I’ve just wrapped up a two year term as President of my professional body, the Association of Canadian Editorial Cartoonists. It culminated with a successful convention which took place here in Hamilton and involved the attendance of over 25 editorial cartoonists from across the country. We talked about issues confronting our jobs and our futures, and we celebrated our craft with a show of cartoons at the Art Gallery of Hamilton (which is on until December 12, 2010). We enjoyed a tour which included 3 visits to Niagara area wineries and closed the weekend with a dinner which welcomed Opposition Leader Michael Ignatieff, who addressed our group. It has been an honour and privilege to head this organization, and I look forward to assisting Terry Mosher as he takes over the reigns with some ambitious plans for editorial cartooning in Canada.
Below is his letter addressed to members of the ACEC which he kindly acknowledges my wife and I, and thanks us for a great convention. What a classy guy!
Dear Graeme,
On behalf of the Canadian cartoonists, I would like to thank you for the exceptional job you have done serving as the president of our association. Furthermore, our thanks go out to you and Wendi for your hosting of the excellent ACEC convention in your home town of Hamilton this last weekend.
As the new president of the association, I am delighted that you will continue to keep us up to speed by maintaining our web site and introducing us all to Facebook for communication purposes within the organization. Furthermore, thanks go out to Wes Tyrell who has volunteered to give you a hand in these matters.
My wife, Mary Hughson, and I will continue to consult with you as we start to plan the next ACEC convention to be held here in Montreal sometime in 2012. More information on that get-together will be made available as we get closer to the event. In fact, we were thinking of sending out a newsletter of sorts every six months or so.
I am sending a copy of this email to many of the cartoonists whose names appear on various membership sheets, past and present. So this might be a good place to include several web sites of interest that were talked about in Hamilton.
Here are two international cartoon competitions that I can vouch for, having served on the jury of both this past year. In both cases, I promised the organizers that more Canadian cartoonists would be taking part in these events.
The World Press Cartoon competition is held in Portugal annually. The Grand Prize for this event is 20,000 Euros (along with many other cash prizes). The deadline for entries is January 31, 2011. More information and entry forms are available at: www.worldpresscartoon.com.
The second event I would recommend highly is the Aydin Dogan International Cartoon Competition held annually in Turkey. More information is available at: www.aydindoganvakfi.org.tr.
There are many other international events of interest. A selection of these can be found at this web site: http://caricaturque.blogspot.com.
Lastly, I’ve sent off a thank-you note to Michael Ignatieff for having put his head in the lion’s mouth in Hamilton last weekend (included).
Terry Mosher
Lachine, Quebec