News Release

Three Rivers Exhibition Wins Prestigious International Award

Banff Centre Awards Grant to Three Rivers: wild waters, sacred places Exhibition

October 11, 2004 – Whitehorse, Yukon – The Three Rivers: wild waters, sacred places group art exhibition that will tour Canada through 2005 has received an international grant from the Banff Centre for the Arts. CPAWS-Yukon is the recipient of the award. The exhibition is the outcome of the Three Rivers Journey in the summer of 2003, where eight nationally-selected artists, writers, journalists, photographers, conservationists and local community members paddled the Wind, Snake and Bonnet Plume Rivers, in the rugged mountain wilderness of northern Yukon.

Jane Isakson's vivid painting of the Bonnet Plume landscape is a sample of the engaging and diverse art works created by the eight artists on the Three Rivers Journey Click for larger image

“We’re honoured that the Banff Centre felt the Three Rivers project was of national importance – it certainly reflects our view that the Wind, Snake and Bonnet Plume Rivers in the Yukon’s Peel watershed are among the finest pristine boreal rivers on the continent,” said Juri Peepre, Three Rivers project coordinator. The Peel River watershed is targeted for large-scale oil and gas development.

The Banff Centre made the grant to CPAWS in the new “Mountains as Water Towers” category of the Mountain Grants Program, awarded to projects that communicate the importance of mountain watersheds to a broad public audience. The Banff Mountain Grants Program supports projects that communicate the stories of mountain landscapes as places of ecological, inspirational and cultural value, and that celebrate the spirit of adventure. This program is sponsored by Mountain HardWear.

The 2004 selection committee reviewed 57 grant applications for projects in 15 countries. Other award winners included a film project in New Delhi, India for “Rhythms of the Kuhls”, a film about a community using a unique sustainable water management system in Himachal Pradesh, India; and, an Italian film on the Afghan Hundu Kush, sponsored by a Mountains for Peace Mission in Afghanistan.

For more information on the Banff Mountain Grants Program, go to:
http://www.banffcentre.ca/mountainculture/media/2004/grantwinnersAUG27.htm

Contact:

Juri Peepre
CPAWS Yukon
Telephone: 867-668-6321
E-mail: jpeepre@cpawsyukon.org