Educator, business recognized for contributions to the arts

By Lethbridge Herald on October 12, 2024.

Herald photo by Alejandra Pulido-Guzman Penny and Scott Warris showcase their ACCE business award along with the first author to ask them to put her book in consignment, Teri Petz, who received an AAC individual award Wednesday at the Sandman Signature Lodge Hotel.

Alejandra Pulido-Guzman
Lethbridge Herald

A young artist and a local business were recognized Wednesday during the annual Mayor’s Luncheon for the business and the arts at the Sandman Signature Lethbridge Lodge Hotel. 

Russell Milder, a Spanish bilingual educator and musician, was recognized by the Allied Arts Council of Lethbridge for his contributions to the local music scene and his innovative approach to teaching. 

“I didn’t really expect to receive the award. So it was a huge honour and surprise in the most positive way,” said Milder. 

He explained that even though he took a break from music when he became an educator, he still plays every once a in a while – either alone with a drum beat from a computer, or with other people.

Being nominated by one of his colleagues was the push he needed to get back to it. 

“I sing, I play bass, acoustic guitar and electric guitar and since being nominated I have been working on some music that will be released under my name probably in a year or two, just in  the stages of getting everything planned out and still writing a little bit,” said Milder. 

Milder is aware of the amazing talent that exists across the city and he feels very grateful and humbled to be recognized with the Young Artist Award. 

Milder believes that being bilingual has helped his artistic side as he sees music as a language unto itself. 

“Going into languages, which I went into as a young adult, I don’t know if I realized it at the time, but it was kind of a natural fit, the patterns of music theory and the patterns of grammar and language. Luckily for me, my brain works well with languages and music in that way,” said Milder. 

He said learning languages has not only helped him with his music from the relationship between the patterns, but also it has influenced his style. 

“I think learning languages, especially Spanish, opened up a whole other world of music to listen to that has influenced my own creativity. I think that if I didn’t speak Spanish or Portuguese, which I speak as well, I don’t know that I’d be the same musician or the same person,” said Milder. 

He said he believes languages and music are intertwined in his mind and he recommends everyone learn a second language if they can as this may help them develop their artistic skills and ways of expression. 

And what are artists without a way to share their art with others? This is where Analog Books has been helping the community and one of the reasons why they were recognized with the Allied Arts Council Excellence Business Award. 

The AACE business award recognizes a business in the community who has made a significant contribution of time, effort, or other forms of altruism to an organization and thereby enhanced the entire arts community. 

Penny and Scott Warris, owners of Analog Books said they built their store for the community, to become a community space in the very vibrant arts community here. 

“We plow a lot of the profits back into the community with supporting a number of different groups in town, and the only way we’re able to do that is with the support of the community,” said Scott.

He added that their award really belongs to the community as they have been instrumental in their ability to support local artists. 

During the awards ceremony, one of those local artists that Analog Books has supported was recognized along with them, Teri Petz, who received the AACE Individual Award. 

“Teri was one of the very first people that came into our store and she brought her book of poetry in and wanted to put her book on consignment and at that point we didn’t know what that meant,” said Penny. 

She said they ended up agreeing to it after figuring out what it meant and thought there would only be a few more authors asking to do the same after that, but it turned to be hundreds of them in the four years they have been in business. 

Analog Books has also expanded from books and they have opened their space for other forms or art and providing local artists a place to create. 

“There’s lots of other types of artists that use our space. Everything from artists that do fountain pen and pen and ink drawings, to musicians that use the space that come in regularly and cartoonists,” said Scott. 

Penny added that sometimes they have theatre groups do their rehearsals in their space and they have somebody doing a maker space right now doing macrame.

“It’s all about the analog. The idea is to get people off their screens, anything that takes them away from that is a win on our part,” said Penny.  “We like to say we’re an analog refuge from the digital world.”

The luncheon featured the presentation of several awards recognizing outstanding contributions to the arts, including the Joan Waterfield Memorial Award received by Kathy Matkin-Clapton for advancing and enhancing the arts in Lethbridge, the Aspiring Artist Award received by Kennedy Chinn, which includes $1,000 to encourage their artistic development and the Allied Arts Council Excellence awards for service organization received by the BIPOC Foundation and individual AACE recipient Teri Petz.