The Lacombe Arts Endowment Fund has received a substantial boost from a generous individual.
Jan Holoboff, a retired art teacher and long-time supporter of Lacombe’s art community, recently made a donation of $10,000 to the Lacombe Arts Endowment Fund. Her donation has allowed for the creation of a new scholarship, ‘The Jan Holoboff Junior High School Student Art Award’.
“The Jan Holoboff Junior High School Student Art Award of $250 will be handed out annually during the Lacombe Art Show and Sale,” said Mayor Steve Christie. “On behalf of council, staff and the citizens of Lacombe, I want to thank Jan for her tremendous gift, which will help create and sustain a vibrant and sustainable artistic community in our City.”
Holoboff taught for more than 20 years at the Lacombe Junior High School and has lived in the community for 36 years. She added that she has been involved in the local arts community for, “What feels like forever.”
A desire to give back to her community is what drew Holoboff to make the $10,000 donation, she said.
Holoboff chose to give to the Arts Endowment Fund because of her previous connections as well as a belief that art sometimes does not get the support it deserves.
“I think that it’s something that our government doesn’t spend enough money on so it’s up to the public to provide funds when we can,” she said.
She added she hopes the new scholarship will encourage students to continue pursuing their artistic studies and possibly even lead to successful careers as artists.
“I just want to keep that rolling,” said Holoboff. “I just think art gets left out a lot of the time.”
She added, while she thinks art seems to get left by the wayside at times, she recognizes that Lacombe is a very artistic and culturally-minded community and wants to help continue that trend.
Originally, Holoboff planned to keep her donation to the Art Endowment Fund anonymous, but was discouraged from doing so by many who felt the donation carried more weight with her name attached to it as Holoboff is so well-known in the local arts community.
She added she hopes this will help Lacombe’s arts scene, which is vibrant but still largely underground, come more to the forefront of the community.
In addition to supporting the Arts Endowment Fund, Holoboff and her husband also make regular contributions to other charitable projects in the community including the annual FCSS Christmas Food Certificate Fund, Santas Anonymous program and the Lacombe Community Food Bank, she said. She added that she and her husband feel compelled to support these causes because they have the ability to.
“I think it’s very fortunate that I can do that.”
While retired from teaching, Holoboff is still active as an artist. She said her preferred medium is pottery but she dabbles in painting as well, calling herself a ‘painter wannabe’. Some of Holoboff’s paintings have been featured in the Art Endowment Fund’s 10x10 by the Unknown Artist fundraiser.
The Lacombe Arts Endowment Fund was established in 2005 and provides ongoing financial support of literary, visual and performing arts for the benefit of the residents of Lacombe and area.
The vision for this fund is to create a vibrant and sustainable artistic community.
All donations to the Lacombe Arts Endowment Fund are permanently deposited into a dedicated fund that is invested with a larger capital pool of funds held by the Red Deer and District Community Foundation.
Disbursements of interest from the Fund are awarded to successful Lacombe area applicants as recommended by the Lacombe Arts Endowment Committee.