News Releases - 2005
Iain Baxter and Ramsay Cook win Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes
Ottawa, April 28, 2005 – Visual artist Iain Baxter and historian Ramsay Cook are the winners of this year’s Canada Council for the Arts Molson Prizes.
Mr. Baxter (aka IAIN BAXTER&) of Windsor, Ontario, is the winner of the Molson Prize in the Arts. He is a photographer, painter, sculptor, installation and conceptual artist; and a Professor Emeritus at the University of Windsor. Dr. Cook, of Toronto, is the winner of the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities. He is an Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Toronto, Professor Emeritus of History at York University in Toronto and General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.
Two Molson Prizes worth $50,000 each are awarded every year to distinguished Canadians, one in the arts and the other in the social sciences or humanities. The prizes recognize the recipients’ outstanding lifetime contribution to the cultural and intellectual life of Canada.
In awarding the Molson Prize in the Arts to Iain Baxter, the jury said: “We selected Iain Baxter for the 2005 Molson Prize in the Arts for the phenomenal breadth and depth of his art practice, which covers almost 50 years. Recognized internationally as an icon of conceptual art, he is among the most thought-provoking and pioneering of contemporary Canadian artists. His highly-regarded conceptual installations and projects, as well as his photography, have earned him the label the Marshall McLuhan of the visual arts. His art, produced in various media, is rooted in everyday life and reflects new and unique ways of seeing consumer and corporate culture, the environment, landscape and technology. Iain Baxter is widely influential as an artist and teacher. His art has made us question, laugh, re-examine and think. He is one of society’s great innovators.”
In awarding the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities to Ramsay Cook, the jury said: “We selected Professor Ramsay Cook for the 2005 Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities for his outstanding contributions to Canadian historical scholarship, his support of Canadian cultural institutions and his original books and essays. He is especially highly regarded for his ground-breaking work in the areas of French-English relations, nationalism, federalism and social and intellectual history. For almost half a century, his influence has crossed frontiers and broken down barriers. He has been a pre-eminent writer, panelist, speaker, teacher, doctoral adviser and, as general editor, the driving force behind the Dictionary of Canadian Biography. One of Canada’s first public intellectuals, Ramsay Cook helped bring history out of the classroom and introduced important historical perspectives into public discourse. He has been a remarkable scholar and a deeply-engaged, civic-minded thinker.”
Established in 1964, the Molson Prizes are funded from the income of an endowment given to the Council by the Molson Foundation and now valued at some $2 million. The Council administers these awards in cooperation with the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC) and, following a nomination process, both laureates are selected by a joint peer jury. The winner of last year’s Molson Prize in the Arts was Maria Campbell, Métis author, playwright, filmmaker and professor, while the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities went to Richard Tremblay, professor and researcher in the field of child development.
This year, the jury for the Molson Prize, co-chaired by Karen Kain, Chair of the Canada Council for the Arts, and by Marc Renaud, President of the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC), was made up of Paul Greenhalgh, art historian and President, NSCAD University (Halifax); Richard Grégoire, filmscore composer (Montreal); Marrie Mumford, Canada Research Chair, Aboriginal Arts and Literature for the Native Studies Department, Trent University (Peterborough); Sarah Carter, Professor, Department of History, University of Calgary (Calgary); Marcel Boyer, Bell Canada Professor of Industrial Economics, Université de Montréal (Montreal); and Marjorie Stone, Professor of English and Women Studies and Co-Director, Atlantic Metropolis Centre (Halifax).
Representatives of the media will be invited to attend the presentation of the Molson Prize in the Arts to Iain Baxter and the Molson Prize in the Social Sciences and Humanities to Ramsay Cook later this year.
