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Selection Committee Announced for BMO Financial Group’s Student Art Competition  

 

The judges for the inaugural ‘1st Art! Invitational Student Art Competition’ were announced today by the event’s sponsor, BMO Financial Group.

The 1st Art! competition was started earlier this year as a vehicle to celebrate the work of student artists from over 80 post-secondary education institutions across Canada.  Entries into the competition were determined by deans and administrators of studio art programs, who were invited to nominate the work of three of their graduating students.  From the estimated 100 to 150 entries, the judging committee will choose 13 winning pieces, one from every province and territory.

“We are very proud of this event because it will allow some of Canada’s best young artists to participate in a national competition for the very first time,” said Dawn Cain, Curator for the BMO Financial Group art collection.

The winning artists will receive a $1,000 cash prize and their artwork will become part of BMO Financial Group’s corporate art collection.   BMO’s collection is exhibited in its corporate and branch offices from coast-to-coast and includes the work of well known historical and contemporary Canadian masters such as Kenojuak Ashevak, Emily Carr, Tom Forestall, Marc-Aurèle Fortin, Lawren Harris and hundreds of others.

The distinguished selection committee for this year’s 1st Art! competition is:

  • Anna Hudson, Ph.D. Associate Curator Canadian Art, Art Gallery of Ontario
  • David Blackwood, Artist
  • Aaron Milrad, Art Collector & Arts Lawyer, Fraser Milner Casgrain
  • Barbara Fischer, Director & Curator, Blackwood Gallery
  • Gilles Ouellette, President, and Chief Executive Officer, Private Client Group, BMO Financial Group
  • Dawn Cain, Ph.D. Curator, BMO Financial Group

The selection committee will meet on June 30, 2003 and the winners will be announced in the Fall issue of Canadian Art magazine.

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