Arts and Entertainment

Grateful Giving brings an opportunity to support the Headwaters Arts Scholarship

November 27, 2025   ·   0 Comments

By Constance Scrafield

Headwaters Arts Scholarship Fund is appealing for the public’s support. A recent press release from the arts organization encourages donations to “change the trajectory of a young artist’s life” through the Grateful Giving 2025 campaign.

This campaign supports high school students in the Headwaters region who are pursuing advanced education and training in the creative arts.

The Headwaters Scholarship has helped to launch many young visual, literary/writing, music, theatre, dance and film/media artists since its beginnings in 2011-12.

The difficult news is that today its resources are running dangerously low. Help is needed to replenish the fund and keep these opportunities alive.

Here is a wonderful way to advance our budding creators: make a donation to this fund, as Headwaters promises, which can:

• allow graduating students to follow their creative passions;
• invest directly in local young talent to honour the arts;
• inspire tomorrow’s creators, makers, performers, and innovators; and
• spark aspiring artists to explore, experiment, and express themselves throughout all artistic disciplines.

Artist, musician, and environmentalist Andie Trepanier won a Headwaters Scholarship at age 17. At the time, it was a music scholarship. Trepanier had been accepted at Humber College for the jazz program.

They have now seen great success in their arts career.

“I have a gig on Dec. 5 in Etobicoke,” Trepanier said, “with a pianist, Kevin Stolz.”

Music is still important to them, while painting has overwhelmed their life. The scholarship mattered very much at the time, as there was a lack of funds otherwise, and the award gave a level of economic security.

Trepanier explained, “How much arts matter, there is a framing around asking about the arts, where it is seen as auxiliary, instead of integral. The arts are not only the life blood of culture, but also a place where we can imagine the new futures we want to see manifest. There is nothing else I could do- – there never has been since I was 17.”

Seeing their father, Cory Trepanier, persevere as an artist to fight for his right to create, he had given himself the right to follow that career.

When funding and support for the arts are lost, the community can lose sight of what’s important.

“That scholarship funded the barriers to art for those who couldn’t afford it. Young people deserve support to continue on in the legacy of the creation that artists before them have established,” Trepanier said.

Taking the story of the Headwaters Scholarship back to its 2011 origins led to a conversation with Wayne Baguley, the first person to promote the idea and run it for six years.

There was a journey for the idea and a coming together of people who liked it and could make it happen.

“I always wanted it – to start a scholarship,” said Baguley. “We started the awards and named the first one after Paul Burdette (behind the Burdette Gallery), who was honoured with a life time achievement award by Headwaters Arts.”

They brought it up to the Headwaters Arts Board, with Baguley offering to put up the $1,000 goal if fundraising stalled.

Caledon Councillor Doug Befford said, “We like what you’re doing, I want to start the scholarship.”

At the time, Marolyn Morrison was the mayor of Caledon.

People were always supportive.

Doug Befford went to council, and they agreed to have a golf tournament. They did this fundraiser, and the owner of Osprey Valley Resorts, Jerry Humeniuck, issued a cheque for $40,000.

Baguley laughed, “After I had offered $1,000, there came this $40,000!”

Philosophically, he offered, “Just from throwing that seed, it all came back.”

The focus was on all six arts. They held a David Petersen Art Ball under the tent at the Alton Mill. Dan Hill attended and agreed to have his name on the music scholarship, and the event was sold out at 230 seats.

There was a fundraiser with David Peterson, who went along, joking, “If it can make some money off my name, that’s okay.”

His wife, Shelley Peterson, is a well-known author.

The Scholarship was a go, “With all these pieces coming together.”

Baguley insists, “The whole future is our young people, and we need to support them. It’s important to keep this going to support the people in the arts. Everybody has to team up.”

He added that they were blessed with a lot of support, which he was grateful for, but now he is clear that another $30,000 to $40,000 is needed and that all the players should be involved.

His concern is that attention be given not just to visual arts but also to the rest: dance, theatre, literary art, music, and film.

“And then it’s huge. When we put the arts together, it outsells sports,” he observed.

To pay more attention to young artists, Baugley said, “How do you know the next Jimmy Hendrix isn’t sitting on a bench in Orangeville, if we don’t give him the support?”

There is an issue not as well discussed as it should be, the matter of business: 50 per cent art, 50 per cent business. There is a huge business behind art, and we have to be realistic.

Said Baguley, “This about money. From a business view point, a scholarship is a smart investment.”

Please visit https://www.headwatersarts.org/grateful-giving/ to make your donation or drop by in-person to the Headwaters Arts Gallery in Alton, Ont., where its staff/artists will assist visitors. Donors will receive a personalized ornament on our Giving Tree.

Believe in the power of the arts. Donors of $100 or more will receive a handmade ornament created by textile artist and Headwaters Arts member Lynn Gilbank.

The Headwaters Arts Grateful Giving Campaign runs from Nov. 22 to Dec. 31.

The Headwaters Arts Gallery, located in the Alton Mill Arts Centre, is open Wednesday-Sunday, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., and on Holiday Mondays.

Visit https://square.link/u/4TeUcyEs to donate to Headwaters Arts online.

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