Michael Audain

Audain Ancestors

The Audain family originated in France where their name was originally spelt Audoen. The founder of the family was Audoin, King of the Lombards, who in the 6th century A.D. was celebrated for his indomitable energy and fortitude in leading his people against the Roman Emperor Justinian. The descendants of the Audoen settled in Normandy where the 7th century cleric St. Audoen had a handsome abbey church dedicated to him in Rouen, which was regarded as one of the finest testaments of Gothic architecture, in which was deposited the heart of Richard Coeur de Lion and the remains of most of the early rulers of Normandy.

St. Audoen's Church in Dublin, Ireland was built by Anglo-Norman settlers around the close of the 12th century to honour the patron saint of Rouen. But, the family remained active as land owners of consequence in Normandy until the Edict of Nantes was revoked by King Louis XIV in 1688, which obliged the "Huguenots" as French Protestants were called to flee. They emigrated to the island of St. Kitts, West Indies in the Caribbean Sea, where they established sugar plantations.

In St. Kitts, John Audain, a descendent, married Ann, the daughter of Lord Mulgrave. More commonly known as the "Pirate Parson", John Audain's numerous exploits around the Caribbean have been well documented.

John Audain's grandson, Colonel John Willett Payne Audain, lived in Belfast, Northern Ireland, while his great grandson, Colonel Guy Mortimer Audain, followed in his father's footsteps into the Indian Army.

While returning home on leave, Guy Audain met and married Byrdie, the daughter of the Honourable James Dunsmuir, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. Their son, James Guy Payne Audain (Jimmy), born in 1903, spent some of his early years in India, then after schooling in England, attended the Royal Military College in Sandhurst, Berkshire, after which he joined the Queen's Own 7th Hussars, a cavalry regiment. After a military career, James Audain returned to Canada where he served as a civil defence official in Victoria, British Columbia and became a prominent member of the community known for his interest in amateur boxing and race horse breeding.

After a ten-day courtship, James Audain married Madeline Stulik in 1934. A son, Michael, was born in 1937. The couple were divorced in 1942, immediately after which James married Marie Clark, the former wife of French General Fagalde of Basque origin. She died in 1955, after which in 1962 James Audain took Isobel Rose Temple to be his wife until his death in 1970.

Dunsmuir Ancestors

Michael Audain's great great grandfather is Robert Dunsmuir of Kilmarnock, East Ayrshire, Scotland, who arrived on Vancouver Island at Fort Rupert, British Columbia in 1851. A servant of the Hudson's Bay Company, he later established his own coal mines and became a major figure in the economic and political history of British Columbia. Craigdarroch, the castle that he built for his wife Joan in Victoria, British Columbia is today a national monument and museum site. Robert Dunsmuir's son, James, succeeded him as heir to his fortune and served as Premier and Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. His estate on the outskirts of Victoria, originally called Hatley Park, eventually became a Canadian naval college and today is the site of Royal Roads University.

Stulik Ancestors

Michael Audain is also the grandson of Rudolph C. Stulik, who was born out of wedlock to a Syrian dancer in the Vienna State Opera and a French nobleman. The boy was educated by the Jesuits until when at the age of 11 he entered the kitchens of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna, Austria. His personality, talent, and hard work enabled him to achieve distinction as a maître d’hotel to Emperor Francis Joseph I by his early twenties. In 1905, Stulik opened the La Tour Eiffel Restaurant in London's Soho neighbourhood, with funds he had accumulated from catering the officer's mess for Lord Kitchener's expedition up the Nile to vanquish the Mahdi in the Sudan. The restaurant soon became famous as a habitat for artists, musicians, and political celebrities until Stulik was forced to close it due to economic conditions in 1938. He died the same year. Audain donated La Tour Eiffel's guest book to the Museum of London.

Rudolph and Helena Stulik's oldest daughter, Madeline, born in 1909 was educated at schools in Switzerland and Germany, after which she was sought out by fashion houses as a model. After her divorce from James Audain, she became associated with a tennis clothing retailer until she married George Carmichael in 1951, moving with him to reside for many years in Georgetown, Guyana and later Kingston, Jamaica. The couple retired in Hove, Sussex in England where she died in 1998.

Marriages and Offspring

Back in Canada, in 1962 Michael Audain married Tunya Swetleshnoff, daughter of Nick and Nellie Swetleshnoff of Canora, Saskatchewan. They had two children, Fenya Bijou Chanel Audain born in Vancouver, British Columbia and Kyra Anastasia Michele Audain born in Ottawa, Ontario.

Fenya married James Sutherland of Nelson, British Columbia in 1993. The couple had four children: Brennan Cameron James Sutherland, Aidan Michael Louis Sutherland, Desmond LaShean Audain and Beatrice Kiara Margaret Audain . The couple were divorced in 2008.

