The winner of the Sudbury Arts Council’s Oryst Sawchuk Award for 2023 is Ralph McIntosh, a gifted singer and musician who prefers to play behind-the-scenes roles as an educator and administrator.
The award, named in memory of late architect and artist Oryst Sawchuk, is presented annually to an administrator, educator or arts patron who has volunteered their talents and time to the arts.
McIntosh has had a positive and powerful influence on thousands of students in his role as an educator with the former Sudbury Board of Education and Rainbow District School Board for 33 years.
He was one of the founders of Sudbury Secondary School’s performing arts program, the first of its kind in Northern Ontario when it was established in 1985.
After he retired from the Rainbow Board in 2015, he took on the role of education director for the Sudbury Theatre Centre (now YES Theatre), where he oversees after-school and weekend programs for children and youth and organizes weekday matinees and other special activities for school groups.
“Every student, I hope, has a Ralph McIntosh in his or her life,” said former colleague and Sudbury Arts Council member Judi Straughan. “It strikes me that he must be the pot of gold at the end of the Rainbow (Board).”
He remains an ambassador for Sudbury Secondary School and contributed to a written history of the school and the Arts Education Program for the school’s 100th anniversary in 2008.
He helped to establish the Rainbow District School Board’s Joan Mantle Music Trust to honour the late educator, and continues to chair the trust’s steering committee in his retirement.
The fund has raised almost $300,000 since 2008, enabling the purchase of musical instruments and equipment for the board’s elementary and secondary music programs.
McIntosh also gives generously of his time as general manager, accompanist and assistant director of the Young Sudbury Singers.
The community-based choir provides children and teens an affordable opportunity to learn a wide variety of music in a safe and supportive environment that fosters a lifelong love of singing.
He is chair of the board of the Sudbury Music Festival formerly the Kiwanis Music Festival and played a large role in organizing the 75th Anniversary Gala Concert last November.
Sudbury Arts Council past-president Vicki Gilhula presented the honour to McIntosh Jan. 4 at Sudbury Theatre Centre. He was given an original watercolour painting by Oryst Sawchuk.
“The arts council could not imagine a worthier recipient of this award,” said Gilhula.
Previous winners of the Oryst Sawchuk Award are Stéphane Gauthier, Linda Cartier, Judi Straughan and Allan Walsh.
