Culture Counts Awards winners announced

The City of Oshawa congratulates this year’s Oshawa Culture Counts Awards who are being celebrated for their significant creative and cultural achievements within the community.

The City of Oshawa has chosen three winners for its annual Oshawa Culture Counts Awards. Launched in November 2017, the program’s goal is to celebrate and honour the creative and cultural achievements of the community. The Professional Artist, Emerging Artist and Innovation and Creation Champion Awards were formally presented by Oshawa City Council to winners at the Monday, June 26, Council meeting.

The Oshawa Culture Counts Professional Artist Award recipient is Oshawa artist Susan Campbell. The award recognizes an established artist of any arts discipline who has demonstrated creativity, originality, professional maturity and artistic leadership in the community.

Multi-disciplinary artist Diana Nadia Lawryshyn received the Oshawa Culture Counts Emerging Artist Award, which recognizes emerging artists between the ages of 12 to 30 who are in the early stages of their careers. The award encompasses all arts disciplines recognizing those that are skilled and determined to advance their artistic capabilities and leverage these skills to inspire and enrich the lives of fellow citizens.

The third award recognizes Anushka and Arushi Bhattacharjee with the Innovation and Creation Champion Award. The award honours individuals, collectives and/or organizations in the creative and cultural industries who have created or enhanced an event, product, program or partnership in the past year.  

To learn more about the Oshawa Culture Counts Awards and the Community Legends Award, visit Oshawa.ca/CultureCountsAwards.

Stay Connected

For more information on Culture Counts, visit Oshawa.ca/CultureCounts. For City of Oshawa updates, visit Oshawa.ca/NewsCentre to follow us on social media, subscribe to news and alerts, and have your say on Connect Oshawa.

Artist Biographies:

Professional Artist: Susan Campbell

Susan Campbell is an Oshawa-based interdisciplinary artist. She obtained a Masters of Fine Arts in Art, Media and Design from OCAD University after extensive studies in design and digital media in Ireland. Susan now teaches art and design at OCAD University and at Durham College.

Susan’s artwork investigates signs and patterns of urban intensification as played out on development sites, parking lots and sidewalks. Her art frequently explores physical mapping practices as a means to interpret and reflect on the design dynamics found within the urban landscape, confronting issues brought about by the intensification of urban development.

She has exhibited across Canada and internationally, including at the Art Gallery of Mississauga, Cambridge Galleries and the Robert McLaughlin Gallery. Susan has received numerous grants, including from the Canada Council for the Arts and the Ontario Arts Council.

Emerging Artist Award: Diana Nadia Lawryshyn

Diana Nadia Lawryshyn is a Ukrainian-Canadian multi-disciplinary artist from Oshawa. Diana is a multi-instrumentalist and composer, blending traditional and modern technological methods. Her music uses thoughtful arrangement of sound to tell a story full of imagery. Diana attended Queen’s University, where she obtained her undergraduate degree in music, education and visual art. Upon graduation she was awarded the Maurice Dubin Prize in Composition. She is continuing her studies of the arts at the University of Toronto.

Her visual artwork focuses on cultural iconography, visual cryptography and magnifying perceptions of the ordinary. Diana produces a unique style of visual art by utilizing many techniques including surrealism, abstraction and texture. Her works have been featured in exhibitions at the Robert McLaughlin Gallery, Whitby’s Station Gallery and Kingston’s Storefront Gallery.

Diana is an active volunteer with the Ukrainian-Canadian community in Oshawa. She has displayed her artwork at various community events, donated prints to raise money for Ukraine, and volunteered her time as piano accompanist for concerts performed by students at the Ivan Franko Ukrainian School of Oshawa, as well as led art and music workshops.

Innovation and Creation Champion Award: Anushka and Arushi Bhattacharjee

Anushka Bhattacharjee, 10 years old, and Arushi Bhattacharjee, seven years old are published authors from Oshawa. Anushka’s love of reading at a very early age led to her becoming a young author. When she was unable to borrow books from the library during the pandemic she decided to write her own story so she would be able to read it. Anushka published her first book, “My Magic Mirror” at eight years old and won the Readers’ Favorite Gold Award.

Inspired by her sister, Arushi started writing her own book when she was five years old. Her book, “T-Rex Trouble!!!” is a first place Firebird Book Award winner.

The Bhattacharjee sisters hope to inspire many young readers to become authors. They visit local schools, including Alexander Graham Bell P.S., Claremont P.S., Stephen G. Saywell P.S., and more. They also have one-on-one sessions with other children to help them in their writing process. Anushka and Arushi give back to their community and donate part of their proceeds to charitable organizations like Durham Children’s Aid Association.

Quotes:

“Culture Counts is an integral part of the Oshawa creative community,” said Mayor Dan Carter. “On behalf of City Council, I am honoured to introduce this year’s Culture Counts Award winners – we celebrate you and your contributions to the great City of Oshawa.”­­­­

“The City of Oshawa recognizes and encourages budding leaders in the cultural sector as we contribute to the vibrancy of our community and further establish us as Toronto’s most dynamic neighbour and an as amazing metropolitan city to live, work, learn and invest,” said Councillor Tito-Dante Marimpietri, Chair of the Economic and Development Services Committee.” 

“Congratulations to this year’s award winners. Your work inspires all ages and reminds everyone that pursuing your passion can enrich an entire community,” said Councillor Bob Chapman, Vice-Chair of the Economic and Development Services Committee.