After becoming divorced from Tunya, in 1984 Michael Audain married Yoshiko Karasawa in Vancouver, British Columbia, the daughter of Goro and Ai Karasawa of Gunma, Japan.

Education

Michael Audain attended numerous U.K. schools due to frequent moves by his split-up family during World War II. His first nursery school was named St. Georges, located on Castle Street in Farnham, Surrey, while his first boarding school was called Melbreak Preparatory School situated in the countryside outside Farnham. Later, he attended Eagle House near Sandhurst in Berkshire.

In Canada, Audain attended Glenlyon School (now Glenlyon Norfolk School) and University School (now St. Michael's University School). Both are situated in Victoria, British Columbia. Later, he was sent to Trinity College School in Port Hope, Ontario.

In terms of higher education, Audain attended the University of Lyon in France, where he acquired a Diploma in French Civilization in 1959. At the University of British Columbia he earned a Bachelor of Arts in 1962, a Bachelor of Social Work in 1963, and a Masters in Social Work in 1965. He later attended the London School of Economics and Political Science as a Ph.D. student but did not submit a thesis. In 1977, Audain obtained a Certificate in Farm Management and Rural Appraisal from the University of California, Davis.

Activism

During the 1960s Michael Audain led a colourful life as a social activist. At the University of British Columbia he founded and was President of the Nuclear Disarmament Club, which among other initiatives, organized peace marches. In 1962 Audain organized the largest peace march in Vancouver since the 1930's. Also at the University of British Columbia, together with a group of faculty members, Audain founded The Penthouse Radical Society, which met monthly on the top floor of the Faculty of Arts Buchanan Building to discuss social and economic issues.

Audain also served as an editor of the international magazine, Our Generation Against Nuclear War, and was also a delegate to the 1961 founding convention of Canada's New Democratic Party.

In the summer of 1961, he saw action as a Freedom Rider in the United States south, being sentenced in Jackson, Mississippi to a jail term and a $250 fine. He served part of his sentence in the city jail in Jackson, as well as the Mississippi State Penitentiary at Parchman.

Together with a group of University of British Columbia faculty, Audain was instrumental in founding the BC Civil Liberties Association in 1962, the first executive meeting being held in his Kitsilano, Vancouver, apartment. Later he served for two years as Executive Secretary of the BCCLA before leaving Canada for New York City and eventually London.

While a student in London, Audain was an active member of the campaign to end the Vietnam War, and was also involved in left wing student activity.

Grizzly Bear Foundation

A close encounter with a grizzly bear (Ursus arctos) and her three cubs inspired Michael Audain to establish and fund a registered charitable organization in 2016, dedicated to the welfare of grizzly bears. The Grizzly Bear Foundation supports the conservation and preservation of grizzly bears through research and public education. It commissioned a Board of Enquiry to travel the province of British Columbia in the fall of 2016 to seek information from individuals and organizations that have an interest in the grizzly bear. The report summarizing the findings of this Enquiry was submitted to the Provincial Government in March 2017. The Foundation is governed by a Board of Directors chaired by Michael Audain and managed by Executive Director Rachel Forbes.

Sports and Recreation

The only sport that Michael Audain excelled at was amateur boxing, winning the Glenlyon School cup as the best boxer. As a member of the Victoria City Police Boxing Club, Audain fought in over two dozen tournaments in the Pacific Northwest, winning a third of his fights. Among them was the Vancouver Island Silver Gloves Championship. Audain's main outdoor recreation was sailing, having owned a number of sailing vessels including a Cheoy Lee 36 that he lived on for a period in Hong Kong, a Danish Spitzgatter 26, a French built Dufour 24, and a Rhode Island built Altair 29.

Career

Like many Canadians, Michael Audain worked at numerous summer jobs while he attended school and university, including gardener, parking lot attendant, postal clerk, dude ranch hand, and a guard at the Oakalla Prison Farm in Burnaby, British Columbia. His first full-time job was with Canadian Pacific Airlines in Edmonton, Alberta and in Norman Wells, Northwest Territories where at the age of 20 he became an assistant station manager.

Audain was later employed as a juvenile protection officer by the Vancouver Family and Children's Court, and as a United Way local area council organizer. In the early 1970s Audain established a reputation for himself as one of Canada's leading housing policy experts. After moving from the position of Director of Community Relations at the Ontario Housing Corporation in Toronto, Ontario (now Ontario Mortgage and Housing Corporation) in 1969, he was appointed Housing Program Director at the Canadian Council on Social Development in Ottawa, Ontario where he conducted a number of research studies on housing issues, most notably a national study on housing for the elderly, which was published as a book called Beyond Shelter. In Ottawa he also started and became editor of a quarterly publication called Housing and People.

