A Painter And A Real-Estate Developer Make Life Richer For B.C. And Canadian Visual Artists

Vancouver's lively visual-arts scene has been infused with even more energy this past year, through the inauguration of two important awards. In April, the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts in British Columbia bestowed upon Ann Kipling the first of its annual prizes of $25,000 for lifetime achievement by a B.C. artist. And in early September, the first annual Joe Plaskett Foundation Award of $25,000, designed to enable master's level or newly graduated Canadian painters to spend a year in Europe, was announced: it went to University of Victoria MFA candidate Mark Neufeld.

Already in place (since 1988) are the VIVA (Vancouver Institute for the Visual Arts) awards, two $10,000 prizes bestowed annually on mid-career B.C. artists and funded by the Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation. (The Shadbolt foundation also administers the Audain prize, and the VIVA and Audain ceremonies are combined.) The field is now covered: emerging, mid-career, and senior artists all benefit from cash awards created by extraordinary British Columbians. It's the best of giving in the visual arts.

THE BEST OF JOE PLASKETT

Joe Plaskett is sitting by a window in the lounge of the Sylvia Hotel. He's retelling anecdotes that together compose a picture of his life as an artist. His stories take place in New Westminster, where he was born in 1918; in San Francisco, New York, and Provincetown, where he studied art in the 1940s; in Paris, where he lived for half a century; and in rural Suffolk, the Eastern English county where he now resides. They also light upon half a dozen galleries across Canada, where he has shown and sold his highly collectible paintings. "I've been fortunate in my painting career," he says. "Since the beginning, people have bought my art. I've never starved in a garret." Despite Plaskett's years abroad, these exhibitions and sales have strengthened his enduring connection with his homeland, and his desire to bestow an award here.

"The award is, first, an homage to the art of painting, which is everything to me," he says. The discipline, he argues, is essential to art and yet has been overshadowed in recent years by newer forms such as photography, installation, and performance. "The award is also an homage to the country that gave me advantages I profited from." In 1946, on the recommendation of Group of Seven leader Lawren Harris, Plaskett won the first Emily Carr scholarship, which enabled him to study in the United States. A later provincial grant and federal fellowship allowed him to further his studies in Europe.

The Emily Carr scholarship launched his painting career, Plaskett explains, and his Canadian patrons have kept it afloat. "I owe my livelihood to the country I come from and to its enlightened citizens. I now want to pay my dues, to express my gratitude."

Plaskett arrived in Paris in 1949 and for 12 years rented an antique-filled room on the Boulevard Saint-Germain. In 1963, he and a friend bought two floors of a 15th-century house in the Marais district for $4,000. "The Marais was then called an aristocratic slum," he recalls. "It was full of glorious architecture...but it had fallen into decay." In the decades since Plaskett acquired his property, the area has become extremely fashionable. The "slum" has been restored, and real-estate prices have soared.

The proceeds of the sale of his Paris property constitute the trust fund from which the Joe Plaskett award is drawn. "I had access to capital that owed nothing to me or my talent," he says. "It occurred to me that I might pass on to a younger generation some of the advantages I'd had in my youth." As for his old age, Plaskett says he looks forward to returning to his Suffolk home and getting back to work. "Time is running out. I want to spend all my time painting."

THE BEST OF MICHAEL AUDAIN

The reception area, hallways, and offices of the Polygon Group are filled with the art of this place. Paintings and prints by Gordon Smith, Jack Shadbolt, Don Jarvis, Takao Tanabe, Alan Wood, and Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun reveal the love and commitment of Polygon Homes Ltd. chairman and CEO Michael Audain. He is an ardent supporter of British Columbia art and artists. "I'm interested in the province," he says simply. "I feel very much at home here." His Dunsmuir ancestors, he explains, came to B.C. from Scotland in 1851. "I'm the fifth generation of my family to live here."

Audain talks about how fascinated he has recently become with the indigenous art of the Northwest Coast. He draws a line through traditional Northwest Coast art, Emily Carr, the West Coast modernists, and on into internationally recognized contemporary artists, such as Jeff Wall, based in Vancouver. "We've got a visual-art tradition that goes right through our history," he says. "And it's something I think we need to celebrate more and support more--substantially more."

A long-time collector and cultural philanthropist with an unconventional vocational history (before entering business, he held a number of jobs, including social worker, housing-policy consultant, and agricultural economist), Audain served on the Vancouver Art Gallery board from 1992 to 1998, including two years as its president. He is currently the chair of the VAG Foundation, working to establish a permanent endowment dedicated to operating costs. "My aim is to have the endowment there at the $5-million level by the end of the year," he says, adding that it eventually should reach $25 or $30 million.

Through his own family trust, the Audain Foundation for the Visual Arts in British Columbia, established in 1997, he has supported a long list of exhibitions, events, and publications, and this past June he donated an unprecedented $2 million to the VAG to establish and fund the new position of curator of B.C. art. The foundation had already made a generous impression with the April launch of the first Audain Prize for the Visual Arts, in support of senior B.C. artists.

"The prize originated through conversations that I had over a number of years with Tak Tanabe," Audain says, referring to the senior West Coast painter and arts advocate. Tanabe was a tireless and ultimately successful lobbyist for the creation of the Governor General's Awards in Visual and Media Arts. "Tak felt there should be a juried award in the arts community," Audain explains. "Recognition for artists from their peers."

The Audain prize may involve jurying and recognition by the arts community, but the money isn't coming from that impecunious lot. It's coming from the Audain Foundation, which is setting an optimistic example for potential donors. "I'm hopeful that corporations and private individuals will start to step up to the plate more," Audain says, "and realize their responsibilities to support the arts and culture generally."