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Local Journalism Initiative Reporter
Windspeaker.com
From 150 applications, 11 artists have been chosen as recipients of the 2026 Emerging Artist Award from the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards Foundation.
Four are Indigenous: seth cardinal dodginghorse (music and visual artists), Connor Kerr (literary arts), Matthew Cardinal (music composition) and Lara Felsing (visual artist).
Each recipients received a $10,000 cash award, handcrafted medal and a certificate presented to them by Salma Lakhani, the Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, in a celebration at Government House in Edmonton.
“The recipients of the 2026 Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Emerging Artists Awards are already producing exciting work that pushes the boundaries of their respective disciplines, and it is thrilling to know that they have only just begun exploring their own artistic voices, said Lakhani in a press release. "These early years are a crucial time for all artists, who require training, mentoring, encouragement, and the time and space simply to create. With the support provided by this awards program, these talented individuals will be able to reach the next level in their artistic careers.”
Since the foundation’s inception in 2005 there have been 95 artists who received the Emerging Artists Awards and 29 recipients of the Distinguished Artists Award totaling about $1.9-million. The two awards are rotated annually.
“It’s such a remarkable story that 20 years ago some keen people in the province… set up the awards, sought the funds and got them into the endowment,” said Kathy Classen, executive director of the foundation.
Connor Kerr (Métis) is the author of numerous books, most recently Beaver Hills Forever.
seth cardinal dodginghorse of the Tsuut’ina Nation came to national attention after cutting his braids in protest at the opening of a ring road at Calgary. The construction of the road displaced his family. He has since been involved in high profile art exhibitions, including Yoko Ono’s exhibition, Growing Freedom in 2021.
Matthew Cardinal's work focuses on composition, scoring and sound design centering around society and nature.
“He stood out for (the jurors) musically just because of the difference in what he’s doing that they just found really interesting,” said Classen. “He’s doing a number of film scores and scores for videos and that sort of thing, and there you get a sense of how his visual awareness and that visual strength that he has … how it also informs what he hears when he’s watching a film, when he’s seeing something and how he incorporates a sound into it. They were fascinated by that and just that it was very original.”
Cardinal of Edmonton performs both as a solo artist and with other musicians. He also is a visual artist creating lens-based art.
“I would say my day job right now is making music for movies, films and documentaries,” Cardinal said. “And I feel very fortunate to be able to do that. I’m also making my own music and I perform here and there and that helps me out. It’s just kind of doing all these things and that’s kind of keeping me afloat.”
The cash award will provide a financial cushion for Cardinal, he said, so “there’s kind of less to worry about." He said he will be able to invest in certain areas of his practice and relieve some stress.
That sentiment was echoed by Lara Felsing (Cree Métis), who said she will use a portion of the award to purchase some new items for her studio that will help her in her creative process.
“A part of being an artist is these kinds of ups and downs and highs and lows, and this is a really significant prize that will help support my practice and artistic growth,” she said.
Felsing’s art is created from nature.
“I make a lot of pieces with cast-offs from the forest, my home, and the pieces are based on making crazy quilts, patchwork, or I make baskets and pigments or paintings,” Felsing explained.
Much of her art is compostable, but she incorporates second-hand items from the community to create sculptures too.
“I do a little bit of everything, depending on what stories I’m talking about,” she said. “The work responds to what’s happening on the land here where I live just outside Edson.”
As part of the application process, Felsing was given the opportunity to showcase her work, including her basketry.
“They (the jurors) were really impressed with the focus that she has decided to take...with natural materials and allowing time and environment to affect that and just sort of bringing that awareness to the audiences. There’s something very genuine about it,” said Classen.
Due to her art being unique in the way that everything is compostable or has a limited life cycle, Felsing said she was “shocked” to be one of the recipients.
“My work is a little bit different than a lot of work somebody might see in a traditional art gallery,” she said. “Colours fade and things become brittle and they start to be composted. I think it’s really beautiful. It just shows that these materials that come from the land are very much alive and meant to go back to land as we are. But from a kind of more general museum of art gallery perspective, they don’t have that longevity.”
“The jurors were blown away by both of them,” added Classen.
The other recipients include Sydney Baedke (music soprano), Jessica Simone Carmichael (literary arts), Alison DeRegt (theatre puppetry), Jerome "K-Riz" Henry (music, Hip-Hop, R & B), Dayna Lea Hoffmann (theatre), Conor Daniel Kerr (literary arts), Tayte Mitchell (music, opera), and Paula Turcotte (literary arts).
For more information on how to apply for the awards visit Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards - Lieutenant Governor of Alberta Arts Awards