Awards

Selected Awards, Commissions

2024 Opera Canada Ruby Award for our opera, Li Keur, Riel’s Heart of the North, as a ‘Change- Maker’!! From L to R: Michel Beaulac, Artistic Director, Opéra de Montréal; SM Steele, librettist, producer, envisioner, on behalf of the artists of Li Keur as ‘Change Makers’; Jackie Short, on behalf of the lifework of her late-husband, Michael Cavanagh, director, librettist, dramaturg, producer, stage manager; Sandra Horst, Canadian Opera Company chorus master, director of music studies/opera at the University of Toronto; Brett Poligato baritone, Grammy Award winner, mentor to young talent, a giant of a voice.

2023 Numerous corporate and public awards/sponsorships ($1.9m to date) to develop and stage Li Keur with Manitoba Opera. These include: the Canada Council, the BC Arts Council, BMO, the Winnipeg Foundation, Manitoba Government, Canada Life, The Johnston Group, The Asper Foundation, IG Wealth Management, Taylor McCaffrey Lawyers, Stantech, APTN, Co-op Red River, Payworks, The Thomas Sill Foundation, Telus, Wawanesa Insurance, Power Corp du Canada, and the Canada’s Community Services Recovery Fund.
2022 Social Sciences Humanities Research Council Exchange Award, University of Lethbridge
2022 Social Sciences Humanities Research Council Postdoctoral Award, University of Lethbridge
2021 BC Arts Council, Artist Pivot Award
2020 BC Arts Council, Digital Arts Award
2020 Social Sciences Humanities Research Council, Aesthetic Translation of Indigenous Languages Research Project
2019 BC Arts Council, Banff Leighton Artist Colony Residency
2019 April/May Doris McCarthy Artist In Residence, Fool’s Paradise, Scarborough, Ont., Ontario Heritage
2017-20 Canada Council New Chapter 150 Award, Librettist/Curator, project co-manager, with composer Neil Weisensel, for Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North with the Winnipeg and Regina Symphonies in partnership with the Canadian Museum for Human Rights, Louis Riel Institute, the Manitoba Metis Federation, L’Union Nationale Métisse Saint Joseph de Manitoba
2019 Commission to collaborate with artist Corinna Wolff-Burgo on Make-Believe: The Secret Library of M. Prud’homme – a Rare Collection of Fakes!, a touring exhibition and Canada Council New Chapter project curated by Dr. Heather Jessup and Dr. Claire Battershill.
2019 Louis Riel Institute Award (with Neil Weisensel) for Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North dramaturgy
2018 Manitoba Arts Council Award (with Neil Weisensel) for Li Keur: Riel’s Heart of the North summer workshop
2015 Nominated, Guild Teaching Award, Best Use of Technology in the Classroom, University of Exeter, UK
2014 Exeter Annual Award, project manager (personnel manager, budget etc.), designer of the digital archive, media lead, workshop trainer, event planner and coordinator. The Long Good-bye: a conversation across a century. An international outreach project and a Great War centenary installation with eXegesis Poetry Collective. Multi-media. Exeter, UK
2012 Libretti commission. Afghanistan: Requiem for a Generation, Calgary Philharmonic and Chorus and One Yellow Rabbit Theatre/High Performance Rodeo, Calgary, AB
2012-17 (multiple awards) April/May/November Leighton Artist Colony, Banff Centre/Canada Council, BC Arts Council
2011 University of Exeter International PhD Studentship Award, fully-funded doctorate
2008-10 Canadian Forces Artist Program Grant (Canada and Afghanistan)