About: The Toronto Arts Indigenous Artist Award is a $20,000 cash prize which celebrates an Indigenous artist or artist collective that has made a recognized contribution to the creative cultural life of Toronto. In addition, the recipient selects an artist mentor/Elder or mentee/protégée to receive $5,000. In addition to the prize money, the 2025 recipient will receive a complimentary week-long stay at Valleyview Artist Retreat. Established in 2021, the Indigenous Artist Award is presented every other year at the Mayor’s Arts Lunch. The award and finalist prizes are generously supported by the K.M. Hunter Foundation.

Eligibility Criteria

Individuals:  

• must be Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit); 

• must have demonstrated an ongoing association with Toronto; 

• must have contributed significantly to the arts and culture of Toronto; 

• must be living at time of selection; 

• may self-nominate, however; a letter of support is strongly recommended; 

• undergraduate and college students are not eligible to apply; 

• nominees are not eligible to nominate or receive Toronto Arts Awards while serving on the board member or staff of Toronto Arts Foundation or Toronto Arts Council. 
   

Organizations and Collectives:  

• must be headquartered in Toronto and have a significant portion of its activity taking place in the city; 

• all members of the collective must be Indigenous; 

• undergraduate and college students are not eligible to apply; 

• must have contributed significantly to the arts and culture of Toronto; 

• may self-nominate (for example, a member of the collective may nominate the collective) . 

 
An Individual, organization or collective may only be nominated for one Toronto Arts Award per awards cycle. 

With the exception of the Newcomer Artist Award, a person or organization may not receive the same Toronto Arts Award more than once. However, previous recipients remain eligible to be nominated for a different Toronto Arts Award in a future awards cycle, provided they meet the eligibility criteria. 

 
Definitions 
 
Professional Artist: an individual who is recognized as such by their peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition), who has a history of public presentation, publication and/or production, who is not currently enrolled in an undergraduate or college program, and who is committed to devoting more time to their artistic activity if financially feasible. 

Collective: A collective is defined as two or more artists working together under a group name, either on a single project or on an ongoing basis. Collectives are unincorporated and operate on a not-for-profit basis. 

Incorporated Organizations are not eligible for this Award. 

Multiple Nominations 

Due to the volume of nominations, Toronto Arts Foundation is no longer accepting multiple nominations of the same individual or organization. If multiple nominations are submitted for the same individual or organization—whether for the same award category or across multiple award categories—only the first eligible nomination received (based on the submission timestamp) will be accepted. All subsequent nominations will be deemed ineligible and removed from consideration. We encourage you to reach out directly to the artist or organization you would like to nominate to ensure they are aware of your submission on their behalf.

How to Apply

To nominate an individual, a collective or organization for a Toronto Arts Award you must:  

• visit the Toronto Arts Foundation Nomination Portal  

• register an account on Toronto Arts Foundation’s Nomination Portal or sign into your existing account  

• submit the nomination online, complete with supporting material.  

 
Notes:  

Along with the name of the individual or collective you are nominating, the Nomination Portal will ask for a biography, a nomination rationale, and accompanying support material in the form of visual, audio or text-based attachments.  

Nominators can save their application at any time before submission by clicking ‘Save Draft.’  Nominators can log-in and out of Toronto Arts Foundation’s Nomination Portal as many times as needed before clicking ‘Submit.’   

*Please ensure you are on/register through Toronto Arts Foundation’s Nomination Portal and not Toronto Arts Council’s ‘TAC Grants Online.’  

Award Selection Process: Policies and Procedures

Appointment of Awards Assessors  

An award panel of up to 5 Indigenous assessors selected by the award manager will review nominations and recommend a shortlist and a recipient for final approval by Toronto Arts Foundation’s Board of Directors. Participants in each panel include practitioners of the arts, organizers, programmers, producers, curators, critics, commentators and lay specialists. Panelists must have recognized expertise, credibility, and experience along with a sense of history and perspective.  
 