In late 1973, Audain was called to the Provincial Government in Victoria, British Columbia by Premier David Barrett OC OBC and appointed Special Advisor to the Minister of Housing, with the task of setting up a housing ministry. During this period he initiated policies that resulted in a significant increase in social and cooperative housing throughout British Columbia. To aid the process, he negotiated the purchase of Dunhill Development Ltd. which became the Housing Corporation of British Columbia.

After a term as chairman of the Provincial Commission on Mobile Homes, which published a well-received report, in 1976 Audain established a company called Audain Planning Ltd. to undertake research and provide advice on housing policy across Canada. Later in 1994 he was appointed by Premier Michael Harcourt as co-chairman of the Commission of Affordable Housing Options, which held public hearings and whose report ultimately played a significant role in revising municipal government's attitudes to so-called "illegal suites" and a host of other housing related matters.

Audain also taught on a part-time basis at the University of British Columbia's School of Urban and Regional Planning (now School of Community and Regional Planning).

In September 1980 Audain was appointed Executive Vice President of Polygon Properties Limited, becoming a partner in the firm. Then in 1988 he was appointed President, and in 1992 Chairman of Polygon Homes Ltd. He has continued to serve as Chair of the Board since Neil Chrystal's appointment as President in 2003.

Polygon Homes Ltd.

The history of Polygon Homes started in 1980 when Michael Audain was invited by W.K. Paulus to become the Executive Vice President and a partner in a company that owned an interest in three rental apartment properties. Initially, Audain built residential communities for housing cooperatives and non-profit organizations, but in 1983 he started building townhomes and apartments for the market. The company expanded in 1988 when Paulus sold his interest to Laing Property Corporation.

After Laing Property Corporation was taken over by P&O Limited, a British conglomerate, Audain and his partner Rick Genest negotiated the acquisition of all the shares in the company in 1992, with Polygon becoming 100 percent British Columbia owned and managed. After Genest's death as a result of a highway accident in 2002, Neil Chrystal became a major shareholder in the company and assumed the title of President and CEO. Since 1980, Polygon Homes Ltd. and its affiliated single-family builder Morningstar Homes Ltd. have completed the construction of over 27,000 homes in Metro Vancouver.

Awards and honours

1. Queen's Golden Jubilee Medal (2002)
2. Order of BC (2007)
3. Order of Canada (2009)
4. Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal (2012)

Honorary degrees

1. Doctor of Letters – Emily Carr University of Art + Design (2005)
2. Doctor of Laws – Simon Fraser University (2005)
3. Doctor of Laws – University of Victoria (2009)
4. Doctor of Laws – University of British Columbia (2014)
5. Doctor of Laws - Vancouver Island University (2017)

Industry

Michael Audain is a Governor and past Chairman of the Business Council of British Columbia, and a past President of the Urban Development Institute Pacific Region.

1. Builder of the Year Award – Urban Development Institute Pacific Region (1987)
2. Individual of Distinction – Urban Development Institute Pacific Region (1989)
3. Greater Vancouver Home Builders’ Association Hall of Fame (2005)
4. Business Laureate of the British Columbia Hall of Fame (2009)
5. Member Urban Development Institute Hall of Fame (2012)

Culture

1. Edmund C. Bovey Award – Business for the Arts (2004)
2. British Columbia Museums Association Award for Distinguished Service (2005)
3. Simon Fraser University President's Distinguished Community Leadership Award (2008)
4. The Vancouver Board of Trade Community Leadership Award (2008)
5. Vancouver Biennale Philanthropy in the Arts Award (2011)
6. Vancouver Mayor's Arts Award for Philanthropy (2012)
7. Royal Canadian Academy of Arts Medal (2013)
8. Greater Vancouver Board of Trade Rix Award for Engaged Community Citizenship (2017)
9. Canadian Museums Association President's Award (2017)

Visual Art

Michael Audain has been a supporter of the visual arts in British Columbia and beyond. In 1992 he joined the Board of Trustees of the Vancouver Art Gallery and with a brief interregnum has been involved in the affairs of the Gallery until finishing his term as Chair of the Vancouver Art Gallery Foundation in 2014. He served as the Association's President/Chair from 1996 to 1998.

In 2005, Audain was appointed to the Board of Trustees of the National Gallery of Canada, and then as Chair from 2009 to 2012. He also served as a Director of the National Gallery Foundation until 2014.

