Arts and Culture

Steve Medd is the founder of Music By the River and now is featured as a guest artist along with his friend, Jon McLurg, a member of the popular band Turpins's Trail. Steve is becoming well known for his historical ballads of the rich history of Napanee and area. John's beautiful guitar work and tender folk songs are a must for a Sunday afternoon in the park. Steve Medd has a number of recordings to his credit including the first appearance of Avril Lavigne on record. John as a member of Turpin's Trail is on all their recordings as well as his own.
Visit Jon's website to learn more.

Noelle Maracle is 17 years old from Tyendinaga who is a student at Napanee District Secondary School. She’s been singing since she was 8 years old.

Early on in her singing career she began posting videos on YouTube and has had over 26,000,000 views. She has over 92,000 subscribers on her YouTube channel. Early in her career she won YTV’s “Virtual Next Star”. She has had the honour of singing at the National Aboriginal Achievements Awards, and Andrea Menard’s TV Christmas Special. She was also honoured to write the ballad song for Dance for Kindness 2016.

Recently Noelle represented our area very well as a contestant on CTV’s "The Launch." She has just signed a record deal with Wax Records (Universal). She has been song writing with producers in Sweden and California. She has been spending about 5 days a week in Toronto working on her debut album for Wax Records.

Noelle still contributes regularly in the area and won’t be forgetting her roots. She recently performed at Performers Showcase in Kingston. Over the years she has shared her talent with residents in various senior homes in the area as well as at baseball, hockey and major curling events.

Noelle is pursuing her career in music full time and seems to have a great future ahead of her. She is a very engaging young girl who is an outstanding representative of the area of Tyendinaga, Deseronto, Greater Napanee, and the Bay of Quinte.

The Town of Greater Napanee, upon recommendation of the Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, hereby recognizes Noelle Maracle for her many achievements thus far by presenting her with the Student Artist Award for 2018.

Behind many wonderful efforts in our community is an individual who is always willing to share the love and joy that being an artist has given him. Barry Lovegrove is a multi-talented local artist working in a variety of disciplines: singing, song writing, watercolour painting, photography and entertaining.

As a young musician growing up in the UK Barry was an active participant in the burgeoning 60’s music scene, touring with “The Jet Blacks” band throughout Britain. He moved to Canada, and while living in Montreal taught painting for several years on a local Montreal cable network. His work can be found in both corporate and private collections. Many of his pieces feature family homesteads and local scenery since he enjoys creating cherished mementoes for his clients.

After moving to this area over 10 years ago, Barry took up photography and worked as a photographer for “The Scoop”, a Tamworth –based local lifestyle magazine highlighting the interesting people, places, and stories of the area. His beautiful people-oriented images were often featured on the cover of the magazine. Today he combines his love of music and photography as the official photographer for events like Starstop Concerts and Tamworth’s TECDC Concert Series. You can see many of his stunning photos on his Facebook page.

You’ll also find him touring local seniors homes and social organizations with his ukulele band, “SMILE”, bringing fun songs and stories and a big smile to the many folks that enjoy their concerts.

Wherever you might see Barry, you can bet he is being generous with his time, sharing an entertaining musical story, photographing a local musical concert, making people smile with his heartfelt music and song or lending a helpful hand to a good cause.

In light of all of these activities, the Town of Greater Napanee, upon recommendation of the Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, wishes to recognize Barry Lovegrove with an Established Artist Award for 2018

In 1969, construction at Napanee District Secondary School had provided for a music room so Principal Charlie Froud asked Vice-Principal Ed Thompson to ‘see what he could do’ about getting someone to head up a new program of instrumental music. Ernie Doughty was selected and the program began with 40 students in Grades 7,8 and 9. Ernie was able to work his magic and the program grew exponentially.

Ernie managed to arrange private lessons for many of the students in his classes. The lessons were taught by members of the military band in Kingston.

He also formed the Band Boosters, a group of volunteer parents and interested citizens who helped him with the non-musical aspects of running the program. The Band Boosters raised a great deal of money for band trips and competitions.

By 1978 there were over 400 students taking music in a school of around 1600 students which was a remarkable accomplishment. The music program continued under Ernie’s direction for many years before he became a Vice-Principal.

Ernie is well known for some of his other accomplishments within our community including at his church, Lennox & Addington County General Hospital and the Masonic Lodge in Napanee. In his retirement he put his writing skills to use and wrote the history of the Masonic Lodge from 1812 to the present as well as a book celebrating 50 years of the hospital from 1966 to 2016.

Particularly for his role in founding the NDSS music program and developing an interest, appreciation and the skill of music in many of our local young people, but also for his preservation of history through his writing, the Town of Greater Napanee, upon recommendation from the Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, wishes to recognize Ernie Doughty posthumously with a Lifetime Achievement Individual Award for 2018. This award will be presented to his wife, Mary Doughty.

While many of us would credit Jim Wood as the one who kept our home fires burning throughout his career as the owner of McKeown and Wood, we wish to recognize him for one of the other hats he has worn for approximately twenty years.

For that period of time Jim has been working quietly behind the scene as the “Lighting Guru” at the Lennox Community Theatre. He has also provided support to the theatre by offering rehearsal space at McKeown & Wood for the next play while a current production is using the theatre stage.

