Mitch Dureault ran the program from October 2020 to May 2021. (Submitted photo/Mitch Dureault)

By Derek Cornet

Art Grants

Pinehouse school receives major grant to continue music program

Sep 10, 2021 | 5:00 PM

Minahik Waskahigan Elementary School in Pinehouse Lake was awarded a $41,500 Artists in Schools – Residencies grant from SK Arts.

The funds will be used to return a music educator to the northern community to rejuvenate lost culture, strengthen intergenerational connections, teach music to youth and build local capacity through mentorship. It builds upon the work professional musician Mitch Dureault completed last school year through a music program he launched.

“What had private one-on-one lessons with one or two students from each grade,” he said. “Each Monday through Thursday, we would have Kindergarten to Grade 6 come once per day for 15 minutes or half an hour lesson on their instrument of their choice whether that was a guitar or fiddle.”

The program lasted from October 2020 to May 2021 and Dureault explained when he started, students only knew a basic understanding of music. He said the program went from the basics to building a solid foundation of technique and theory.

By May, some of the students were able to learn up to four songs on the fiddle. Dureault mentioned the kids all progressed adequately or exceed the average for their age group.

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“In most programming, kids do not get the access for one-on-one music lessons, let alone four times a week,” he said. “These kids progressed super fast and became strong musicians.”

Dureault has many years of experience working as professional musician in school or camp settings in Manitoba and Saskatchewan. He hopes he will be able to return to resume the music program in Pinehouse in the future.

Additional grants fund more artists in northern Sask.

A number of other SK Arts grants were awarded throughout northern Saskatchewan Lac La Ronge Indian Band artist Molly Ratt, who received an $7,500 Indigenous Peoples Art and Artists grant to paint eight landscapes of Lac La Ronge and surrounding areas.

Visual artist Hilary Johnstone received a $6,439 Independent Artists grant to spend a week at a remote cabin and make drawings and take photographs to base fabric works on. The Tri-Community Dance Club received a $1,000 Artists in Communities – Development grant to bring summer dance workshops to La Ronge, introducing a variety of dance genres and the process of collaborative creation.

Black Lake musician and traditional skills knowledge keeper John Pacquette received two grants from SK Arts. One was a $4,000 Indigenous Peoples Art and Artists grant to create traditional drums, following the Denesuline ancestral skills teachings, from barren ground caribou hide he has tanned and birch trees he has harvested.

The second was a $10,000 Artists in Schools – Projects grant to teach Dene drum teachings workshops, drum making, Dene singing and traditional dancing, along with hand games.

At the most recent grant deadlines, SK Arts awarded funding to almost 100 individuals and organizations, totaling more than $685,000.

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derek.cornet@pattisonmedia.com

Twitter: @saskjourno