CORNWALL, Ontario – Cornwall has a new Hall of Fame to honour their local artists.
The Centre for the Arts Collective has raised money to create a digital Arts Hall of Fame. The Arts Hall of Fame will be stored on Blu-Ray discs and will be displayed on a 55″ flat screen television donated by Best Buy in Cornwall.
A breakfast will be taking place at the Cornwall Legion at 7:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 13 to celebrate the creation of the new hall of fame and to honour the inaugural inductees.
The first class of the Cornwall Arts Hall of Fame includes the following five people, Edith H. Stiles, Tom Thompson, Ron Sullivan, Lionel Tessier and Andy Trasuk.
Cornwall City Councillor Elaine MacDonald who is a member of the Centre for the Arts Collective said that the creation of this hall of fame is just the beginning.
“Someday, it will be the building block of our new arts Centre,” she said.
MacDonald explained that Cornwall’s vibrant arts community deserved a place of its own.
“We have so much art going on in town,”” she said. “We have the arts now let’s build them a home.”
The Cornwall Centre for the Arts Collective has received support from OBO Studios, The Seeker and Focus Art.
Focus Art provided some of the artwork that will be displayed as a part of the Hall of Fame presentation.
In addition to the artwork the Hall of Fame will also display a page for each of its five inductees. Each page will include a photo of the inductee, a brief biography and a photo of their art or one of their performances.
Another member of the Centre for the Arts Collective explained that the breakfast on Feb. 13 and the Hall of Fame are just the beginning and the Collective are planning to raise $50, 000 over five years to fund a new arts centre in Cornwall.
The City of Cornwall already has a trust fund established for the arts. Donations made to this trust fund are eligible for tax receipts.
The Feb. 13 breakfast will include a raffle for eight pieces of art that have been donated to the cause. Tickets are $15 each and are available at the Benson Centre and Scotiabank Cornwall.
Scotiabank is matching the funds raised by the breakfast up to $2,000 and the local branch will be sending volunteers to the breakfast.
