Douglas Coupland will be honoured for his work as an author and visual artist at an upcoming event recognizing artists from the North Shore.

Coupland will receive the 2012 Distinguished Artist Award at the annual Tribute to the Arts event hosted by the nonprofit FANS Society.

Society president Lori Phillips praised Coupland for the many novels, public artworks, and gallery exhibitions he has produced over the years.

“The more I kind of delve deeper into it I’m just absolutely blown away by his prolific body of work,” Phillips told the Straight by phone.

“He’s amazing so we’re pretty proud to claim him kind of as a North Shore guy,” she said.

Coupland, who grew up in West Vancouver, is the author of the bestselling novel Generation X: Tales for an Accelerated Culture. He also designed the Terry Fox memorial at B.C. Place.

Another highlight of the FANS Society event will be the awarding of the Don S. Williams Grant to two emerging local artists.

Visual artist Anne Gudrun will receive one of the grants to help mount a new show, and musician Adam Woodall will receive one to help with a new recording project. Each grant is worth $2,000.

Phillips said the idea behind the grant is to support the careers of individual artists by providing a source of local-level funding.

She said artists who work alone often struggle to secure grants from provincial or federal bodies.

“You can see that there is support available as long as you’re part of a nonprofit society, but most artists are working on their own and their doing their own thing,” Phillips said.

“So how do we support them at that basic level and say, ‘We value what you do. We think that arts are fundamental to a healthy, vibrant, liveable city?’”

The FANS Society—also known as Fund for the Arts on the North Shore—provides the grants from the interest earned from an $80,000 endowment fund. Phillips said the society hopes to one day grow the endowment fund to $100,000.

“You never can count on other types of funding sources remaining. By building an endowment, we are hoping to secure funding for individual artists forever,” she said.

A silent auction will also be held during the FANS Tribute to the Arts event to raise funds for the society.

The event takes place at the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Art [2121 Lonsdale Ave.] on (Thursday) October 25 at 7 p.m. Tickets are available for $30.