Awards honour aspiring student artists

Wayne McNulty, Student Awards Manager, Prince Edward County Arts Council, with Jemima Heinricks, winner of PEC Arts Council Arts Award; Spencer Hatch, winner, Picton Kiwanis Visual Arts Award, and Dennis Margueratt, President-elect, Picton Kiwanis. Mary Tucker photo

The Prince Edward County Arts Council and Picton Kiwanis presented $500 awards to two aspiring student artists.

Jemima Heinricks and Spencer Hatch are both graduating from Centennial Secondary School next month and plan to pursue secondary education in the arts in September.

Jemima Heinricks received the Prince Edward County Arts Council award for her accomplishments in the performing arts. She will study at the University College Theatre Program, University of Toronto, and plans to pursue a career as a writer.

Heinricks has been involved in theatre since age six. She has studied many aspects of stage production at school,  performed with the Marysburgh Mummers and in school productions, sung with the Hastings and Prince Edward Children’s chorus and won awards for her dramatic work. Heinricks has also worked backstage for Centennial theatre productions, on sets and costumes for the Festival Players and performed in and helped produced a video featured at Picton Picturefest that has been selected as a finalist in the Toronto International Film Festival youth film event. Heinrick’s teacher describes her as an original and effective artist and actor.

Spencer Hatch received the Picton Kiwanis Club Visual Arts Award. She has been accepted into the Faculty of Arts at OCAD University in Toronto, with a major in drawing and painting, and plans a future as a practicing artist. Hatch is described by her teacher as a creative student who is influenced by her innovative mindset.

Hatch has gained experience in a range of arts subjects at school and has been involved in a variety of art-related extra-curricular activities, painting sets for the annual school musical, volunteering at Artsplus Gallery, hanging art in the school gallery, and representing the school art department on recruitment trips to local elementary schools.

The PEC Arts Council student award was founded five years ago when the council decided to set up a fund to support and encourage students continuing into post-secondary education in the arts.

“We very much appreciate contributions made to this fund by Arts Council members and are honoured the Picton Kiwanis Club has chosen to work with the council by offering its own annual award for visual arts, administered by the PEC Arts Council, to support emerging visual artists in the community and their education,” said Wayne McNulty, manager of the Student Awards program for the arts council.