Northern artist wins $30,000 Canada Council grant
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A $30,000 grant from the Canada Council for the Arts will be a huge boost to the career of Air Ronge artist Donna Langhorne.
“For me, it’s shocking because this was really a shot in the dark,” Langhorne said. “I really didn’t think I’d get it because I know professional artists who’ve applied three or four times and didn’t get it.”
This was the first year Langhorne applied for the nationwide grant through the Canada Council, which was awarded in the short-term category under Creating, Knowing and Sharing: The Arts and Cultures of First Nations, Inuit and Métis Peoples. The money will cover her living and material expenses for the next 12 months, she said, as she produces 20 paintings of different sizes. An array of mixed media will also be used during the project, she said, but the paintings will be done in the Woodland style.
Langhorne believes she was selected for the grant because of the success she achieved with her seven-painting project called Truth and Reconciliation. It was completed last year and publicly displayed in La Ronge in January. There was a strong response to the series, she said, so the new project will be the second part, expanding on themes such as the ’60s Scoop, residential schools, the recent verdicts in the cases of Colten Boushie and Tina Fontaine, and the suicide epidemic in northern Saskatchewan.
