The sixth biennial Salt Spring National Prize (SSNAP) event concluded over the weekend with $52,000 in awards disbursed, including the top prize going to a Salt Spring Island artist.
Anna Gustafson’s text-based fibre work titled What George Said . . . , which references George Orwell and reinterprets a 1930s cross-stitch sampler originally made by the artist’s mother, won the $20,000 Joan McConnell Award, chosen by the jury of Mireille Eagan, Heather Igloliorte, Sarah Milroy and Kenneth Montague.
The awards gala was held at ArtSpring on Saturday, Oct. 18.
The Residency Award (worth $6,000) and donated by Joan McConnell went to Kuhlein Migue for Banai-Banai Overprint. McConnell has sponsored SSNAP’s top prizes since its inception. McConnell had attended and spoken at the 2023 gala event, but sadly, passed away Oct. 1 at the age of 99.
Jurors’ Choice Awards ($4,000 each) saw Montague choose Yomi Orimoloye for You Have Your Mother’s Eyes, donated by Margo and Brant Randles; Milroy chose Cheryl Simon for Sasap, donated by The Family Foundation of Jack and Peggy Sloan; Igloliorte chose Mimi Gellman for Travellers, donated by The Wilding Foundation; and Eagan chose Dillon Lew’chuk for One Brick at a Time, donated by the Wettstein family.
“This year’s submissions represent a powerful portrait of Canadian creativity,” said SSNAP board chair Janet Halliwell. “The finalists and the winning work capture the diversity, depth and imagination of artists working across Canada today. We’re honoured to bring this national conversation in contemporary art to Salt Spring Island.”
SSNAP People’s Choice Awards are as follows: 1st – Shoshannah Greene for My Heart Is With You, Take Care; Grief Storm, $3,500; 2nd – Bettina Matzkuhn for Alluvium, $2,500 (donated by Nina and John Cassil); 3rd – Raul Mendoza Azpiri for Pianissimo #1, $1,500; Youth Vote – Anna Belleforte for Undeniably Connected, $1,500; Online Vote – Jessica Winters for Behind the Hill 2, $1,000.
Alongside SSNAP, the Parallel Art Show (PAS) awarded $11,000 to artists from the Southern Gulf Islands.
The Matt Steffich PAS Jurors’ Choice Award, chosen by jurors Steven McNeil, Kim Pollard and Alexandra Montgomery, went to Jeannette Sirois for On the Table: Lorraine, $5,000, donated by Windsor Plywood.
Viewers’ Choice Awards went to: 1st – Garry Kaye for Overgrown Fenceline, $3,000; 2nd – Matt Adolf for HEResy, $2,000; and 3rd – Cathryn Jenkins for Aligned, $1,000, donated by the Reinette Foundation.
The Youth Exhibition in the annex at Mahon Hall celebrated emerging voices. Together, the three exhibitions drew thousands of visitors and highlighted Salt Spring’s growing reputation as an arts destination.
“Bringing back the Youth Exhibition this year has been incredibly meaningful,” said Zoe Zafiris, SSNAP operations manager. “It connects the next generation of artists to this national platform, and seeing their work displayed alongside professional artists is a reminder of why SSNAP exists: to inspire, mentor and celebrate creative voices at every stage.”
SSNAP is made possible by the Salt Spring National Art Prize Society, a charitable organization that relies on donations to help sustain the prize and support artists nationwide. The SSNAP exhibition will return in 2027.
For more information or to learn how to support the society, visit saltspringartprize.ca.