Art of Transition Creative Award in Media Arts
This past week has been an incredible whirlwind of accolades and celebrations, endings and new beginnings. I ended my contract at the Whitby Chamber of Commerce last Friday with a bang as the previous night I was presented with the Art of Transition Creative Award in Media Arts for the work I had done there.
The Art of Transition is a four year-old awards ceremony presented by the Durham Region to top creative talents in the Region in an effort to promote the transition of Durham into a creative economy. The Media Arts category qualifications were:
Presented for best expression of a creative work including video, audio/sound art, graphic design, animation, digital art, web-based art, media art installation, new media, or any fusion. The nominee must be the driving creative force of the project and must maintain complete creative and editorial control over the work.
I also submitted the Chamber magazine, Ascenture, which made its debut this past October at the Durham Region Business Summit. It was a profitable project and is gaining a lot of buzz in the Region. To view the magazine, click here.
It was my second-to-last day at the Chamber and everyone was already talking as though I had won the award and so I was pretty confident until I sat down and read the list of nominees. There were some pretty high-profile media companies listed there. So I had just let go of the possibility that I would win when they called my name. I could hardly believe it. It was pretty cool too that I won an award that Blue Rodeo won. For my American friends, they were a popular Canadian band in the 80s. I was so busy texting about my win that I barely heard anything after that point. My phone was blowing up and it was pretty exciting. I could get used to this.
The next day I went into the office holding my award triumphantly over my head. My colleagues were exceptionally proud, which was really wonderful. I was overwhelmed by the love and kindness expressed by people I had come to know over such a short period of time. Members of the Board had tears in their eyes when I thanked them for everything this experience had given me.
I’m very proud of the work I’ve done at the Chamber and I’m extremely excited about what’s to come.
Here is the official transcript of my bio from the awards ceremony:
Over the past year, Yolanda Beasley has been working to build marketing and communications strategies and initiatives for the Whitby Chamber of Commerce. Her experience in planning complex, integrated multimedia campaigns has led to the development of two major breakthrough projects, designed to re-brand and re-position the reputation of the Whitby Chamber within Durham Region. Yolanda worked with Durham Radio’s CKDO, to devise a year-long business report sponsorship and campaign to highlight the benefits of Chamber membership. This included an ad campaign to maximize low weight levels with high impact creative that could carry through to social media. To keep steady with her vision of highlighting Chamber membership in a fun, fresh and entertaining way, Yolanda developed of two contrasting characters, Bill and Charles. These characters have been used to promote the benefits of being actively and proudly involved within the Whitby Chamber, and have become well-recognized representatives. Yolanda was also determined to produce a top quality, progressive business publication to inform Chamber members and local professionals of developing issues within Durham Region. Ascenture, which launched in the fall, has been successful in making a positive impact on the public and professional reputation of the Chamber, thanks to her ability to assess and challenge the status quo. Yolanda‘s professionalism and creativity is an asset to the Whitby Chamber, and has been significant in the evolution of this long standing organizations reputation within the community.