Audain Foundation

Michael Audain Chairs the Board of the Audain Foundation, which was established in 1997 to support the visual arts in British Columbia with grants and endowments for capital projects and exhibitions at major public art galleries and educational institutions. More recently, the Foundation managed by Executive Director Chantal Shah has expanded its scope to include wildlife interests, including start-up funding for the new Grizzly Bear Foundation.

The Audain Foundation has supported many initiatives, among them the Audain Endowment for Contemporary Canadian Art and the Audain Curator of Indigenous Art at the National Gallery of Canada (in recognition of this support, together with donations for special projects, collections and operations, the contemporary exhibition space is named La Salle Audain); the Audain Curator of British Columbia Art, the Audain Emerging Artists Acquisition Fund, the Audain Prize Endowment Fund, and the Post-Secondary Student Engagement in BC Program at the Vancouver Art Gallery; the Audain Curator of First Nations Art Endowment Fund for the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria; the Audain Professorship in Contemporary Art Practice of the Pacific Northwest and the Audain Gallery and Atrium at the University of Victoria; the Audain Endowment for Curatorial Studies, the Audain Art Centre, and the Reconciliation Pole by James Hart at the University of British Columbia; the Audain Gallery at the Museum of Anthropology; the Audain Visual Artists-in-Residence Program/School for the Contemporary Arts at Simon Fraser University (recognized with naming the main exhibition space the Audain Gallery); the acquisition of a Bill Reid masterpiece for The Royal BC Museum; the Audain Art Studio at Brentwood College; the Audain Great Hall at the Bill Reid Gallery of Northwest Coast Art; the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art; the Audain Distinguished Artist-in-Residence Program and the Audain Faculty of Visual Arts at Emily Carr University of Arts + Design; The Polygon Gallery (new home for Presentation House Gallery) in North Vancouver; and the Audain Art Museum building and art acquisitions.

Audain Prize for Lifetime Achievement in the Visual Arts

The annual Audain Prize was established in 2004 to recognize outstanding achievements of British Columbia's senior artists. The $30,000 award is administered by the Vancouver Art Gallery. The prize winners include: Ann Kipling (2004), Edward J. Hughes CM OBC (2005), Eric Metcalfe (2006), Gordon Smith CM OBC (2007), Jeff Wall OC (2008), Liz Magor (2009), Robert Davidson CM OBC (2010), Rodney Graham OC (2011), Marian Penner Bancroft (2012), Takao Tanabe CM OBC and Gathie Falk CM OBC (2013), Fred Herzog (2014), Michael Morris (2015), Paul Wong (2016), and Carole Itter (2017).

Audain Collection

Michael Audain and his wife Yoshiko Karasawa amassed a significant art collection which is considered among Canada's most outstanding. Particularly strong was a large group of Northwest Coast First Nations masks which had been brought back to the Northwest Coast from the United States and Europe, a major collection of Emily Carr's works, Canada's most important collection of Mexican modernist works, and one of the leading collections of Quebec artist Jean-Paul Riopelle. The collection was in part exhibited at the Vancouver Art Gallery in late 2012 and early 2013. Nearly 200 works from this collection were installed at the Audain Art Museum in preparation for its opening in March 2016, and will be donated to form the beginning of the Museum's Permanent Collection.

Audain has also commissioned works from a number of artists (personally or through Polygon) to allow them to develop their talents, including: James Hart OBC, Robert Davidson CM OBC, Xwalacktun (Rick Harry OBC), Susan Point, Paul Wong, Marianne Nicolson, and Jay Simeon to name a few.

Audain Art Museum

In September 2012, Michael Audain was invited to Whistler, British Columbia to discuss establishing a museum for his family collection. Less than a year after his visit, the 56,000-square-foot Audain Art Museum building designed by Patkau Architects commenced construction on land donated by the Resort Municipality of Whistler for a 199-year lease. Adjacent to Whistler Village the Museum officially opened to the public on March 12, 2016 and houses a portion of the Audain Collection, a gallery dedicated to 15 works by E.J Hughes CM OBC, as well as offers spaces for special exhibitions. It is the only museum in Canada with a permanent collection that exclusively represents the artists of its home province. The Museum and Figure 1 published a book by Ian M. Thom CM titled Masterworks from the Audain Art Museum, Whistler.

The Museum is governed by a Board of Trustees chaired by James Moodie and managed by Director, Suzanne Greening. Michael Audain remains a Trustee.

Audain Art Museum Foundation

The Audain Art Museum Foundation was subsequently created to raise an endowment fund of $25 million to support the operations of the Audain Art Museum. This registered not-for-profit charitable corporation is governed by a Board of Directors chaired by Michael Audain. By early 2017, over $17.5 million had been donated to the endowment by persons and companies called the Museum's "Founders".