Winnipeg artist wins first-ever Salt Spring National Art Prize

It's time for a SSNAP decision. The Salt Spring National Art Prize announced its inaugural winners today, and Winnipeg's Corrie Peters is the recipient of the best-in-show prize, claiming $10,000 in cash and an artist residency on the Gulf Island valued at $5,000. 

(View her work, and pieces by the other honourees, in the above gallery.)

Earlier this fall, CBC Arts told you about the competition, which aims to celebrate the best in homegrown contemporary art. A blind jury selected 52 visual artists — a mixture of veterans and rookies working in an assortment of disciplines.

Peters' winning contribution is a sculpture entitled Building (All the rooming houses on my street have had their front door removed). The piece incorporates a variety of media, including thread, cement and even the door from her childhood home in Boissevain, Manitoba. As she writes in her artist statement: "My socially engaged practice can be understood as working to rebuild doors whose removal increases vulnerability and removes dignity. This piece is documentation of that process."

A three-member jury selected Peters as the best-in-show winner. A total of $25,000 in awards money, including Peters' prize was distributed by SSNAP, and all funds were raised by local donors. Other recipients include Annie Baillargeon (Quebec City), Jessie McNeil (Vancouver) and M.E. Sparks (Vancouver), who received $1,000 Juror's Choice Awards. Three People's Choice Awards were announced, with Nicola Wheston (Salt Spring Island), Patricia Slighte (Yellowknife) and Eric Button (Vancouver) earning $3,000, $2,000, and $1,000 respectively. Susan Huber, chosen by the jury as the best local artist, won the Alliance of Salt Spring Artists $1,000 award. The announcement caps a month-long exhibition of the 52 finalists' art work at Salt Spring Island's Mahon Hall. 

As SSNAP founding director Ronald T. Crawford told CBC Arts earlier this fall, the organization hopes to make the awards a biannual event. SSNAP's intent, per their website, is "to encourage artists whose practice demonstrates originality, quality, integrity and creativity, resulting in significant work with a real visual impact and depth of meaning."

Their website has more info on the prize, and this year's winners.