The Cedar Tavern Singers or the Phonorealistes aka Mary -Ann McTrowe and Dan Wong have been nominated for the 2010 Sobeys Art Award for Canadian artists under the age of 40.
The Sobey Art Award, Canada’s preeminent award for contemporary Canadian art, was created in 2002 by the Sobey Art Foundation. The annual prize is given to an artist under 40 who has exhibited in a public or commercial art gallery within 18 months of being nominated by prominent members of the art community and professional artists. 
A total of $70,000 in prize money is awarded annually; $50,000 to the winner and $5,000 to the other four finalists. Since its inception, the Sobey Art Award and accompanying exhibition have been organized and administered by the Art Gallery of Nova Scotia.
The Cedar Tavern Singers, who write catchy, upbeat, ukulele powered music inspired by art actually have song about the Sobey’s Art Award, named after Sobey’s founder Donald Sobeys, but never expected to actually get nominated for it.
“In 2007 we started writing it, but every year we’ve updated it and list the names on the short list, so it keeps getting longer. I guess we’re going to have to add a verse about ourselves,” laughed Wong, 28, adding art professionals choose the five best or most promising artists in five regions of the country (West Coast and Yukon; Prairies and the North; Ontario; Quebec and the Atlantic) for the long list, which is whittled down to the top artists in each region, which is in turn whittled down to the grand prize winner.
“It was a complete shock to us,” said McTrowe, 34, whose husband David Hoffos won second place for the award back in 2002.
“Our art is our music but then a lot of our (visual) art is inspired by musical items such as album covers, gig posters and musical instruments,” Wong said.
Many of the others have exhibited at the University of Lethbridge Gallery or the Southern Alberta Art Gallery. Brendan Lee Satish Tang, a west coast nominee, recently concluded an exhibit at the SAAG of his unique science fiction inspired pottery. Several others have spoken for the university’s ART NOW speaker series.
“People think because we’re a small city, and that we’re not Calgary, that maybe there is not a lot going on. But everybody in the (international and national) art community talks about Lethbridge,” said McTrowe of the nominees having Lethbridge connections.
“It’s a combination of the university and the Southern Alberta Art Gallery and all of the local artists who support them,” she continued.
“We have a lot of artists here per capita. For visual art, there is a large number of artists. The SAAG always has something interesting and the ART Now program has speakers three times a week,” he said.
The Cedar Tavern Singers have released two full length CDs and are about to release their third EP, ‘Sweet Home Alberta,’ which will be ready for the duo’s performance at the grand opening of the newly constructed Edmonton Art Gallery, which will be part of the Alberta biennial celebrations.
“It’s going to be fun opening that new building,” McTrowe continued, adding all four of the new songs are based on interesting aspects of Alberta art.
They are currently working on their third full length CD ‘Ceci n’est pas la musique’ while repairing their studio which was destroyed in a fire about a year ago.
