Donna Cardinal to receive 2003 ACE Award

WATERLOO, Ont. -- Donna Cardinal, a self-employed consultant at Cardinal Concepts in Edmonton and senior associate at the Futures-Invention Association, is the recipient of this year's Association of Cultural Executives (ACE) Award.

Presented annually to a member of the association based at the University of Waterloo, the award recognizes "outstanding contribution and dedication to Canadian cultural management."

Cardinal's contributions to Canadian cultural management will be honoured at the ACE annual general meeting tonight at the Toronto Centre for the Arts at which time she will receive the 2003 ACE Award.

She graduated in 1970 from the University of British Columbia with a bachelor of education, majoring in theatre and English. She also recently earned a master of arts in Canadian Studies at the University of Alberta.

In 1979, Cardinal became the Chair of Arts Administration at Grant MacEwan Community College in Edmonton. During her three years there, she originated the new program, developed curriculum, taught core courses and supervised students on work experience placements with arts companies in Canada and the USA.

From 1985 to 1991, she was the Director of Arts and Multiculturalism in the City of Edmonton. In 1992, she went on to become the Project Director of the Cultural Leadership Development Project at the Centre for Cultural Management (CCM) at the University of Waterloo, which was a $1.2-million nation-wide project involving 240 cultural leaders in distance learning innovation.

As a community volunteer, Cardinal currently serves as President for the Canadian Cultural Research Network. She was also a board Member of the Edmonton Arts Council for three years starting in 1997.

During 1986 to 1987, she was co-chair with UW Associate Dean of Arts (Special Programs) John Stubbs for the Study Group on Management Development Needs of Publicly Funded Not-for-Profit Arts and Heritage Organizations in Canada, a major national inquiry launched by the Canadian Association of Arts Administration Educators (CAAAE).

Cardinal's main areas of focus include envisioning, community-based planning, teaching and learning, cultural leadership, cultural policy, arts management, training of trustees, building communities of learners at a distance and working with volunteers.

ACE is Canada's only cross-disciplinary network of cultural managers working in all fields performing, visual and heritage arts. Its secretariat is housed at the Centre for Cultural Management at UW.

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Contacts:

William Poole, ACE Past President, (519) 888-4567, ext. 5057; wpoole@uwaterloo.ca

Alisha Ahad, ACE Administrator, (519) 888-4567, ext. 6119; ccmcoop@watarts.uwaterloo.ca

From Jim Fox, UW Media Relations, (519) 888-4444; jfox@uwaterloo.ca

Release no. 213 -- November 6, 2003