I'd like to emphasize the importance that support from publicly funded arts grants and awards has made in my life and how essential they have been for me at critical times in my career. Grant and award funding has allowed me to pursue goals that would have been beyond my means otherwise, which have enriched my creative abilities, allowed me to experiment and not have to gear my entire artistic production toward sales. I have been able to achieve these goals with aid from, among others, the Canada Council for the Arts, The New Brunswick Arts Board, The New Brunswick Arts Branch, ACOA, the National Research Council, as well as private foundations and arts patrons.
A successful career in the arts requires a great deal of risk taking and a lot of support and nurturing. Without grant support I wouldn't be here today. I am not unusual in having benefited from and at times having been reliant on grant support. Public funding and support for cultural endeavours is a sign of a healthy nation. Arts grants are an indicator of a functional society, not a sign of cultural inadequacy. I'd like to express my deep thanks to the grant funding institutions of this great country. I hope that I've been able to make a cultural contribution commensurate with their support.
A career in the arts doesn't happen in a void. I have had a great deal of support and help from parents, siblings, my son, mentors, friends, colleagues and most of all the usually patient encouragement of my wife Beth. The people of New Brunswick have been wonderfully supportive of what I do, even if occasionally baffled, and formed the solid base from which I have pursued a career in the arts. I can't begin to enumerate all the people who have been important to my life and career and I'm terrified that by trying to list some of them I'll miss others, there are just so many, they know who they are.
I also wish to thank the galleries that have been so crucial to my survival and growth as an artist. There have been many but I especially have to thank Sandra Ainsley and Elena Lee for their friendship and support.
I feel privileged to be part of the tribe assembled for this occasion. Certainly the biggest influences in my life beyond my family have been fellow toilers in the arts. To receive this award juried by my peers is an honour beyond measure.
Finally, I’d like to thank the Award partners. The Samual and Saidye Bronfman Foundation, The Canadian Museum of Civilization, and the Canada Council for the Arts. The Canadian Museum of Civilization plays an essential role in mounting contemporary and historical exhibitions and building historically important collections. The Canada Council is the flag ship of public arts organizations and it does an enormous amount of very important work across the country for artists and the organizations and institutions that support the arts. The Bronfmans through the Saidye Bronfman Award and in many other ways make it possible for us to honour one of our kind each year. I am thrilled to see my work amongst the work of other Saidye Bronfman Award recipients and craftspeople from coast-to-coast in the exhibition, Unique, and to be included in the Museum’s collection.
The SaidyeBronfman Award has been a wonderful encouragement to us all and has enormously enriched the cultural landscape of Canada.
Thank you.

Bronfman Award ceremony at the Canadian Museum of Civilization, Great Hall

Peter Powning's Bronfman panel statement
My life and work are intertwined. The concerns of my life are reflected in the themes of my work. What I attempt to do is to produce objects that excite me and that connect with others. It’s really as simple as that. While the specifics of each piece may refer to a variety of ideas or influences, all the work comes from the same well of desire to make connections. I’ve had the experience so many times in galleries and museums of experiencing objects that moved me, left me stunned and excited.. that had the pulse of the real...something essential and maybe universal. My hope is that some of my work accomplishes that.
Working with my hands gives me a sense of connection not only with others doing similar work, but with generations of predecessors who lived by the skill of their hands. Those of us who produce work by hand from beginning to end, maintain a vital link to an essential aspect of our humanness. It is an aspect of our species which has evolved over millennia and that many who live typical contemporary western lives are quite distanced from. For those people we form a link. I believe there is an innate human ability to recognize and appreciate the hand made, the object imbued with the power of the skilled and thoughtful hand.
I sell my work so I can afford to make more, not only to make a living. I also like the thought of the work started here in my studio going out into the world. Being an artist is a perilous and peculiar occupation that has many and varied rewards as well as many and varied insecurities and pitfalls. Exhibitions are a chance to come out of the woods and see if the work really works and hasn’t become a delusory obsession.