The final list of assessors is made public in the form of an announcement distributed to media and Foundation stakeholders and posted on the Foundation’s website.  

 
Details of Nomination and Selection Process  

Members of the arts community and public are invited to nominate individuals and arts organizations to be considered by the assessors. Nominations must be submitted through Toronto Arts Foundation’s Nomination Portal. Where appropriate, nominations may include accompanying support material in the form of visual, audio or text-based attachments. Award assessors are precluded from participating in the nominating process.  
 
The assessors will be informed of Toronto Arts Foundation’s criteria and the unique aspects of each award. 
 
In addition to specific requirements for each award, deliberations will be guided by the following assessment criteria:  

• artistic strength and achievement   

• strength of the candidate’s artistic goals and objectives   

• contribution to the development of arts and culture in Toronto   

• the nominee’s overall public impact including community engagement and animation  

The assessors endeavor to reach unanimous decisions in its selection process. If unanimity is not achieved, a decision may be reached by majority vote. All deliberations are strictly confidential.  
 
Following deliberations, the assessors will recommend a shortlist and recipient for each award. The shortlist will be made public in advance of the official awards presentation. The recipient will be announced the day of the official awards presentation event.  
 

Conflict of Interest  

A conflict of interest refers to a situation in which private interests or personal considerations may affect an award assessor’s judgment in the assessment process.  

Specifically, a conflict of interest exists where an assessor has a financial interest in the success or failure of a candidate; has a personal interest in a specific candidate or has any other reason which makes them unable to objectively evaluate the candidate.  

If during the assessment deliberations, any assessor has a conflict of interest, that person is expected to declare such conflict and withdraw from the selection/voting process.  

Toronto Arts Foundation reserves the right to amend these Policies and Procedures, without notice to any party.

FAQS

I’ve logged in to the nomination portal, but I can’t find the Indigenous Artist Award. Am I in the right place?

We share our award nomination portal with our affiliate Toronto Arts Council (TAC). If you’ve applied for a TAC grant before, the system will default to your TAC SmartSimple account. If you’d like to nominate someone for a Toronto Arts Foundation Award, you must create a nominator login! Still having trouble? Contact us!

I want to be nominated. Can I ask someone to nominate me?

Yes! Ask a peer, a trusted colleague, a friend or your mom! You can also self nominate for the Indigenous Artist Award.

Should I tell my nominee that I’m nominating them?

Yes, we recommend that you tell the nominee that you’re nominating them. When you do this, you can ask for an updated biography/resume, etc.

Can multiple people nominate me/my collective for the Indigenous Artist Award? Would it make it more likely that I win?

No. As of 2025, mutliple nominations will not be considered. The first nomination submitted will be the only nomination considered by the assessment panel.

What do I actually NEED to prepare before I submit a nomination?

Along with the name of the individual/collective you are nominating, the nomination form will also ask for a biography/company description, a nomination rationale, resume, and accompanying support material in the form of visual, audio or text-based attachments, and an optional support letter. Support letters are not optional if you are self-nominating for the Indigenous Artist Award.

I’m nominating someone. Am I also supposed to write the letter of support along with the other support material?

We suggest that you find another supportive peer/colleague, etc., to write the letter. This may strengthen the nomination.

For the Indigenous Artist Award, what does the requirement “must have demonstrated an ongoing association with Toronto” look like?

This can mean different things for different people. For example, if you share your living and working time between Toronto and another community or if you do not live in Toronto but continue to collaborate in, produce work in, or present/exhibit in Toronto on a consistent basis over your artistic career, you have “an ongoing association with Toronto.”

For the Indigenous Artist Award, what does the requirement “must have contributed significantly to the arts and culture of Toronto” look like?

This will largely be determined by the award peer assessment panel.

To determine the finalists and recipient of our Awards, we use the peer assessment process. This involves bringing together artist peers (artists working in the same artistic field) to assess award nominations according to the nominees’ artistic strength, achievement and history of public presentation, publication and/or production in Toronto. All of this work contributes to the development of arts and culture in Toronto.