Anne Campbell was born in Paddockwood, Saskatchewan and attended school in Saskatoon and Hanley. She studied at the Saskatchewan School of the Arts, the University of Regina and, Drama, at the Regina Conservatory. She has worked in the area of public relations and administration for cultural and arts organizations, including the Norman Mackenzie Art Gallery in Regina, the Glenbow Museum in Calgary, and the Regina Public Library where she was also administrator of community services: Literacy, adult public programming; Writer in Residence; Homebound and Visual Impairment, and a First Nations community library. Anne was named a Research Fellow of the University of Regina, Canadian Plains Research Centre for research on the Regina Five visual artist, Arthur McKay, and where she co-edited two award-winning non-fiction books. Campbell has published six collections of poetry. Her poetry and prose have been featured in numerous journals, magazines, and anthologies, and broadcast on CBC Radio. She has garnered awards for her writing including Canada Council and Saskatchewan Arts Board Awards, Saskatchewan Writers Guild Major Awards, the City of Regina Writing Award and City of Regina Heritage and Mayor’s Arts Awards. She has presented readings, talks and workshops across Canada and her musical compositions with Tom Schudel have been performed internationally.
Dan A. Cameron was born in Ottawa on August 7, 1880 but moved to Winnipeg as a boy. He was well-known in Saskatchewan and across Canada for his association with the music field, and in particular for his vocal work.
He began his music career as a voice teacher at Albert College in Belleville, Ontario. Before coming to Regina, Cameron studied with Herbert Witherspoon, Oscar Saenger (famed coach and interpretation expert), Dr. Ferey Lulek, Carl Odell and George Sweet, all in New York. He served in the First World War overseas with the Canadian Expeditionary Force, and returned to Ottawa to hold a position with the Federal government looking after veterans’ affairs. During his time in Ottawa he was soloist at one of the leading churches.
By 1923 Cameron had returned to the music field when he was appointed to the Regina Conservatory of Music to head the voice department. Shortly after his arrival in Regina, he began to write for the Leader-Post. He wrote a music and drama column, book reviews, concert news, music festival reports and interviews. After 1940 he began to write on a range of topics.
Besides his teaching at the Conservatory and his writing, Dan Cameron was involved in a great number of professional music associations in Regina. From the Regina Orchestral Society to the Knox-Metropolitan Church choir, Cameron sang and organized a great many singers in Regina.
Cameron’s papers cover the period 1913 to 1963, and reveal the full extent of his involvement in vocal activities in Regina and in Canada. As well, they contain many interesting details on military personnel through a roster book, revealing notes on singing techniques, and correspondence and programmes from various notable musical events, such as the Gracie Fields concert of 1940. All-in-all these papers give the reader a fascinating glimpse of one of Regina’s most noted vocal musicians.
Sharon Butala was born in 1940 and has lived all but six years of her life in Saskatchewan (33 years in the southwest of Saskatchewan) she resides now in Calgary. Sharon has one son and two grandchildren.
She received her B.A. and B.Ed. from the University of Saskatchewan. Besides having been published in numerous periodicals and anthologies she has published sixteen books.
Amongst other honours Butala has won the Marian Engel Award for Women Writers in Mid-Career, 1986 Writers' Choice Award, Saskatchewan Book Awards and Western Magazine Awards. She has also won a Saskatchewan Writers Guild Member's Achievement Award, a Canadian Authors’ Award, Canada 125 Commemorative Medal, Queen's Jubilee Medal and the Centennial Medal. She initiated and chaired a committee to make the Wallace Stegner house available as a Writer/Artist’s residence. Butala has received two honorary doctorates and is an Officer in the Order of Canada.
The Bushwakker Brewing Company Ltd. was established in 1991 and is located on the main floor of the Strathdee Building in the warehouse district of Regina. The pub is considered one of Canada’s top five brewpubs. University professor, Bev Robertson, his wife Elaine and several other university professors own and manage the pub which serves as the venue for a wide variety of events which support both the cultural and charitable communities of Regina.