Lifetime Achievement in the Arts recipient: Ryan Arcand

Back in 1992, Ryan Arcand was travelling with the White Braid Society, heading home from a performance at the winter Olympics in France. They had a 13-hour layover in the UK’s Heathrow Airport; to pass the time they started singing, which attracted some unexpected attention.

“People were coming by and they were dropping British pounds at our feet—they thought we were busking,” Arcand recalls with a grin.

Authorities soon arrived to put a stop to that, but when the group explained what was happening, rather than shut them down, security positioned velvet ropes around them and encouraged them to keep going.

“We put on a show for them,” he laughs. “A couple of the dancers, one put on their shawl and the other put on their bustle and roach, and we did a little performance inside of the airport.”

It’s one fond memory of many that Arcand has made in his life of sharing art and culture to better the world around him. As this year’s recipient of the Lifetime Achievement in the Arts Award at the Mayor’s Celebration of the Arts—and, as part of that, joining the city’s Cultural Wall of Fame—Arcand’s been reflecting on his career as a singer, dancer, and educator. It’s a journey that began in 1978, when Arcand attended a powwow in Alexander First Nation and first heard the Sandy Lake Singers.

“I just got drawn to the drum,” he recalls. “I was very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time, but the beat of that drum just drew me right to it.”

He joined with the Sandy Lake Singers, and then other groups like the White Braid Society and White Buffalo Society. Since then, Arcand’s crossed the world, performing for foreign dignitaries and Prime Ministers; he’s a three-time singing champion and two-time dance champion. But in conversation, what’s most apparent is his sense of gratitude for the opportunities and support he’s received living and working in St Albert. He seems just as happy to speak about his neighbours, and those who’ve helped him along the way, as any of his own personal accomplishments.

“The city of St. Albert is so wonderful in that it's a city, but it has that small-town feel,” he says. “In my community, where we raised our children, we help each other. This last big dump of snow that we had last month, I grabbed my snowblower and I went around the whole cul-de-sac, and I went back the other way, and then across and so on. It's little things like that that make a community so loving and caring.”

In fact, giving back has added a new dimension to his artistic practice. When Arcand started teaching in St. Albert, facilitating drumming and singing workshops in schools, as well as working with the International Children’s Festival of the Arts, he found that sharing the skills he’d been taught with new generations was immensely impactful.

“It was more meaningful,” Arcand recalls. “I get to pass that knowledge on. When I started working at the Children's Fest and teaching at the schools, that's when it made me realize that I'm here for a bigger meaning.

“I'm not an Elder, I’m not anything like that, but I'm a helper,” he adds. “Helping along the way.”

More information about Ryan Arcand can be found at stalbert.ca/exp/arts-culture/mayors-celebration/wall-of-fame/ryan-arcand-2026/.

Article written by Paul Blinov

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