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) honoured 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.

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. He also received the 2008 TD Canadian Children's Literature Award for Elijah of Buxton. The TD Award honours the most distinguished book of the year.

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

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.

The second 'Michael J. Farrell Award for Education in the Arts' was awarded to Merry Ellen Scully Mosna on Friday, November 9, 2007.

Since coming to Windsor in 1976, Merry Ellen Scully Mosna has always found a way to engage in the practice of community arts education and development in the local area and beyond. For the last thirty years, Merry Ellen Scully Mosna has been a dedicated volunteer in the arts/culture community in Windsor working educate people of all ages and interests in the benefits of art in our city.

Merry Ellen is dedicated to the ongoing promotion of art education in Windsor and is always willing to prepare food for a celebration, billet visiting artists, drive equipment around or just help move a crate or two. Doing is really part of the consumption of art for her.

The former First Vice President of the Art Gallery of Windsor, she became the new President in March 2007. This is an exciting opportunity to continue to help make our community an integral part of the regional, and national cultural fabric. From her point of view, no job's too big, no job's too small, let's do it all.

She has also volunteered her personal time to the development of many new culture groups including The Purple Theatre Company, and more. Merry Ellen's dedication over the last thirty years has justly earned her the Michael J. Farrell Award for Education in the Arts.