Lighting the Way - Robert Jekyll Award Shortlisted Candidate Profiles

Robert Jekyll looks out at his work of stained glass in Painting with Light (1978) Black Elk Films. COURTESY OF CANADIAN CRAFTS FEDERATION, FILM BY DAVID WILSON LEACH.

“Light has to be understood and borne in mind by the stained-glass artist who, if he’s doing anything at all, is manipulating this powerful natural energy.” - Robert Jekyll

As a distinguished stained-glass artist with over thirty years of experience, Robert Jekyll (1933–2023) was no stranger to guiding light. As an advocate, he used his own light and energy to elevate the profile of Canadian craft nationwide.

For nearly two decades, the Robert Jekyll Award has honoured and celebrated outstanding advocacy within the Canadian craft community. Each individual nominated for the award is recognized by their peers for their great commitment to advancing Canadian craft.

Brigette Clavette

Brigette Clavette. Photo: Kelly Baker.

Brigitte Clavette is a renowned contemporary metalsmith, former head of the Jewellery/Metal Arts department and instructor at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design. A member of the Royal Canadian Academy of the Arts, she received the 2022 Saidye Bronfman Award for excellence in fine crafts. Her silversmithing is featured in prestigious permanent collections worldwide, including the National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa, ON), the New Brunswick Museum (Saint John, NB), and the Victoria and Albert Museum (London, UK).

During a conversation on her final day of a 41-year tenure at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, Clavette shares her thoughts on being shortlisted for this award, calling it a huge honour. Clavette’s memory of Robert Jekyll is warm. She describes him as a man defined by his kindness, joy, and deep commitment to his own work and the pursuits of others. Emphasizing his welcoming nature and his dedication to advocacy, she notes how he actively worked “in advocacy [and] in helping others be part of the community and the ecosystem.”

To Clavette, Jekyll was someone who led with care and genuine curiosity. Clavette views mentorship as a powerful way to advocate for others, having benefited from a mentor’s encouragement during early explorations in craft; she has carried that framework forward into her own teaching. There is an urgency in this thinking. Clavette states there is an increasingly pressing need “to continue to be advocates and mentors and to share our knowledge and to prop people up and open up possibilities – we have to continue working and making and creating. There’s going to be changes for sure. We have to adapt, but the maker in the end is the survivor as far as I’m concerned.”

Charley Farrero

Charley Farrero. Photo courtesy of the CCF.

Charley Farrero is a ceramic artist born in Paris, France, who has lived and worked in Meacham, Saskatchewan, since 1979. A founding member of the Saskatchewan Craft Council and a respected educator, Farrero held leadership roles at many organizations, including the Canadian Craft Federation and the Saskatchewan Arts Board. Farrero has taught at the University of Saskatchewan, SIAST Woodland Campus, and Carlton Trail Community College and led workshops and residencies in Canada and internationally. In 2008, he received the Saskatchewan Lieutenant Governor’s Arts Award. His work is held in public and private collections in Canada, Mexico, and China.

Having met Robert Jekyll in the 1980s, Farrero was immediately impressed by Jekyll’s devotion to craft organizations in Ontario and nationally. Farrero shares that his nomination for the award is a significant honour, as it serves as a meaningful tribute to the entire Canadian craft community.

Driven by deep social values and a history of activism dating back to 1960s Paris, Farrero has dedicated the past 50 years to championing the arts — believing that “there is a growing need for craft organizations to actively support craftspeople.” Parallel to Robert Jekyll, Farrero’s commitment to advocacy led him to help found the Saskatchewan Craft Council in 1975, sparking a lifetime of participation in numerous craft and artist organizations.

Farrero stresses a growing threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI) to the craft community. The topic of AI presents new challenges for craftspeople regarding the protection and recognition of their original work. Farrero believes that advocacy plays a crucial role in “defending the rights of creators and ensuring that their unique contributions continue to be acknowledged.”

Melanie Egan

Melanie Egan. Photo: Brian Medina.

Melanie Egan is a curator and senior cultural administrator who has been involved with contemporary craft and design for over 40 years. She is the former Director of Craft and Design at Harbourfront Centre (1989 – 2025), and has curated over 80 exhibitions, receiving the George Brown College Alumni Award (2010) and Craft Ontario’s Mather Award (2007).

Egan’s personal relationship with Robert Jekyll makes her nomination particularly momentous. She portrays Jekyll as an unwavering and dedicated supporter of the craft sector and its community, noting he consistently promoted craft with passion and vision through his professional and volunteer work.

Egan’s career is defined by a consistent advocacy for craft, motivated by her philosophy of the Three Ms: material, making and meaning. She explains, “Craft explores those intersections between making, culture and material, creating an expansive field to explore difference, identity, embodied knowledge, challenge the status quo, question history and express that unique kinship between maker, materials and community.” Further, she says that materials possess specific physical characteristics, parameters, language, and history. She muses that this leads craftspeople to have a deep, visceral connection to their materials, work, and each other.

For Egan, the future of craft advocacy lies within an ecosystem of craftspeople and our allies, who she lists as administrators, educators, curators, writers, institutions, government, individuals and the greater public.

Through the combined experience and efforts of the shortlisted candidates, the spirit of Robert Jekyll’s advocacy is thriving. Brigitte Clavette, Charley Farrero, and Melanie Egan underscore a universal truth: the foundation of community support lies in strong advocacy.

We would like to acknowledge funding support from the Ontario Arts Council and the Government of Ontario.