Penticton is honouring its best and brightest in categories spanning from music and theatre to graphic design and dance at the upcoming Second Annual Penticton and District Arts Awards.
The Penticton Arts Council has already received 10 nominations for this year’s event which takes place Feb. 26 at the Shatford Centre. The deadline for nominations is Jan. 19.
There are two new categories this year including aboriginal arts excellence, which is a multi-disciplinary category covering all different types of submissions, and aboriginal youth (19 and under) in literary arts bringing the total number of categories to 14.
The new additions were the result of the Penticton Arts Council forming a partnership with the En’owkin Centre who are part of the planning committee for the awards this year.
“That was a really nice addition to our planning committee, we’re quite excited,” said Lynn Allin, executive director of the Penticton Arts Council.
Last year the event hosted 200 people with 75 nominees. Allin expects around 300 people to attend this year and said that there is already early interest in nominations and tickets.
The event will host entertainment with different performances pulled from some of the many categories, however at this point, the acts are still unconfirmed.
Last year’s winners will also be on hand to present the awards to the 2015 recipients.
Winners will have their names forwarded on to the Okanagan Arts Awards held in Kelowna. Three of last year’s winners went on to receive awards at the regional event including spoken-word poet Shane Koyczan and Okanagan Dance Studios.
“We’re really looking forward to it this year,” Allin said.
The categories include arts educator, dance, design, graphic arts, literary arts, media arts, music, supporter of the arts, theatre, visual arts and the lifetime achievement award.
There is also an under-19 winner for each category.
Visit www.pentictonartscouncil.com or phone 250-492-7997 for more information, or to submit a nominee.