Victoria Welland
Two Centretown residents, Amanda Lowe Warnakulasuriya and Joyce Crago, received major awards from the Ottawa Arts Council (OAC) on April 22 at a virtual ceremony.
Warnakulasuriya, a folk musician and community organizer, received the Emerging Artist Award, which recognizes artists who are in the beginning stages of their professional artistic careers and are engaging with the community. As of 2021, the award was changed to recognize artists of all disciplines from Ottawa’s indigenous, black, and persons of colour community. The winner is awarded $5,000.
Crago, a photographer and multimedia artist, received the Project X, Photography Award for her collection Playing Dead. Working with the Ottawa Art Gallery (OAG) and the School of the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO), the award recognizes an outstanding, publicly presented photography project by an Ottawa artist. It offers a $1,000 prize, a bursary of $1,000 toward classes at SPAO and other credits. Additionally, the artist may exhibit the project at the OAG later in the year.
Amanda Lowe Warnakulasuriya
Warnakulasuriya grew up on Prince Edward Island in a family of Sri Lankan refugees, surrounded by music. “I’m part of a very musical family,” they said, “Music is very strong, especially in Sri Lankan culture.”
In 2012, Warnakulasuriya started at the University of Ottawa. The larger music community, along with the free time provided by student life, led to exploring music opportunities further. “Moving to Ottawa was the first time that people actually took me seriously as a musician. They were asking where they could buy my music. I was getting paid for performances. I had never encountered that back home,” they said.
At first, they didn’t consider making a career out of music. But, with more opportunities in the industry, music began to take up an even larger part of their life. “It was a hobby that paid,” they said. That hobby turned into a solo album, two albums as part of a duo, and touring both Canada and the United Kingdom.
Warnakulasuriya is also dedicated to helping others in Ottawa’s music community at Girls+ Rock, an organization which provides programming for girls and gender-diverse individuals. The group holds annual music camps as well as various music workshops and jam sessions. Warnakulasuriya was the former program coordinator for Girls+ Rock and now sits on their board. “We can help young folks that are women or gender-diverse to have access to really cool opportunities to grow creatively and professionally, both on and off stage,” they said.
They stressed the importance of organizations like Girls+ Rock which cultivate a welcoming community for musicians. “I wish I had a group like that when I was growing up,” they said. “Community support is so important in our [Sri Lankan] culture, I want to bring that back.”
Last year, they moved from Sandy Hill to Centretown. “A lot of my musician friends live in Centretown, so it would be easier for me to jam with them.” Warnakulasuriya also looks forward to more opportunities to perform in Centretown once pandemic restrictions are lifted.
“I’m looking at the venues and I’m right close by. I could just walk to the venues that I would play at.”
As for the Emerging Artist Award, Warnakulasuriya feels grateful, humbled, and validated. “It gave me a confidence boost that I didn’t know that I needed,” they said. “It feels really good to be recognized for both the creative and community work that I’ve done.”
Warnakulasuriya looks forward to an opportunity to focus on a solo music career, including a new album this year. “I’ve always had this sound in my head of what I want my music to sound like. I’m always trying to find it. Finally, I feel like I know what the sound I want is and I’m just gonna work double time to make sure that it comes out the way that I hear it.”
To learn more about Warnakulasuriya: www.amandalowe.ca/
Joyce Crago
Crago has been taking photographs as long as she can remember. Her career has spanned the fashion industry, law, and the arts, and through it all, her camera was there. When she graduated from the School for the Photographic Arts: Ottawa (SPAO) in 2016, she discovered new ways to use the medium. “It wasn’t until I went to SPAO that I found my artistic voice–that I found out about putting together bodies of work and then I really got serious about it,” she said.
Crago moved to Centretown in 1996 and has lived in the area ever since. She enjoys living in the heart of the city and is excited for the neighbourhood’s art scene to come to life once pandemic restrictions are lifted. “Centretown has quite a vibrant arts community,” she said. “That’s one of the things I miss most is being able to go to openings to see people and talk about art. I miss that a lot.”
Crago’s sister, Hazel, died suddenly in 2018. Crago began working on her winning photography project, Playing Dead, a few months later. “I was in shock and this was one way of coping with it.” The project ended up spanning two years, as Crago developed its different stages. The first stage included seven pieces made from Hazel’s personal items and physical remnants of her funeral. The other four stages included videos, photographs and other multimedia works on the theme of death and grieving.
With Playing Dead, Crago hopes to bring the public’s attention to the mourning process. “I think people in modern Western cultures have a hard time grieving and have a hard time with death, and I think they tend to cope with that by just pretending it doesn’t exist,” she said. She hopes that her story and Playing Dead will help people process their grief.
The collection will open at the Ottawa Art Gallery later this year, as part of the Project X Award. Crago was overjoyed at winning the award. “I’m over the moon,” she said, “The other two finalists were really strong, so I’m ecstatic.”
Crago is in the process of developing ideas for new projects but also focused on continuing her artistic education. She is thankful to SPAO and their faculty for encouraging her art, especially, Jonathan Hobin and Michael Tardioli.
For more about Crago and to view her works, see: joycecrago.com