Wilfrid Donat Perreault was born in Albertville, a small French community in northern Saskatchewan, on October 6th, 1947. While growing up, he received private art lessons from noted Saskatchewan artist Ernest Lindner. His art career began in 1964 with the Eagle Pencil Company art scholarship from the Canadian Society for Education Through Art. His interest was on representational paintings but the Saskatchewan art scene in the late 1960s and early 1970s was more focused on abstraction, so he entered university to focus on abstract sculpture. His teachers included Otto Rogers and Bill Epp, also influential Saskatchewan artists. In 1970, he graduated with a Bachelor of Art with Honours in Art from the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. In 1971, he received a Bachelor of Education After Degree, again from the University of Saskatchewan, and he moved to Regina to teach at Archbishop M.C. O’Neill High School.
He began painting the back alleys of his new city while teaching until officially retiring in 2003. All the while, he produced hundreds of pieces of art, from sculptures, to water colour paintings, acrylic paintings, and original silk screen prints. He has taught several art classes for the public and sat on numerous judicial and curatorial committees for art shows and galas. He regularly donates paintings to local charities and fundraisers, highlighting the connection he feels to his community.
His art is not just of local interest, however. His paintings and prints are found in collections all over the country, as well as internationally. Most notably, his work can be found among collections owned by Goldman Sachs and Co., New York; Petro Canada, Calgary; Edmonton Art Gallery, Edmonton; Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, Toronto; and Potash Corporation of Saskatchewan, Saskatoon; among many others. He has exhibited his artwork at numerous galleries in solo exhibitions in Regina, Edmonton, Vancouver, and Winnipeg, but has also presented as part of group exhibitions in Ireland, Toronto, Seattle, Los Angeles, Morocco, San Francisco, Chicago, and many others. Over his career, he has received many awards, including the Queen’s Jubilee Medal (2003), a Silver Medal while representing Canada at ler Jeux De La Francophonie in Maroc, Africa (1989), and the Saskatchewan Order of Merit in 2016. Perreault was elected to the Royal Canadian Academy of Arts and in 2003 retired from teaching.
Perreault married Sandra Thorpe on August 15th, 1969 in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan and raised a family in Regina. Their daughter, Meagan Perreault, purchased the Susan Whitney Art Gallery from Susan Whitney and renamed the space the Nouveau Gallery. Although he spends most of his time in the studio, he is an avid fan of twilight golf, stating that he goes to the studio to play and the golf course to work. Although he has been an artist for over 60 years, Perreault continues to love his work because painting brings him joy.
Biographical Sketch: Professor, Wes D. Pearce was born in Regina, Saskatchewan (Treaty 4 territory) in 1965 and graduated from Scott Collegiate in 1983. He then earned a Bachelor of Arts at the University of Regina in 1988, a Bachelor of Fine Arts with Distinction in 1992 and a Master of Fine Arts from the University of Calgary in 1996. After working as a freelance designer and teaching as a sessional at the University of Calgary he returned to the University of Regina in 1997 as an Assistant Professor in the Theatre Department. The return to his alma mater coincided with the opening of the new Riddell Centre on the University of Regina Main Campus.
In 2003 he served six months as Department Head (Acting) of the Theatre Department, served as the Department Head of Theatre (2006 – 2009), Associate Dean (Undergraduate) for the Faculty of Fine Arts [later the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance] (2010 – 2018), and Associate Dean (Interdisciplinary Programs and Special Projects) for the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance (2018 – 2020). He was promoted to Associate Professor in 2004 and to Full Professor in 2014.
Since 1997 he has developed and taught dozens of courses in the areas of costume and/or set design, scenography, Canadian Theatre, and popular culture. Along with Professor David Garneau, and Drs. Stephen McClatchie and Christine Ramsay he developed and offered the first interdisciplinary course in the Faculty of Fine Arts. He later collaborated on courses with Dr. Pauline Minevich and many years later he still teaches a version of the class they developed on musical theatre.
With varied research interests he has presented at dozens of conferences and has published on an equally wide variety of topics including the playwright Sharon Pollocks scenographic imagination, Sharon Pollock’s use of domestic space, elements of prairie gothic in Daniel Macdonald’s MacGregor’s Hard Ice Cream and Gas, Same-sex celebrity gossip and homophobia in theatre. In 2013 he and Jean Hillabold co-edited Out Spoken: Perspectives on Queer Identities (University of Regina Press).
As a professional scenographer he has over twenty design credits for Regina’s Globe Theatre, several productions for both Persephone Theatre (Saskatoon) and Stage West (Calgary) as well as Western Canada Theatre (Kamloops), Alberta Theatre Projects (Calgary) and Prairie Theatre Exchange (Winnipeg). Selected world premieres include Us: A Coming In Musical Globe Theatre (Set and Costume Design) [2018], Key Change Globe Theatre (Set and Costume Design) [2017], The King Stag University of Regina (Costume Design) [2012], Radiant Boy University of Regina (Costume Design) [2010], MacGregor’s Hard Ice Cream and Gas Persephone Theatre (Set and Costume Design) [2005] and Woyzeck University of Regina (Set Design) [2002]. Other productions of note include Disney’s Beauty and the Beast Persephone Theatre (Costume Design) [2007] which was the first production in the brand new Rawlco Radio Hall, the first regional theatre production of Elizabeth Rex Globe Theatre (Costume Design) [2002], the 25th Anniversary production of Cruel Tears Globe Theatre (Costume Design) [1999] and The Admirable Crichton University of Regina (Costume Design0 [1997] which was the first production in the new University Theatre. His peers have honoured him with four nominations for the Saskatoon and Area Theatre Award and two nominations for Calgary’s Betty Mitchell Award all for outstanding costume design.
