Arts Leadership Awards

In 2004 WEA instituted the distinguished Arts Leadership Awards Program to celebrate individuals who have demonstrated exceptional achievement in the arts within the Windsor community. Cash awards will be presented biennially, in partnership with the named sponsor, to a person working in Windsor or vicinity for achievement relating to the arts.

The Alistair MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement

Congratulations! Windsor Endowment for the Arts (WEA) will honour award-winning children's writer Christopher Paul Curtis with the Alistair MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement on Saturday, Nov. 1 at 7 pm during BookFestWindsor 2008.

The MacLeod Award will be presented at the Art Gallery of Windsor. The public is invited to attend.

Christopher Paul Curtis is a master storyteller whose fictional world leaves readers with a gift of hope and insight into their real world experiences. With sensitivity and humour, he weaves fiction and reality into wonderful books for young people.

Curtis spent 13 years working on the assembly line in Flint, Michigan, before officially beginning his writing career. He made an outstanding debut in 1995 when his first book The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 received both the Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Honor. His next novel Bud, Not Buddy was honoured with the Newbery Award and the Coretta Scott King Author Award. Again with his latest novel Elijah of Buxton, Curtis was awarded a Newbery Honor and the Coretta Scott King Author Award.

Curtis has continued to earn awards and recognition including being named to the New York Times bestseller list. He received the Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction, endorsements by the American Library Association (ALA) and Literary Guild. He has won the ALA Best Books for Young Adults, the Publishers Weekly Best Books of the Year, the ALA Notable Children's Books, and the School Library Journal Best Books of the Year.

"We are very pleased to honour such an exceptional writer," said Carolyne Rourke, President of Windsor Endowment for the Arts. "Our professional jury reviewed the nominations and chose Christopher Paul Curtis because of his contribution to literature and his outstanding impact on the community. The nominations were all exceptional and we are very grateful to those who participated in the process."

Janet Ouellette, a retired superintendent of education with the Windsor-Essex Catholic District School Board, facilitated the three-person jury. The jurors for the award were Lillian Allen, Toronto, Ontario; David French, St. Peter's Bay, Prince Edward Island and Nino Ricci, Toronto, Ontario.

The Alistair MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement was designed to celebrate individuals who have demonstrated exceptional literary achievement within the Windsor community.

A cash prize of $1,000 is awarded to a person who is, or has been for a significant period, resident in the Windsor region. It is expected that some relevant aspect of the person's influence has been experienced in this region.

The first Alistair MacLeod Award for Literary Achievement was presented in partnership with BookFestWindsor 2006, on Sunday, November 5, 2006 at The Art Gallery of Windsor, to author Nino Ricci.

Michael J. Farrell Award for Education in the Arts

The Michael J. Farrell Award for Education in the Arts was named in honour of a professor at the University of Windsor who has dedicated 37 years to teaching and inspiring students. The award celebrates an individual who has made an outstanding contribution in the field of arts education.

To celebrate and introduce the community to the 'Michael J. Farrell Award for Education in the Arts', WEA organized a series of events including art and heritage tours celebrating the work of Albert Kahn in Walkerville which culminated in the granting of the first Arts Leadership Award at Willistead Manor, to Christine Goodchild, former Curator of Arts Education, Art Gallery of Windsor. Ms. Goodchild now teaches in the Greater Essex County District School Board.

The second 'Michael J. Farrell Award for Education in the Arts' was awarded to Merry Ellen Scully Mosna on Friday, November 9, 2007 during Friday Live at the Art Gallery of Windsor.