Helen Granger Young is a prolific, internationally renowned artist whose work has contributed to the cultural and historical fabric of Manitoba and Canada. Born in Mimico, Ont. in 1922, she received her associate of fine arts degree at the Ontario College of Art in the 1930s. In the 1940s, she assisted in Canada’s war effort, creating technical drawings of military tanks and aircraft. A Winnipeg resident since 1947, her body of work includes portraits and landscapes in oil and pastel, sculptures in porcelain and bronze and bronze monuments. She has painted or sculpted many prominent Canadians including John Diefenbaker and Duff Roblin. In Winnipeg, several of her bronze busts are displayed in the Assiniboine Park Citizen’s Hall of Fame, her statues of LaVerendrye and Father Aulneau grace the St. Boniface Basilica, her Tri-Service and First Flight monuments can be seen on Memorial Boulevard and her sculpture of Nellie McClung and the Famous Five sits on the Manitoba Legislative Building grounds. Her work is also housed in public and private collections around the world including Rideau Hall, Buckingham Palace, the White House and the Vatican. Mrs. Young is also the recent recipient of the YMCA-YWCA 2013 Women of Distinction Award.
