephone Theatre: Reasonable Doubt.

Currently Krystle is the lead vocalist for “Lynx Lamour Goes to Nashville” a brand-new one-woman Cree musical written and composed by Tomson Highway. Krystle has had the great pleasure of taking this musical to New Zealand and has been touring Canada over the past two years.
* Featured Artist