April 24, 2019
OTTAWA—Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, will present the 2019 Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards (GGPAA) during a ceremony at Rideau Hall on Friday, April 26, 2019, at 6 p.m. The Governor General will also attend the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Gala at the National Arts Centre in Ottawa, on Saturday, April 27.
Lifetime Artistic Achievement Laureates
Laureates of the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award are selected from the fields of classical music, dance, film, popular music, broadcasting, and theatre.
Recipients of these awards are nominated by the general public.
Louise Bessette, concert pianist
Colm Feore, stage, film and television actor
Rick Mercer, satirist, comedian, screenwriter, actor and humanitarian
Lorraine Pintal, actress, director, writer and artistic director
Mavis Staines, innovative dance educator, collaborator and leader
Ramon John Hnatyshyn Award for Voluntarism
in the Performing Arts Laureate
Recognizes outstanding contributions by an individual or group in voluntary service to the performing arts in Canada. Recipients of this award are also nominated by the general public.
E. Noël Spinelli
National Arts Centre Award Laureate
Recognizes the work of an extraordinary nature by an individual artist or company in the past performance year. Recipients are selected by the NAC board of trustees from a list of candidates proposed by a nominating committee of NAC artistic programmers.
Sandra Oh, Actor and producer
GGPAA Mentorship Program
Each year, a past laureate of the Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award is invited to select a professional artist (or artists) to share, learn and grow from the experience and insight of their mentor. This year’s mentor is the distinguished documentary filmmaker and activist Alanis Obomsawin (2008 recipient of the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award). The protégé is First Nations artist and filmmaker Gop Bartibogue.
About the Governor General’s Performing Arts Awards
Created in 1992 by the late Right Honourable Ramon John Hnatyshyn, then-Governor General, and his wife, Gerda, the awards are presented annually to Canadians whose extraordinary achievements have contributed significantly to the enrichment of Canada’s cultural life. For more information, visit www.ggpaa.ca.
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Media wishing to cover this event are asked to confirm their attendance with the
Rideau Hall Press Office, and must arrive at the Princess Anne Entrance no
later than 5:45 p.m. on the day of the ceremony.
Media information:
To cover the award presentation at Rideau Hall:
Josephine Laframboise
Rideau Hall Press Office
613-668-1929 (cell)
josephine.laframboise@gg.ca
For more information on the awards or to arrange interviews with the laureates:
Shane O’Neill
Earnscliffe Strategy Group
613-563-4455
media@earnscliffe.ca
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