By CAROLYN BELL FARRELL
We are delighted that Scott Elliott/The Sarjeant Company is the inaugural winner of the first Business Award, announced at the 2011 Barrie Arts Awards earlier this week. Scott Elliot has been the lead supporter of the MacLaren's VanGo program for many years, ensuring that the Gallery's signature outreach education programme in the schools continues to thrive.
With Scott's support, each year the MacLaren brings professional artists into local and regional schools for hands-on art-making workshops in the classrooms.
As visual arts resources in the schools continue to diminish, teachers and students tell us how important this programme is to them.
In the 2010/11 school year, more than 8,500 students participated in VanGo and every one of those children will no doubt join us in acknowledging Scott's important role in this inspiring studio-arts opportunity.
A new initiative, The Sarjeant Co. Design Project was launched last spring and strengthens the MacLaren's and Sarjeant's commitment to fostering the creative talents of young people in our community.
For some time Scott has seen the potential for using his fleet of concrete trucks as an ideal canvas for student artworks. With this vision in mind, the MacLaren saw an opportunity to invite local high school students to develop this mobile public art initiative.
Sarjeant enabled the gallery to hire regional artist Tim Laurin to lead workshops with 85 high-school students at five Barrie high schools.
Each student created a "monumental" design that would translate well to a large-scale project.
In May of 2011, each design was displayed in the MacLaren's Molson Community Gallery on an inventive "drum roll" that showed the 360-degree designs off to best effect. Ultimately, four designs were selected for transfer to the truck drums and the beginning of this new fleet.
Scott's generosity and vision for the community of Barrie extends beyond the MacLaren: he has been an active supporter of RVH; Georgian College; Lakehead University; Talk is Free Theatre' Barrie Public Library; Out of the Cold; and Communities in Bloom, to name a few.
At the recent MacLaren, Legacy Dinner, Scott shared his own belief in the MacLaren and the value of supporting the arts and culture: "The arts make a community far more complete... The MacLaren Art Centre is one of the pillars of our community; it helps define our cultural identity."
We believe that Scott is the best kind of arts patron: he invests himself fully in supporting the arts community not only with his financial support, but also by his actions. Congratulations, Scott.
Carolyn Bell Farrell is executive director of the MacLaren Art Centre.
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