Six students from across the school district have received thousands in arts scholarship awards for their excellence in the field.
The Excellence in Arts Scholarship Awards are competitive merit scholarships worth $2,000 each student and are handed out by the ACT Arts Centre.
The awards are part the organization’s annual commitment to supporting the artistic aspirations of young people in the community.
This year the recipients are: Emily/Rubing Xiong, Ricky Dai, Abigail Franco, Makayla Gallacher, Gordon Geddes, and Lena Meszaros.
“The Arts Council honours these talented, well-deserving students and wishes them all the best success in their continued studies,” said Loretta Griffin-Jarvis, The ACT Arts Council chair of the awards committee of the board of directors.
“These awards can very often be the support that propels students into greater success. In fact, we recently learned one past Award recipient currently has a film at the Cannes Film Festival. It is exciting to think of the contributions these students will make to the future of the arts, and how the arts will contribute to their own futures as well,” said the committee chair.
For more than 20 years these scholarships provided by the Maple Ridge and Pitt Meadows Arts Council – a non-profit charitable society that operates the ACT Arts Centre with more than 50 years of community service in the arts – have supported graduating secondary school seniors in continued education at any accredited post-secondary institution.
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Selection is based on a combination of: demonstrated artistic achievement; technical skill and level of presentation; grades relating to the artistic category; personal resume; and planned attendance at a post-secondary institution.
Scholarship applicants are adjudicated by a panel of professionals in specialized artistic fields and are awarded by The ACT Arts Centre’s board of directors.
“There are so many life skills that the arts have given me, and I want to show my gratitude by giving back,”scholarship recipient Makayla Gallacher said.
The 2023 ACT Arts Centre Career in Arts scholarship recipients have been accepted to top institutions including the Ontario College of Art and Design, University of Victoria, Capilano University, and University of British Columbia.
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