Carole Sabiston Explained

Birth Place:	London, England
Occupation:	Textile artist
Family:	Andrew Sabiston (son)
Nationality:	English Canadian

Carole Sabiston (born 1939) is an English-born Canadian textile artist who lives in Victoria, British Columbia.

Career

Born in London, England to George and Doris Slater, Carole Sabiston, at the age of 8, moved to Canada with her parents in 1948. First married to Brian Sabiston in 1961, she studied art education at the University of British Columbia and the University of Victoria. In 1976 she married Jim Munro, owner of Munro's Books, a bookstore in Victoria, B.C. Her tapestries representing the four seasons decorate architecture niches and contribute to the decor that made Munro's make a list of 'Sixteen Bookstores to See Before You Die'.^[1]

She has created large-scale installations for public institutions, theatre design, public ceremonies and exhibitions and has received commissions from the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia, the University of Victoria, the Pacific Forestry Centre, the McPherson Theatre, and mystery writer P.D. James.^[2]

Sabiston won the Saidye Bronfman Award for Excellence in 1987 (one of the largest individual visual-arts prizes in Canada, it is administered by the Canada Council for the Arts as one of the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts),^[3] the Order of British Columbia,^[4] is a member of the Royal Canadian Academy (RCA),^[5] and was awarded the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal and the 125th Canada Medal. In 1995, she received an Honorary Doctorate of Fine Arts from the University of Victoria.^[6]

Sabiston was friends with Pulitzer Prize winning author, Carol Shields, who moved down the street from Sabiston in 2000 until Shields died in 2003. As a tribute to her friend, Sabiston created a work of art that stitched together pieces of Shields' clothing.^[7]

Her most recent major show was a retrospective curated by Patricia Bovey and titled Everything Below All of the Above at the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria (2014).^{[8] [9]}

She is the mother of children's television series producer Andrew Sabiston.^[10]

Notes and References

1. News: Munro's Books boasts a shelf life of 50 years – and counting. The Globe and Mail. 15 November 2014.
2. Web site: Longtime Victoria bookseller hands business to staff. Thestar.com. 9 July 2014. 15 November 2014.
3. Web site: Saidye Bronfman Award .
4. Web site: 1992 Recipient: Carole Sabiston – Victoria - Order of BC. Orderofbc.gov.bc.ca. 15 November 2014.
5. Web site: University of Victoria Art Collections .
6. Web site: University of Victoria -Honorary degree recipients. University of Victoria. 26 March 2015.
7. Web site: Carole Sabiston - Textile Artist. October 26, 2021 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20140330130054/http://www.artopenings.ca/carole-sabiston.html . March 30, 2014.
8. Web site: Carole Sabiston's works brought back for retrospective at art gallery. Amy Smart. Times Colonist. 15 November 2014.
9. Web site: Carole Sabiston : Everything Below All of the Above. Aggv.ca. 15 November 2014.
10. Web site: Victoria pair's Napoleon going to New York. Adrian. Chamberlain. Times Colonist. April 25, 2015. October 26, 2021.