(Jenna Lutz)

By Josh Hall (Twitter: @Vancan19)

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Lacombe supports local artists with 2023 endowment awards

Apr 19, 2023 | 7:00 PM

Artists in Lacombe were honoured recently through the City’s Arts Endowment Awards.

A total of $11,000 went to five local artists, plus eight other local students.

“Historically, when governments and countries fall on hard times, the arts is typically one of the first things cut unfortunately,” says Maureen MacKenzie, the City’s Arts and Culture, and Cemetery Coordinator.

“Our endowment awards were set up so we could fund arts grants in perpetuity. All the donatiOns we receive go into into the Red Deer and District Community Foundation to be held, and we get a disbursement of the interest each year to be awarded.”

MacKenzie points out how the arts impact everyone, and why it’s important to boost local artists up when given the opportunity.

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“Oftentimes people think of are as paintings or drawings, but there’s also digital arts,” she says. “Every sign maker has an arts background. Everything we see on TV or on the radio is based on the arts, and the arts are where a lot of our collective history can be found.”

Awarded since 2006, the arts endowment awards have granted more than $300,000 to Lacombe artists.

That includes 21-year-old Jenna Lutz, one of this year’s recipients.

Lutz does commissions and sells her art under the brand Jenna Rianne Artistry.

“This award means they’re giving me a chance to reach my potential,” admits Lutz, whose putting her grant towards attending the Alberta University of the Arts.

Jenna Lutz and her piece ‘Ethereal’. (City of Lacombe)

“A lot of people have ideas in their head and dreams they want to pursue, but don’t have the means to go after it; it’s a door waiting to be opened, which this grant helps with.”

As part of Lutz’s application for the awards, she submitted her piece ‘Ethereal,’ which is a pencil and pastel drawing of her own horse.

“When a municipality is looking at what’s important in a community, arts can get sidetracked because they don’t really hold the same amount of need or service,” says Lutz. “But at the end of the day, arts hold together a community. Arts makes up the culture of a community.”

The full list of recipients of the 2023 Lacombe Arts Endowment Awards is as follows:

Jenna Lutz – visual – Attending AU Arts in drawing & painting
Catherine Neal Ward – literary – Writing and creating an audiobook
Milena Boyko – visual – Drawing & painting at RDP
Holly Parker – performing – Violin Camp De Laurentides in Quebec
Bronwyn Reeves – visual – Attending U of A painting & drawing classes

Student recipients

Lucy Vessey (x2) – Jan Holoboff Jr. High School Art Award, Jan Holoboff Jr. High School Art Award Honorable Mention

Kayla Crooks (x2) – Charlie Donald Memorial Sr. High School Award, Bob Creurer Memorial Mixed Media/Abstract Art

Allison Grose – Charlie Donald Memorial Sr. High School Award Honorable Mention

Austin Demas – Dustin Peers Memorial Drawing Award

Scarlett Kratz – Bob Creurer Memorial Mixed Media/Abstract Art Honorable Mention

Isabella Abma – Dustin Peers Memorial Drawing Award