Iain Baxter
Iain Baxter was born in England and immigrated to Calgary with his family a year later. He earned a B.Sc. in zoology (1959) and an M.Ed. (1962) from the University of Idaho before earning an M.F.A. (1964) from Washington State University. He has taught at the University of British Columbia, Simon Fraser University, the Emily Carr Institute of Art & Design, the Alberta College of Art and York University. He is currently Professor Emeritus in the School of Visual Arts at the University of Windsor, where he has taught since 1988. His work as a solo artist and as founder of N.E. Thing Co. has been exhibited across Canada and the U.S. and can be found in numerous public and private collections including the National Gallery of Canada, the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, and the Vancouver Art Gallery as well as in Europe.
A thought-provoking contemporary artist, Iain Baxter has spent the last 45 years re-shaping and re-defining the Canadian modern art scene. Throughout his career, Mr. Baxter has garnered critical international recognition for his insightful and thoughtful works about our cultural, social, ecological and political condition. His uses of everyday objects, combined with a considerable element of wit, have been common threads through his formation of N.E. Thing Co. in the 1960's to his current practice. At the forefront of conceptual and photographic art, Mr. Baxter’s investigations into environmental issues, mass consumerism and modes of communication have continued to challenge and elicit responses that question our day to day realities.
His achievements have been recognized by many awards and prizes. He received a Japanese government foreign scholarship in 1961, as well as membership in the Royal Canadian Academy and his recent nomination as an Officer of the Order of Canada. In 2004, Iain Baxter won the Governor General’s Award in Visual and Media Arts and received an Honorary Doctorate from the University of British Columbia. Please see Mr. Baxter's Statement
Ramsay Cook
Ramsay Cook is the General Editor of the Dictionary of Canadian Biography (DCB), Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Toronto and Professor Emeritus of History at York University in Toronto. His teaching, research and publications span Canadian history from the earliest explorations to the present. During his teaching career, which included both undergraduate and graduate students, he supervised 38 Ph.D. theses.
Born in Saskatchewan, Ramsay Cook received a B.A. from the University of Manitoba (1954), an M.A. from Queen’s University (1956) and a Ph.D. from the University of Toronto (1960). In 1958, he began his academic career at the University of Toronto. In 1969, after a year as the Mackenzie King Visiting Professor of Canadian History at Harvard University, he accepted a post at York University. In 1978-79, and again in 1997, he held the Bicentennial Chair in Canadian Studies at Yale University. Since 1989, he has served as General Editor of the DCB. He has lectured widely both across Canada and abroad in the United States, the former Soviet Union, Finland, China, India, the United Kingdom and Japan.
The history of French Canada and Quebec, cultural and constitutional history, has been Ramsay Cook’s principal research areas. His books include Le Sphinx parle français (1968), Provincial Autonomy, Minority Rights and the Compact Theory 1867-1921 (1969), The Regenerators (1985) and Canada, Quebec and the Uses of Nationalism (1986). Professor Cook was awarded the Regent’s Medal of United College in 1955, the Tyrell Medal of the Royal Society of Canada in 1975, and the Governor General’s Literary Award for non-fiction in 1985. He was elected to the Royal Society of Canada in 1968 and made an Officer of the Order of Canada in 1986. In 1994, he was appointed to the Order of the Sacred Treasure by the Emperor of Japan. The Universities of Windsor (1988), Ottawa (1992) and York (2002) have awarded him honorary degrees.
General information
The Canada Council for the Arts, in addition to its principal role of promoting and fostering the arts in Canada, administers and awards prizes and fellowships to over 100 artists and scholars annually in the arts, humanities, social sciences, natural and health sciences, and engineering. Among these are the Killam Prizes, the Killam Research Fellowships, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts and the Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts.
For more information about these awards, including nomination procedures, contact Carol Bream, Director of Endowments and Prizes, at (613) 566-4414, or 1 800 263-5588, ext. 5041; or Janet Riedel Pigott, Endowments and Prizes Officer, at (613) 566 4414, or 1 800 263-5588, ext. 4116.
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Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council
Doré Dunne
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