Neptune Theatre School Receives Endowment from Bovey Award Winner David Fountain

October 12, 2005

The 2005 Edmund C. Bovey Award was presented last night to long-time Halifax arts supporter David Fountain. This prestigious Council for Business and the Arts award honours a business leader for outstanding support of the arts. Unique in Canada, the Edmund C. Bovey Award consists of two parts: a bas relief sculpture which is presented to the winner and a $20,000 prize which the winner presents to an arts organization of their choice. The fourteen winners to date have been very imaginative in their choices, using the prize as a fund raising challenge to others and in many cases matching the amount themselves. Since its inception the Award has distributed more than $450,000 to artists and arts organizations across Canada..

David Fountain, who is President of Longwood Investments, announced last night he will be matching the award as will Neptune Theatre to set up an endowed annual bursary for a student in the Pre-Professional Training Program of the Neptune Theatre School. The bursary will be known as "The Edmund C. Bovey Bursary" and will be awarded annually. Donald Stoddard, President of Neptune Theatre, was pleased to accept this cheque and commented: "We are very grateful that David Fountain has decided to establish this bursary. It will make a real difference to students who wish to continue their training in our Theatre School."

David Fountain’s extraordinary support for the arts extends well beyond financial contributions as he continues to give time, personal expertise and guidance to many different arts organizations across the country. But it is in Halifax that his generosity has been most keenly felt and the dinner honouring him on the stage of Fountain Hall at the Neptune Theatre was a warm and festive celebration of that generosity. Paul Dyer, Regional Vice-President, Eastern Canada, Scotiatrust paid tribute on behalf of the business community and Jim Fleck, Chair of the Council for Business and the Arts (and himself a Bovey Award winner) was on hand to present the award.

The evening was sponsored by Scotiabank, Bell & Grant, KPMG, RBC Dominion Securities, Stewart McKelvey Sirling Scales and the TD Bank Financial Group.

The Council for Business and the Arts in Canada is the national association of business leaders who believe that the nation’s creative minds should be strongly supported by both the private and the public sector. CBAC works o increase both the quantity and the quality of private sector support of the arts through an active program of communications, recognition, education and research.

For more information please contact: Billie Bridgman or Eileen Love 416 869 3016