2025 Award Finalists and Recipients
We are pleased to announce the 2025 finalists and recipients for the Toronto Arts Foundation Awards.
Six awards celebrating Toronto’s exceptional artists, cultural leaders and arts organizations will be presented at the Mayor’s Arts Lunch on Tuesday April 29, 2025. New this year, we are pleased to share that Simons has partnered with us to present this important event.
The Newcomer Artist Award and Breakthrough Jazz Artist Award will be presented on April 15 and June 24 respectively.
The 2025 finalists and recipients highlight the diversity and innovation within Toronto’s arts scene, celebrating organizations that connect with youth and the communities through the arts, along with arts leaders and practitioners in jazz, dance, visual arts, theatre and more.
The finalists and recipients of the 2025 Toronto Arts Foundation Awards are:
The ARTS FOR YOUTH AWARD is a $20,000 cash prize, with finalists receiving $2,000. The award celebrates an individual, collective or organization that has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to engaging Toronto’s youth through the arts.
The 2025 finalists are:
Oddside Arts
Offers free, community-centered workshops for marginalized and underserved youth
Oddside Arts is a Toronto-based grassroots cultural arts not-for-profit and creative technology artist collective led by digital/performance artist Nico Taylor and multidisciplinary artist Queen Kukoyi that merges art, technology, and wellness through Black speculative design. Its mission is to create boundary-pushing experiences and pathways for the public to imagine and thereby co-create a more equitable future.
Toronto Kiki Ballroom Alliance
Nurtures the needs of Black and racialized LGBTQI+ youth through ballroom arts
The TKBA provides a safe place for LGBTQ+ youth and adults to discover their identities through art, fashion, performance and community.
tkba.ca
Instagram: @torontokikiballroomalliance
Xenia Concerts
Designs, produces and presents accessible concerts for young music lovers
Toronto-based Xenia Concerts works with the neurodiversity and disability communities to create accessible, family-friendly concerts that embrace differences and promote inclusion. Having started as a pilot project in 2014, Xenia now presents over 30 Adaptive Concerts and delivers accessibility training to artists and arts workers across Canada.
xeniaconcerts.com
Instagram: @xeniaconcerts
The BREAKTHROUGH ARTIST AWARD, formerly the Emerging Artist Award, is a $10,000 cash prize with finalists receiving $2,000 each. The award celebrates the accomplishments and future potential of an emerging Toronto artist working in any discipline.
The 2025 finalists are:
Oreka James
Multidisciplinary artist
Oreka James is an multidisciplinary artist currently living and creating in Toronto, Canada. James has completed a group residency at the Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto) and Bowling Green State University (Ohio). They have exhibited their work at Pangée (Montréal), NADA(New York), Cooper Cole (Toronto), Patel Brown Gallery (Toronto) and MOCA (Toronto) among others.
Vladimir Kanic
Multimedia sculptor / filmmaker
Vladimir Kanic creates living algae sculptures that transform breath into oxygen, reimagining art as a space for communal healing and radical hope. Informed by maritime heritage and free diving, his work explores interspecies collaboration and climate resilience. An award-winning artist and filmmaker, his work has been exhibited globally.
vladimirkanic.com
Instagram: @vladdkanic
Mio Sakamoto
Dance artist / performer / choreographer / filmmaker
Mio Sakamoto, a Toronto-based contemporary dance artist originally Japan, is a Dora-nominated performer, choreographer, dance filmmaker, and Co-Founder of MillO Dance Projects. Her practice is rooted in exploring lived experience, using dance to connect with her inner voice and create works shaped by her perspective as a first-generation immigrant.
Instagram: @amomiohk
The BREAKTHROUGH JAZZ ARTIST AWARD is a $10,000 cash prize with finalists receiving $2,000 each. The award celebrates an outstanding Toronto-based jazz artist with two to seven years of experience in the field, as well as artists who may have devoted their career to supporting other artists and are now able to focus on their own solo work. Recognizing that “jazz” includes many different styles and artistic interpretations, this award is open to nominations for individuals who perform jazz and jazz-influenced music.
The 2025 finalists are:
Robert Lee
Upright bassist / composer / bandleader
Robert Lee is an emerging upright bassist, composer and bandleader in the Toronto jazz scene. He is the founder of The Robert Lee Group, a unique project consisting of original compositions inspired by Korean traditional music, instrumentation, and folk stories spanning various fantasy and romantic narratives. Through his work, Robert has delved deeper into exploring his identity as a Korean Canadian, questioning what it means to simultaneously straddle two contrasting cultural identities.
robertleebass.com
Instagram: @robertleemusic
Anh Phung
Flutist
Anh Phung takes the flute to space as she continually dives deep into the capabilities of the instrument. Not bothered by the conventions and standard limitations of the flute, her powerful musical voice steers her through everything from hip-hop to bluegrass to Bulgarian folk music, and she is the leader of prog-rock tribute band Tullstars and performance art act Hairbrain. She is known for her unique sound that has been featured on numerous records and performances of all sorts of musical genres.
