The New Brunswick Museum thanks the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation Inc. for the recent generous donation of $20,000. The funds will be used for the development of the Sheila Hugh Mackay Collection of Strathbutler Award Winners at the New Brunswick Museum as well as strategic initiatives relating to the promotion of contemporary New Brunswick visual art. This ongoing support by the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation, Inc. is a strong confirmation of the New Brunswick Museum’s commitment to, and success with, our contemporary visual art programs.

The Strathbutler Award, currently valued at $25,000, is presented biennially by the Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation, Inc. in recognition of artists and craftspeople who have excelled in their fields, while also making a substantial contribution to the culture of our province. Each recipient, since the first award was presented in 1991, has been chosen by an independent jury of visual art professionals.

In 2000, Sheila Hugh Mackay made a significant donation of the work of the first five Strathbutler Award recipients to the New Brunswick Museum. The Sheila Hugh Mackay Foundation Inc. continued that generosity and now the collection has representative examples of the work of twenty-three of the artists and craftspeople who have helped to define the province’s creative landscape over the past quarter-century. In addition to being a legacy of objects, the Sheila Hugh Mackay Collection of Strathbutler Award Winners also documents a philanthropic gesture that is having a profound effect on contemporary New Brunswick art.

These new funds will also enable the New Brunswick Museum to initiate some new projects and improve some of the existing visual arts programs. Plans include the engaging of new voices in critical writing for exhibition catalogues, the sponsoring of short artist residencies or collaborations; and the support of research projects relating to the province’s visual arts.

For more information:

Caitlin Griffiths or Aristi Dsilva, Communications & Marketing, New Brunswick Museum
(506) 654-7059 or (506) 643-2358
info@nbm-mnb.ca