Since 2007, our Student Arts Award program has been helping County youth pursue their artistic dreams by providing $1000 scholarships to support their pursuit of post-secondary education in the Arts or Arts Administration. This award has supported young musicians, theatre artists, visual artists, game artists, dancers, filmmakers, and more!
The scholarship is in the amount of $1000, and can only be awarded once in a student’s academic career. 2025 Applications will open in May 2025.
Congratulations to our 2018-present recipients!
This unique and dynamic program is designed for youth ages 13-16 with an interest in, or curiosity about the art of craft. Participants will learn, play, and build using a variety of materials such as clay, wood, glass, metal, and fibre to create functional and decorative objects.
The program is delivered by local professional artisans, artists and other members of the craft sector. Courses will take place at the County Arts Lab, Unit 2E (upper level) of the Picton Armoury. Click here to learn more.
In Spring 2023, a team of youth artists from the Recreation Outreach Centre (ROC), supported by four Artist Facilitators from County Arts (Kat Burns, Tim Snyder, Kaya Joan, and Ambivalently Yours), designed and created a series of murals entitled Do You Belong Here: Open Hearts Open Minds. The mural panels were affixed to the tennis court fence in Picton’s Benson Park from June-August 2023 for the summer-long enjoyment of the entire community.
“During our mural planning sessions my co-facilitators and I had the privilege of hearing first hand how this smart and motivated group of young people experience belonging — or don’t, in our community. We were all amazed by their ability to not only clearly name the problems they face but by their eagerness to find solutions to these problems. Our amazement then doubled when these talented artists began painting their ideas onto the panels, working collaboratively so seamlessly, which is not an easy thing to do. This mural is a representation of how belonging can be both cohesive and diverse at the same time. A queer love story, a clean and sustainable environment, a call for freedom and opportunity can exist in the same world as a dog in a tuxedo and a mouse in a top hat. Reminding us that demanding more out of our community does not have to erase all joy and whimsy from our life.” — Natalie aka Ambivalently Yours on behalf of the Artist Facilitator team
Through this project we were able to create learning and skills-building opportunities in design, murals, community-engaged art and more for both youth and professional artists. Sincere thanks to the Government of Canada for their support of this project through the Healthy Communities Initiative!
To make our membership program accessible to youth artists, we offer them a discounted membership price ($15), allowing them to access all of the benefits of a County Arts membership. We’ve even had a youth member win an award at Art in the County, our annual juried exhibition! We always have a youth representative on our Artist Advisory Committee – past and current members include Andie Csafordi and Alice Graham, two of our Student Arts Award recipients! – to ensure that we are hearing and working to respond to Prince Edward County’s youth artists.
“In the past couple years I have become involved with the Prince Edward County Arts Council as an Artist Advisory Committee member and a volunteer assistant with Georgia Papanicolaou’s Kids Drama class for three terms. I feel grateful for these opportunities, which have allowed me to be surrounded by knowledgeable artists and see some of the inner workings of County Arts. Seeing the arts community in the County growing makes me feel lucky to be involved in a little bit of the process!” ~ Alice Graham, 2023 Student Arts Award recipient and County Arts Youth Artist Member
Testimonial
We offer a whole range of community arts programming – in theatre, music, movement, and visual arts – for all ages, including children and youth, at our County Arts Lab! Check out our offerings and make sure to sign up for our Mailing List on our Community Arts Classes page.
County Arts Lab
