ELORA – Students at the Elora Centre for the Arts (ECFTA) got to meet a musical superstar last month: Feist, the 11-time Juno Award-winning singer-songwriter and guitarist.
Feist was the headlining act on the final day of Riverfest Elora, and during the festival ECFTA presented her with an award recognizing her creative art.
“It was an honour for some of our young emerging artists to present the amazing Fiest with the ECFTA ‘Creative Roots Artist of the Year’ award,” ECFTA executive director Lianne Carter stated in an email to the Advertiser.
“Feist is an inspiration to many of our young artists.”
These artists include Margo Reed, 5, Willow Reed, 9, Naomi Lee, 9, and Anya Lee, 11.
It was “really cool” to be able to give this award to someone as famous as Feist, Anya said, who admires Feist for her singing.
Anya and Naomi both aspire to be great singers when they are older.
Naomi said “I admire that [Feist] wants to be an artist, and she keeps on doing it without giving up.”
Though Naomi initially felt scared to give Feist the award, she started to feel more comfortable once she spoke to the artist.
ECFTA director of development Molly Kleiker said Feist was very gracious, and “took the time to ask each of the kids questions about their own creativity and why they love the arts centre, and was really interested in what they had to share.”
Willow said she felt very excited to meet Feist, “and then I got to know her, which was also really amazing. She is so nice.”
Willow loves to draw, dance, and do gymnastics.
Margo’s artistic ambitions are to “get better at painting.”
One of the Supportive Arts artists at ECFTA painted the award onto a paddle that was gifted to Feist during the festival.
Carter said Supportive Arts is “a program we run at the Arts Centre for adults with disabilities.”
The ECFTA offers a variety of programs and serves almost 2,000 people per year, free of charge, “including teens recovering from addiction, youth and adults with disabilities, and low-income families,” Carter said.
For more information about the ECFTA, visit eloracentreforthearts.ca.
