ART PRIZE DONATED TO WILDSIGHT

Kimberley-based visual artist Grant Smith won the Kootenay Art Prize at Art Gallery Kimberley's annual Open, Adjudicated Art Exhibit this year, and he's passing the full prize on to a cause close to his heart.

Grant creates drawings, paintings, sculptures, and design illustrations with a focus on landscapes and wildlife. His paper stencil monoprint "Larches in Late October, Kimberley, BC" won the $700 prize at this year's exhibit, which was themed around "Unusual Angles."

Grant is donating the entire prize money to Wildsight, the East Kootenay-based conservation organization. Accepting the cheque on Wildsight's behalf is conservation specialist Eddie Petryshen, a Kimberley local whose work centres on old growth protection and caribou recovery, both on the ground and at the provincial policy level.