Salt Spring’s Susan Benson has received one of Canada’s top arts-field honours, with a Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards program announced Thursday, Feb. 12.
“Susan Benson is one of Canada’s leading set and costume designers, whose artistic vision has shaped stage productions across Canada and internationally,” states the Governor General’s (GG) awards announcement. “A creative trailblazer, she has designed for major theatre, opera and ballet companies across Canada, notably the Stratford Festival, as well as for international productions. She is also an accomplished painter whose work has been shown in Canadian galleries and group exhibitions.”
“I wept when I was told,” Benson, 83, said. “It is such an honour and so totally unexpected.”
Benson added that she shared the honour with all of the wonderful colleagues she has worked with in the theatre industry over the years, as well as her husband and renowned lighting designer Michael Whitfield.
Benson may be best known in the industry for her work designing sets and costumes for the legendary Stratford Festival between 1974 and 2005, where productions ranged from A Midsummer Night’s Dream to Macbeth to Guys and Dolls and The Mikado. She also designed for Neptune Theatre, Theatre New Brunswick, National Arts Centre, CanStage, Mirvish Productions, Toronto Arts Productions, Young People’s Theatre, Grand Theatre, Royal Manitoba Theatre Centre, Citadel Theatre, Banff Centre, Vancouver Playhouse, Canadian Opera Company, National Ballet of Canada and Royal Winnipeg Ballet, among others. Her inter-national work includes theatre, opera and ballet productions in the U.S., Australia and Finland, and she has represented Canada five times at the Prague Quadrennial.
“Ms. Benson has also devoted significant energy to teaching and mentoring younger designers and artists, guiding a new generation of theatre practitioners across the country,” states the GG office.
The pull to mentorship is reflected locally in her establishing the Susan Benson Fund for Visual Artists through the Salt Spring Arts Council (SSAC) a few years ago.
On behalf of SSAC, chair Deborah Osborne offered congratulations to Benson, who she became friends with while working alongside her and Whitfield on productions as a stage manager in the 1970s.
“Wherever she has lived Susan has been a passionate advocate for all artists, continuing that commitment here on Salt Spring. Through years of participating in and organizing exhibitions, she has strengthened our artistic community. The arts council is especially grateful for her establishment of the annual Susan Benson Fund, created in recognition of the barriers and challenges faced by female artists, providing funds for the material costs of creating and exhibiting their work.”
Since retiring from stage design, Benson has returned to painting and creating mixed-media pieces, showing her work in several solo and group exhibitions.
“We can all learn, as I have, from Susan’s philosophy on creativity, which extends far beyond the art and design world,” said Osborne. “That the arts influence everything we do. Creative thinking helps us solve problems, broadens our awareness, builds respectful relationships and enriches our well-being.”
Benson was named a Member of the Order of Canada in 2019. Other awards and honours include eight Dora Mavor Moore Awards, Canada Council Senior Arts Award, Canadian Institute of Theatre Technology Lifetime Achievement Award and a Banff Centre National Arts Award.
The GG Lifetime Artistic Achievement Awards recognize artists for their outstanding body of work and enduring contribution to the performing arts in Canada in the categories of theatre, dance, classical music, broadcasting, popular music and film. Other 2026 Lifetime Achievement Award winners were filmmaker James Cameron, dancer and choreographer Sylvain Émard, singer/songwriter and poet Daniel Lavoie, and screen actor and producer, arts executive and activist Tonya Williams.
Short National Film Board profiles are being made about each winner. Filming under the direction of Vancouver’s Jennifer Chiu took place on Salt Spring last weekend.
Another Salt Spring resident was similarly honoured one year ago when furniture designer/maker Peter Pierobon received Canada’s top honour in fine craft — the Saidye Bronfman Award — as part of Governor General’s arts awards.
What a delight it was to see Susan Benson recognized, once again, for her achievements. An enthusiastic and encouraging mentor to me, at the Stratford Festival in the 1970s, I remain one of her many fans.
– Anne Bone