The inaugural winner of the $2,000 Judy Wapp Art Fellowship Award, announced April 20, is Winlaw playwright Marya Folinsbee.
The new annual award, open to residents of the Regional District of Central Kootenay, was established in honour of the New Denver artist who died Sept. 9. The award was announced on April 20, which was Wapp's birthday.
“Deciding which application would win was a tough choice,” said David Everest, Wapp’s partner of 54 years and one of the organizers of the award. “Judy would have really liked Marya’s project, and that was important to us.”
The award is intended for practitioners in any artistic genre — fine art, clay, music, writing, etc. This year’s award will support an original absurdist tragicomedy, The Mosquitos.
“The Mosquitos is inspired by Rhinoceros, the 1961 play by Eugene Ionesco,” Folinsbee said in her application. “In Rhinoceros, people in a small town in France start inexplicably turning into rhinoceroses. The Mosquitos follows a similar plot, bringing together a group of old friends. Rumour has it that people have started turning into mosquitos.”
A preview performance of the play is scheduled for Friday, June 6 at the Slocan Valley’s Vallican Whole Community Centre, 3762 Little Slocan South Rd, Passmore.
Everest said applications for the 2026 Fellowship Award will open Jan.1 and close March 1. The award is funded by sales of Wapp’s collages. The art pieces, and prices, can be viewed at https://visualchemy.net/. Everest said any questions not answered on the website about the award, art purchases, or donations can be directed to wappaward24@gmail.com.
A celebration of life for the artist will take place at 1 p.m. on Sunday, June 8 at Nelson’s North Shore Hall, 675 Whitmore Road.