He has sat on the board of directors for Regina’s Globe Theatre, Saskatchewan Association of Professional Theatre Artists, Saskatchewan Drama Association, Mid America Theatre Conference, Canadian Association for Theatre Research, Associated Designers of Canada, AIDS Programs South Saskatchewan and the Canadian Lesbian and Gay Studies Association.
Natalie received a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in Fine Arts majoring in Art History from the University of Regina in 1993. She was awarded a Master of Arts (Canadian History) in 1998. The Honour’s paper she wrote was about the art work of ten Saskatchewan women of Ukrainian descent and the Master’s thesis explored the involvement of Savella Stechishin and the first Ukrainian-Canadian women’s movement.
In the fall of 1998, Natalie presented a paper at a conference at the University of Toronto comparing Ukrainian Canadian women’s experiences in Canada and the United States with emphasis on Savella and in 1999 the Saskatchewan History journal published her paper on Savella Stechishin and the Ukrainian-Canadian women movement.
Natalie has authored two books: 75 Years of Service, Friendship and Commitment published by the Ukrainian Women’s Association of Canada (2002), and Blossoming of a Ukrainian Canadian: Savella Stechishin was published in 2009.
Natalie is an active community volunteer. In 1993 she received a Canada 125 Medal and the City of Regina Volunteer Vital Link, Citizen of the Week in both 1990 and 2002.
Edith Margot Osborn (Neé Camp) was born in Wainfleet, Lincolnshire, England in 1902 and received her education at St. Mary Cray, Kent. Her family moved to Rochester, Kent, where she worked as a civil servant for three years and met her future husband, Arthur George Osborn. Mr. Osborn’s first wife had died three years before, their daughter, Veronica, was 10 years old. Arthur and Margot were married at St. Barnabas church, Gillingham, Ken and Margot sailed for Canada on the “Empress of France”.
After a short stay in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan, Arthur opened a general store at Eldersley. One night in January the building next to their store caught fire and with no fire brigade or water, they watched their home and store burn to the ground. Arthur and Margot moved then to Regina. Arthur found employment at the new Hotel Saskatchewan and Margot took classes at the University of Saskatchewan. After seven years in Regina, Arthur died of pneumonia and Margot was left with four children between the ages of three and twelve.
By 1947, Margot knew that her work with the army in the Defense Department would soon end and she resigned. Margot went back to England for six months to visit her parents. After returning to North America, Margot visited a sister in New Canaan, Connecticut and then obtained a clerical job with the Christian Science Monitor organization in Boston, Massachusetts. In 1963 she was appointed secretary to the Christian Science Board of Education where she worked until retiring in 1969 to Victoria, British Columbia.
While living in Regina, Margot had begun to publish poetry and her play “Judas Incorporated” was produced by the Little Theatre Society there. While in Boston she continued to write plays and poetry and was working on a science fiction novel titled A Short Visit to Ergon, published by Marlowe House (a small publishing company which she and her son established). An edition of 2000 was sold out.
Between 1946 and 1990 Margot published 10 plays or poetry books.
Margot had a happy and active retirement in Victoria. She was a member and president of the local branch of the Canadian Authors’ Association, she traveled in Canada and abroad and while on a visit to Egypt she undertook research for her pageant-play on the life of Moses, “The Man Who Might Have Been King”. Margot’s poetry has been published in The Christian Science Monitor, Canadian Forum, Canadian Poetry Magazine, Regina Leader Post, National Home Monthly and other periodicals.
Margot Osborn died on January 19, 2006.
Born in Stonehenge, Saskatchewan on December 6, 1929, David Oancia spent his early teens in the Yukon working in the fur trade. There he learned to speak Cree and devoted his spare time to reading.
Eventually moving back to Saskatchewan, Oancia began his journalistic career writing for the Moose Jaw Times Herald. His experience in Moose Jaw led to a position with the Leader-Post in Regina. When Oancia joined Canadian Press, a national news agency, he began working in most parts of Canada. Joining the Globe and Mail, Oancia established their Montreal bureau in 1963 before spending three years as the paper's correspondent in Beijing. From China Oancia wrote about the tumult of the cultural revolution and in 1967 received the National Newspaper Award for his work in the Far East.
Oancia went on to spend time with UN troops on the Sinai desert covering the conflict in the Middle East before a posting to London from which he travelled extensively throughout Europe and North Africa.
Returning to Montreal in 1974 as an editorialist for the Montreal Star, Oancia was awarded a Southam Fellowship for Journalists to study the social determinants of change -- a topic of importance to him since his days in China. In 1975 he was appointed director for the Journalism program at Concordia University in Montreal.