Dean Bauche, local artist, former director of the North Battleford galleries and curator of the Allen Sapp Gallery, received a singular honour recently - a Queen Elizabeth II Diamond Jubilee Medal.
The Canadian Museum Association was invited to award the medals, and a total of 37 individuals across Canada received them. Bauche was the only Saskatchewan recipient.
Bauche was given the award for "his significant contributions promoting aboriginal art and his dedication to the advancement of professional development in Saskatchewan and Canada."
Specifically, this was for his work with the travelling exhibition, Through the Eyes of the Cree, and his work with the CMA establishing human resource and strategic planning policies. Through the Eyes of the Cree toured from Ottawa to Vancouver and through the territories and became one of the longest-touring exhibitions in Canada. In total, around 250,000 people saw the exhibition. Education kits from the exhibition were recommended by Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba learning systems.
When he received the notification about the award, Bauche originally thought it must have been a joke.
"The first thing I did was I checked the date to make sure it wasn't April first."
But when he realized that he had received the award, Bauche was deeply humbled to be honoured and to be included among the other honourees. He made sure to thank gallery staff for their contributions.
"There's no way I would even be seeing this kind of acknowledgement had it not been for the work on the ground of our little staff at our little gallery in this little town. With the right content and determination and the right people, anywhere, you can create things that have an impact on the entire nation."
