Honorary Degrees

Considered one of the most prestigious honors a university can bestow upon an individual; an honorary degree is meant to recognize an individual’s exceptional achievement or distinction in a field or activity in alignment with the mission of the institution.

In regard to honorary degrees bestowed by AUArts, the focus includes art, craft and design with possible expansion into the broader fields of creativity and innovation.

Honorary Degree Past Recipients

2022 Recipient: Ron Moppett
Born in England in 1945, he immigrated to Canada in 1957. He attended the Alberta College of Art (now Alberta University of the Arts) from 1963 to 1967, and the Instituto de Allende in Mexico in 1968. He was the curator at the Alberta College of Art in 1969, from 1975 to 1978, and from 1988 to 2004 was Director/Curator of the Illingworth Kerr Gallery of the Alberta College of Art + Design. His career has garnered many honours, exhibitions, publications and awards, including the Gershon Iskowitz Prize (1997), the Alberta Centennial Medal (2005), and the Alberta College of Art + Design Board of Governors’ Alumni Award of Excellence (2013). Important solo exhibitions include: Ron Moppett, Recent Work at the 49th Parallel, N.Y., in 1988 and two retrospective exhibitions: Ron Moppett at the Walter Philips Gallery, The Banff Centre, 1982; and Ron Moppett, Painting Nature with a Mirror, 1974-1989, Glenbow Museum, 1990. In 2015 his sculpture and installation work were the subject of a large survey curated by Christine Sowiak for the Nickle Arts Museum, Calgary, entitled Ron Moppett:Sculptur(al).

In 2016, selections of his artwork and artwork by his son Damian Moppett, also a prominent contemporary artist, were shown in Damian Moppett + Ron Moppett (Every Story Has Two Sides), shown at the Art Gallery of Alberta. The exhibition was shown in 2017 at the National Gallery of Canada as Masterpiece in Focus: Ron Moppett and Damian Moppett. Glenbow Museum presented Ron Moppett: Do You Remember/ Snow & Stars in 2020 as part of its One New Work series. This exhibition presented a monumental 22-metre-long wrap-around painting. In the fall of 2012 Ron Moppett unveiled THESAMEWAYBETTER/READER, a monumental mosaic tile wall work measuring approximately 110 feet long by 13 feet high in Calgary’s East Village. His paintings are represented in major corporate, private and public collections, including the National Gallery of Canada, Glenbow Museum, Mackenzie Art Gallery, and the Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal

2022 Recipient: Jeff de Boer

Calgary-born artist Jeff de Boer has, for the past 32 years, become world-famous for creating some of the most original and high-quality sculptures in the world. The son of a metal fabricator, Jeff grew up working in metal. Graduating with honours from the Jewellery and Metals Department of the then Alberta College of Art in 1988, Jeff went on to fuse jewellery-level quality and design to large-scale public art.

Best known for his authentic suits of armour for cats and mice, Jeff’s work is highly sought after by private collectors from around the world. Having completed some 3,000 projects, from small jewellery to large public works, Jeff has set the standard for professionalism in the arts. His public work can be found throughout Alberta, in multiple locations from parks and hospitals, to museums, shopping malls and airports.

Jeff has always given back to the arts community, be it as an instructor, lecturer or as a mentor to countless emerging artists. Jeff is currently on the Board of Directors for the National accessArts Centre and for Calgary Arts Development Authority.

2021 Recipient: Chris Cran

Chris Cran is an internationally recognized painter who lives and works in Calgary, Alberta. His artwork explores issues of representation, on one hand related to the construction of personal and cultural identities, and on the other involving perceptual/cognitive illusion- both interests critically underpinned by a disarming and revelatory sense of humour.

2019 Recipient: Alex Janvier

Alex Janvier, Denesuline, from the Cold Lake First Nations, Treaty 6 Territory, has been a professional artist for several decades. Janvier is renowned for his distinct curved lines and use of bright colour combinations. His unique abstract style and his artistic ideas have blazed the trail for many First Nations and Canadian Artists. He received a Fine Arts Diploma with Honors in 1960 back when AUArts was Alberta College of Art and was the institution’s first Indigenous graduate.

2018 Recipients: Katie Ohe and Harry Kiyooka

Katie Ohe's works are interactive, abstract kinetic installations, mainly metal, and based on ideas from everyday experience. Driven by a lifelong desire to express thoughts and emotions, her sculptures compel viewers' fingers to set them in mesmerizing motion. Ohe's sculpture Janet's Crown (2001) is situated nearby, adjacent to the ACAD front entrance staircase.

For the past 30 years, Harry Kiyooka has served on local, provincial and national boards such as the Canadian Conference of the Arts, and Royal Canadian Academy. Cofounder of the Kiyooka Ohe Art Centre, Kiyooka is a founding member of the Calgary Contemporary Arts Society (1982) and was recipient of the ACAD Award for Excellence in 1996.

2017 Recipient: Sharon Carry

Sharon Carry has been a long-standing and tireless advocate of institutional collaborations across Alberta including the Artstream program between ACAD and Bow Valley College (BVC). While not a practicing artist or designer, Sharon is a creative problem solver and advocate of the arts and art and design education.