The first 16 winners of an innovative new arts granting program funded by the Salt Spring-based Wilding Foundation — the Catalyst Grants — were announced on Friday, Nov. 15.
Administered in partnership with the Salt Spring National Art Prize (SSNAP) Society, the foundation has committed $100,000 per year to the program for at least the next three years. First announced in August, some 45 applications from the Southern Gulf Islands and area First Nations were received by the Oct. 1 deadline.
Winners are: Margaret August, Leo Chan, Veronica Classen, Anna Gustafson, Eli Horn, Ari Lazer, Bob Leatherbarrow, Cheryl Long, Liljana Martin, Terri Potratz, Lexane Rousseau, Andrea Russell, Jeannette Sirois, Anna Karolina Szul, Satya Underhill and April Winter.
Jurors were Helga Pakasaar, Sophia Burke, Camille Georgeson-Usher and Jesse Birch, along with the foundation’s Ethan Wilding, a Salt Spring resident for the past five years. He explained that he wants the grants program to give artists the funds they need to complete artworks.
“I was getting quite a few requests for just little donations here and there to help people finish their art projects, and so I thought, ‘Let’s do this on a much larger scale and get money into the hands of many more artists,’ and that’s what we’re on the path to doing.”
Wilding said the aim is “to close that gap between great ideas being mostly finished to great ideas being fully finished and produced, so that artists have something to showcase, can expand their portfolio, and hopefully from there, continue to make more art or get commissions.”
He also hopes some grant recipients will be able to use the funds to help complete submissions for the biennial SSNAP and Parallel Art Show competitions.
“Salt Spring is known as an artist island and I think this goes a good way to help encourage that concept and that idea,” he said.
SSNAP Society chair Janet Halliwell said, “The SSNAP Society is delighted to have partnered with the Wilding Foundation in developing this new opportunity to foster contemporary arts in our region, and to build on our reputation as a creative, arts-oriented community.”
The Wilding Foundation also provides significant funds to other local programs related to technology and creativity, such as the FabLab makerspace at the Salt Spring Public Library, with equipment like 3D printers, scanners and a Cricut machine available to use for free to the public. Even staff costs for the space are covered by the foundation.
Technology classes for kids at the library are supported to ensure cost is no barrier to those wanting to attend, and the Gulf Islands Secondary School robotics team benefits hugely from the foundation. Salt Spring Arts and Graffiti Theatre have also received Wilding Foundation grants.
Wilding said the motivation for the Catalyst Grants and other funded programs is the same.
“Let’s support the arts and get people out there building and making and actually finishing projects, and making those resources available for people.”
For more information about the Catalyst Grants and SSNAP, see saltspringartprize.ca.