A graffiti artist, a dancer and a singer-songwriter were each awarded the 2025 Lamphouse Emerging Artist Bursary to support their creative development in Canmore.

Three Canmore creatives selected for 2025 Lamphouse Emerging Artist Bursary

A singer-songwriter, graffiti artist and dancer are the three local artists selected for the 2025 Lamphouse Emerging Artist Bursary award.

Funded by the Lamphouse Endowment for the Arts held at the Banff Canmore Foundation, a total of $3,500 was doled out by the Town of Canmore to the three Canmore creatives – Nurdjana de Rijcke, Pat Jakubiec and high school student Wilma Graul.

Awarded annually, the bursary provides artists who are in the early stages of their artistic career the opportunity to continue developing their craft.

“[The funds go to] those projects that need a little bit more help to get to the next level in their practice or they’re just sort of starting and [there’s] barriers that might exist in terms of costs of materials,” said Sue Hayduk, the Town of Canmore’s art and culture coordinator.

“Whether it’s professional development or it’s supplies or it’s maybe some mentorship or even just being able to have those conversations with artists, I think [the bursary] provides the Town a way to be accessible and open to artists’ needs.”

Hayduk added that the award provides an accessible avenue for artists to get support, one that is presented in a simple format and works to highlight a diversity of creators in the community.

“I think we also wanted to see, because we’ve been running this grant for a few years, that we had a nice cross-section of those different artistic mediums,” she said.

‘It just feels really supportive’

In the thick of producing an album a couple years ago, Canmore singer-songwriter de Rijcke started to notice an increased strain on her voice.

“I was in the middle of recording a new album and then the vocals started not working properly. So, then I was like, ‘OK, I’ve got this album to finish, but my vocals aren’t working.’”

“For me, when there’s lots of stress, my voice starts to sort of be influenced by it.”

Putting a pause on singing, de Rijcke applied for the lamphouse bursary with the help of a friend.

This time, successful in her application, de Rijcke now had the financial support she needed to pursue vocal therapy and see a speech pathologist who eventually diagnosed her with muscle tension dysphonia—a condition that can improve through therapy.

“I was so happy because I had applied for it the year before. It was my second time applying, and so I tried to not get my hopes up too much,” she said.

She said the bursary is allowing her to regain her voice and look into more “sustainable ways” of pursuing a music career while also working a full-time job and being a single mom.

“It just feels really supportive to get a grant from the town where you’re living in and especially because I didn’t grow up here. I’m from the Netherlands, so sometimes I have a bit of an impostor syndrome, where I’m like, ‘Oh yeah, I’m that girl from the other country,’” she said.

Regaining her voice and starting to gig again, de Rijcke hopes to release the rest of her album soon after her recovery.

“When you’re in music, you don’t do it to become rich, so then to have the financial means to actually invest in that recovery is major.”

Tower Sprays

You can’t go far in Canmore without coming across one of graffiti artist Jakubiec’s murals colouring the side of a building.

Marking his artwork with the tag “Towersprays”, Jakubiec is one of three selected for the award because of his commitment to continue growing in his art discipline.

“I was excited because I knew it would help me pursue art a lot harder,” said Jakubiec.

Using about 15-20 cans of paint for a mid-sized mural like his bighorn sheep piece on the side wall of Fireweed Glass Studio, Jakubiec used the grant funds to purchase supplies for future projects.

“I’ve already spent it. The day I got it, I went and ordered … a huge bulk order … I think it was 200 cans of paint,” he said.

Jakubiec’s designs bring together a unique blend of nature-themed elements and a graffiti style.

“Since living in Canmore, I’m drawing a lot more nature. I used to be strictly lettering, like a graffiti upbringing, but now I’ve ventured out completely into wildlife. I still mix graffiti and the style with animals [and] landscapes.”

 

Commonly getting a bad rap, Jakubiec is glad to be at the forefront of a shift in the public’s perspective on graffiti art.

“With graffiti, it’s always frowned upon [and] always has been, but now … when I was painting that JK Bakery mural, I had an elderly couple come and shake my hand and say, ‘thank you’ and they said it was beautiful work,” said Jakubiec.

“It’s finally coming around and by kind of morphing letters with other aesthetics, like nature, wildflowers, landscapes and animals I think it brings more people to appreciate the art form that is graffiti, whereas before it’s just like people just think it’s gang-related or so many number of things, and it’s so much more now than it ever was.”

Jakubiec expressed gratitude to the Town for the award, as well as those who have supported him over the years, offering up their buildings as canvases for his creativity.

‘I didn’t expect to get it’

From gymnast to competitive dancer, Grade 12 student Graul was selected as the recipient of the high school category award.

“I was a competitive gymnast before and that was not so great, so then I had to try something else, and I think it might have been my mom who was like, ‘try dance’ and I wouldn’t have thought that I’d like it this much,” said Graul.

With plans to take her passion to a professional level, the funds have allowed her to apply for dance school in Berlin come September. There she’ll build a foundation in genres like ballet, modern, contemporary, jazz and hip hop.

 

Applying for the bursary on a whim, Graul said it was on a sick day that she decided to submit dance videos and a write-up for a variety of scholarships, not thinking that they would amount to much.

“I was really sick, and I was just looking online for some scholarships, and I was like, ‘Why not?’ This one sounded good,” said Graul.

“I was pretty happy. I didn’t expect to get it.”

After seven years of dancing, the bursary gives Graul the ability to take her craft to the next level, providing her an avenue to potentially pursue choreography or teaching after her education.