There are many things that go into making a theatre production successful: good producing, good acting, good directing, good stage managing, good set design, good set building, good set decoration, good costuming, good props managing, to name a few.

However, imagine a show with no lights or poor lighting or the absolute wrong lighting for what is happening on stage. For years Jim has answered the call of producers to be the lighting guy and the call of directors to get exactly the lighting they are looking for. Jim has ensured that the lighting of the show reflects the mood on stage whether it needs to be bright, dark, sunny, moody or limited to a single spot to bring focus to a single actor or item on stage.

Jim has worked tirelessly, mostly by himself, climbing ladders, hanging lights, aiming lights, programming lights and setting the scene to optimize the experience for both the actors and the audience. If you know the Selby theatre space, you will realize that just climbing up into the lighting booth each night is an accomplishment in itself.

There’s nothing more exciting than when the lights go up on the opening scene of a play. When Jim Wood is behind the controls you know the play will be seen it its best light.

Therefore, the Town of Greater Napanee, upon recommendation from the Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, wishes to recognize Jim Wood with a Lifetime Achievement Individual Award for 2018.

For thirteen years Stacey Anderson has worked tirelessly to organize, promote and orchestrate the very successful, annual art show, “Art Among the Ruins.” This fabulous event showcases the artistic talents of artists from our local area and beyond. With no admission fee, the public is invited to view the artists’ work while they stroll the magnificent grounds around the home of Stacey’s parents, Newburgh residents, David and Viola Anderson.  

David and Viola have always generously encouraged the show’s visitors to enjoy the gardens surrounding the ruins of an old stone mill complete, with views of the Napanee River and the Newburgh falls. For weeks prior to the event, the Andersons groom and carefully manicure their grounds, looking into every detail, large and small, to make the site safe and welcoming.

On the days leading up to the event and on the day of the show, the Anderson’s help transport art and display materials to individual sites and host a potluck for exhibiters at the end of the show. They do all of this manual labour with a smile and gracious air, making exhibiters and guests  feel like they are all part of something special. Indeed, they are – to our knowledge there is no other outdoor art show that could compare. Even free musical entertainment is provided, and a fundraising barbeque raises proceeds for a local charity.

Art Among The Ruins has grown to accommodate 70 exhibitors this year and it attracted between twenty five hundred and three thousand visitors. While parking in Newburgh might have been at a premium that day, we’re pretty sure the bakery and antique shop on the main street benefited from the increased traffic as did our whole region.

The Town of Greater Napanee, upon recommendation of the Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, hereby recognizes Art Among The Ruins as the Outstanding Event for 2018 and especially acknowledges the efforts of the organizers of this event: Stacey, David and Viola Anderson.

The LACGH has been supporting local visual artists for the past seven and a half years by making a dedicated gallery space available to them in the form of Community Corridor.

Many local artists have displayed their work there during this time and have benefitted from the high visibility this corridor affords as visitors, patients and staff traverse the corridor between the main doors of the hospital and the clinic or emergency areas. Student art shows have also been held each year as an encouragement to young and aspiring artists. Adult artists with varying levels of expertise have had opportunity to show and sell their work through this fine venue. Some have experienced the excitement of mounting their first show and making their first sales.

Some groups such as the Napanee Photo Club, Seniors Outreach Services and the Greater Napanee & Area Art Association have held annual shows in Community Corridor. All have been very appreciative of the opportunity.

Upon request, artists are made aware of the opportunity to give a percentage of sales as a donation to the hospital foundation, but they are not under obligation to do so. The hospital’s view was expressed by the hospital’s President and CEO, Wayne Coveyduck when the wall space was first designated for art displays. He said, “The hospital often asks for community support and this is one way we can give back to the community and support them.” This indeed has been a tremendous support to our local artists.

The Town of Greater Napanee, upon recommendation of the Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, hereby recognizes the Lennox & Addington County General Hospital by presenting the administration of the hospital with a Patron of The Arts Award for 2018.

Martin Barstow is a lifelong artist and art educator. He has been teaching art at Napanee District Secondary School since 1989. As an English teacher in his early years, Martin helped to organize writers’ festivals for elementary school students and started a creative writing club in the school. He has been the Department Head of Art for seventeen years. Martin has given the visual arts a highly visible profile in the school. You can’t walk through the halls of NDSS without seeing his influences. He has helped students create murals throughout the building. As a practicing artist, Martin acts as a role model for students by creating art work in the classroom. There is always some kind of project going on in addition to the art making by students.

Martin is generous with his time and has contributed to many other school initiatives. He designs, builds and paints sets and props for countless theatre productions in our school for other schools and community groups. He judges and coordinates art contests for community groups. He has coordinated and displayed student artwork at the Art Among the Ruins show, the LACGH art gallery and other student art galleries for many years. Martin also initiated the changeover from dark room to digital photography and he brought and developed digital media to the NDSS Art program.

Martin is currently coordinating the Specialist High Skills Major program at NDSS for Arts and Culture. He voluntarily takes on extra students as co-op students so that they can earn their Specialist High Skills Major requirement for graduation and he also serves as an Associate Teacher for Queens University Faculty of Education students who are about to embark on their own teaching careers.

The Town of Greater Napanee, upon recommendation of the Arts & Culture Advisory Committee, wishes to recognize Martin Barstow for his dedication to the development of many young aspiring artists with the Arts Educator Award for 2018.