Johnnene Maddison – Photo by James Jacobik
Toronto, Wednesday, September 17th, 2014 – CARFAC announced today that London artist, Johnnene Maddison, has won the National Visual Arts Advocacy Award. This award honours a professional artist who has made a significant contribution to the Canadian visual arts community.
A mentor to many young artists, Maddison has taught art to adults for more than 40 years. She was on the committee that created the London Arts Council and served on their Board of Directors from 1997-2000. Maddison is a founding member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington DC. She has also volunteered with the London Artists’ Studio Tour and the Canadian Embroiderers’ Guild.
“I was born into a house full of women. The men were at war.” says Maddison. “I give these women credit for raising me to be strong, open minded, creative and brave.”
The National Visual Arts Advocacy Award will be presented in Toronto as part of the program for Artists for Artists – the National Conference for Visual Artists.
Award Presentation:
Saturday, September 20th, 8:00 pm
Artscape Youngplace, 180 Shaw Street
About Johnnene Maddison:
Originally from Detroit, Maddison has a BFA from the Pratt Institute in New York City and a Master of Arts in Education from the University of Michigan. She moved to Windsor in 1969 and later moved to London, Ontario, where she became a Canadian Citizen.
Most of Maddison’s work is about women’s issues and the place of women in society. Her current work is mixed media collage and acrylic. It deals with issues of female experiences and identity highlighting our personal struggles, chaos, fears plus our joys and triumphs.
Maddison’s most recent exhibition, Women, Work and WWII traveled to eight Ontario public galleries and was featured in magazines in Canada, the United States, England and Japan. Fifteen pieces were purchased by the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa. For more information, visit her website.
About the National Visual Arts Advocacy Award
The inaugural National Visual Arts Advocacy Award was presented to Kim Ondaatje and Tony Urquhart – two of CARFAC’s founding members – in 2008, in celebration of CARFAC’s 40th anniversary. A new era of arts activism was born under their leadership, and through this award, we pay tribute to further achievements made by artists in the improvement of the socio-economic conditions of visual artists, and the overall well-being of the visual arts community.
Marlene Creates of Portugal Cove, Newfoundland won in 2009; Todd Janes from Edmonton, Alberta received the award in 2010; Sarah Petite from Fredericton, New Brunswick was honored in 2011; Pat Durr from Ottawa in 2012 and Bill Horne from Wells BC in 2013.