International Costumers’ Guild Lifetime Achievement Awards

Sue Kulinyi and Eric Cannon

Eric Cannon and Sue Kulinyi were honored with the International Costumers’ Guild’s 2017 Lifetime Achievement Awards this weekend at Costume-Con 35 in Mississauga, Ontario.

The ICG Lifetime Achievement Award recognizes a body of achievement in the costuming art and service to the costuming community. Candidates for the award:

  • Shall have been active in the costuming community for at least 10 years.
  • Shall have achieved significant recognition for their costuming skills, which may be in the form of, but not restricted to, competitive awards, professional accomplishments, teaching of skills, and/or media recognition.
  • Shall have made significant contributions in service to the costuming community.

The husband and wife team of Eric Cannon and Sue Kulinyi are well-known videographers.

Their award citation says —

[They] make it their mission to make costumers look good onstage for future generations to view, as well as providing DVDs for participants to take home to show off, mere hours after the convention has closed.

As official videographers to many costuming conventions, Eric and Sue use their own equipment and usually have to drive to convention sites, and spend considerable time setting up multiple cameras and attending technical rehearsals because they know how important this will be to the costumers and to the archival process.

They are also active in procuring old videos of past convention masquerades and have preserved this footage, making it available through their company, Rare Recorded Videos. Given the frailty of video tape, much of our costuming past was in danger of being lost forever had it not been for their efforts to collect this footage and donate copies to the ICG Kennedy Archives.

In 2014, Eric undertook to further our history by lobbying the Library of Congress to accept our masquerade DVDs into their archive. Because of his efforts, costuming in all its forms has been “recognized as a legitimate art form.”

Sue sometimes steps in as Stage Manager, a role that includes organizing and coordinating the operation of the main stage, and the operation of lighting and sound for the masquerade contestants. Eric occasionally finds time to participate in masquerades, sitting in the audience in costume to record, then running backstage at the last minute to join a costume group and carefully resuming his position behind the camera when the entry is finished.

Eric and Sue have made a major contributions to the continuation of our hobby and art form. They do this with consummate professionalism and good humour.

A year ago Lisa Ashton was presented the 2016 Lifetime Achievement Award at Costume-Con 34 in Madison, WI.

Lisa Ashton

Her citation reads:

Lisa Ashton has been active in the costuming community since 1989 when she attended her first Worldcon. She has been recognized as a Master Costumer who is renowned for her workmanship, especially in beading.

Known as an expert in 19th century historical costuming, Lisa founded the ICG’s first Special Intrest Group, “Miss Lizzy’s Traveling Historical Fashion Show,” which exhibits selections from her extensive collection of historic clothing, jewelry, photographs, books, and journals about 19th century American dress and domestic life.

Lisa is also is a tireless volunteer in the community, serving on convention committees, presenting on panels at conventions, teaching workshops to share her knowledge and skills, and serving as a presentation and workmanship judge for several dozen Sci-Fi/Fantasy and Historic masquerades.

 

Group photo of ICG Lifetime Achievement Award winners taken in 2016. Left to right: Sandy Pettinger, Nora Mai. Pierre Pettinger, Kevin Roche, Jacqueline Ward, Tina Connell, Ricky Dick, Lisa Ashton, Bruce Mai, Ann Catelli, Dawn McKechnie, Dana MacDermott, Bruce MacDermott, Byron Connell, Karen Schnaubelt. Photo: Scott Johnson. ©2016 Realtime Portrait Studio.

Sandy Swank (1959-2015)

Lisa Ashton and Sandy Swank in “The Letter.” Photo by Leonard J. Provenzano. Used by permission.

Lisa Ashton and Sandy Swank in “The Letter.” Photo by Leonard J. Provenzano. Used by permission.

Sandy Swank, an active member of the International Costumers Guild, passed away June 13 of lung disease.

He was President of the Greater Delaware Valley Costumers Guild. He also was a member of the Society for Creative Anachronism, participating in an early 17th century persona.

Before he retired, even his day job allowed him to appear in costume, as a historical re-enactor at Philadelphia’s Cliveden museum, sometimes playing an 18th century German farmer and sometimes the Grandson of Pennsylvania founder William Penn.

After retirement he moved to Charleston, South Carolina. There he co-chaired Costume-Con 33 (2015) with his husband Robert M. Himmelsbach.

He was part of the memorable Chicon 2000 Masquerade entry, the humorous “Mad Cows Through History”.

And Swank and Lisa Ashton won Best in Show at Philcon as well as multiple awards at Costume-Con 29 in 2011 for ”The Letter”  (scroll down for video), a meticulously researched presentation of the famous Sullivan Ballou letter. Lisa Ashton recalls:

We were on a panel together about a year earlier, at a Philcon, on a Sunday morning, and only about 1 person showed up, so we all just talked about things, and the subject came around to the Ken Burns Documentary about the Civil War, and the very poignant letter written by Sullivan Ballou to his wife Sarah, about two weeks before he was killed at First Manassas. This led to Sandy and I doing this on stage, and people telling us, “The hair stood up on the back of my neck” among other comments. I am smiling as I remember our planning and presentation and how touching it was. We were so in character we barely felt we were ourselves. I still cry watching this presentation on video.

Swank is survived by his husband, and two sisters.