Instagram: @anh.t.phung
Roshane Wright
Percussionist / composer / arranger / educator
Roshane Wright, a composer, arranger, and multi-instrumentalist from Portmore, Jamaica, now based in Toronto, blends his Jamaican roots with jazz in his music. A two-time Juno Award-winning percussionist and bandleader of the Rosh Riddims Band, he’s also a musical educator in the city. Roshane has performed with icons like Kirk Diamond, Joy Lapps Lewis, and Larnell Lewis, gracing the stages of places like the Toronto Jazz Fest, Jerk Fest, and Afrofest. He is set to release his debut album, Yaad to Abroad, later in 2025.
Instagram: @roshanewright
The CHE KOTHARI ARTIST & INSTIGATOR AWARD is a $10,000 cash prize, with finalists receiving $1,000 each. The award supports and encourages a young BIPOC artist who is recognized for their artistic contributions and is making positive change through cultural leadership.
Hannia Cheng
Artist / cultural worker / community organizer
Hannia Cheng is an artist and cultural worker who has a wholesome inter-arts practice based out of Chinatown Centre since 2018. At the ripples of relationships and reciprocity, art is the common ground on which they share stories and forage for the sparkle that exists in the greater unknown of our daily lives.
Instagram: @badasscrybb
Sashoya Simpson
Writer / storyteller / theatre practitioner / audiobook narrator / children’s book author / cultural leader
Sashoya Simpson is a Jamaican-Canadian writer, storyteller, theatre practitioner, audiobook narrator and upcoming children’s book author. She founded The Walking Griot collective, dedicated to producing work for young Black audiences, with works inspired by Afro-Caribbean folklore and cultural practices, through various artistic media.
sashoyasimpson.com
Instagram: sashoyasimpson
Tyler J. Sloane
Actor / multidisciplinary artist
Tyler is an actor and a multidisciplinary artist with a focus on performance arts and media arts, and has a foundation in theatre and cabaret. Their first practice was visual arts, where their practice in digital art and collage first arose. They are a mixed race person being Anishinaabe, Chinese, and European Descent.
tylerjsloane.ca
Instagram: @tylerjsloane
The COMMUNITY ARTS AWARD is a $10,000 cash prize with finalists receiving $1,000 each. The award is presented to an organization that has made a significant contribution in Toronto by working with, in and for communities, while increasing access to arts and culture.
The 2025 finalists are:
imagineNATIVE
The world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content
imagineNATIVE is the world’s largest presenter of Indigenous screen content. The organization is recognized locally, nationally, and internationally for excellence and innovation in programming and as the global centre for Indigenous media arts.
imaginenative.org
Instagram: @imagineNATIVE
Mabelle Arts
Facilitates community-engaged arts, grassroots community development and placemaking in Etobicoke
Mabelle Arts unlocks the creative potential of the neighbourhood.
Mabelle Arts is an award-winning community arts organization in Central Etobicoke. Grounded in the Mabelle neighbourhood - a vibrant, racialized and critically underserved community - it has been making art and solving problems with artists, architects, and thousands of community members since 2009.
mabellearts.ca
Instagram: mabellearts
Street Voices
Empowers marginalized and at-risk youth through arts, media and community engagement
Street Voices, founded by Joel Zola, turns adversity into opportunity by empowering marginalized youth. Through creative workshops, a vibrant media platform, and a comprehensive directory linking people to free services, Street Voices inspires community resilience. This innovative approach gives voice to the underrepresented, fostering hope and change across Toronto and beyond.
streetvoices.ca
Instagram: @streetvoicesto
The 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.
The 2025 finalists are:
Catherine Blackburn
Multidisciplinary artist / jeweler / beader / caribou tufter
Catherine Blackburn is a multidisciplinary artist and a member of the English River First Nation in Saskatchewan. Her work grounds itself in the Indigenous feminine and is bound through the ancestral love that stitching suggests. Often prompted by personal narratives, she addresses Indigenous sovereignty, decolonization and representation through her work.
catherineblackburn.com
Instagram: catherinebjewellery
Samantha Sutherland
Dancer / choreographer / teacher / language learner
Samantha is a contemporary dance artist, choreographer, and teacher based in Tkaronto. Her ancestry is Ktunaxa and Scottish. Samantha has been choreographing dance works since 2021 and has had the pleasure of presenting in festivals across Turtle Island. She is currently an Artistic Associate with O.Dela Arts.
samanthasutherlanddance.com
Instagram: @sam_sthrlnd
Wolf⁷a:z
Visual artist / jeweler / mural artist
Wolf⁷a:z is a Haudenosaunee Two-Spirited artist from the Gayogohó:nǫ⁷ Nation of Six Nations of the Grand River. Over the past 17 years, they have honed their skills in public mural installations, carving, jewelry fabrication, epoxy resin and welding arts, drawing inspiration from their heritage and lived experiences. Wolf⁷a:z actively promotes and honours the Gayogohó:nǫ⁷ language and supports a language revitalization program within Six Nations. They aim to Indigenize urban spaces through their art and strive to navigate social environments with empathy, kindness, and respect.
Instagram: wolfaz.otahyoni.trails
The MARGO BINDHARDT AND RITA DAVIES CULTURAL LEADERSHIP AWARD is a $10,000 cash prize, with finalists receiving $1,000. The award celebrates an individual artist, creator, volunteer or administrator who has demonstrated creative cultural leadership in the development of arts and culture in Toronto.
The 2025 finalists are:
Ryan Rice
Curator / critic
Ryan Rice, Kanien’kehá:ka of Kahnawake, is a curator, critic and creative consultant based in Toronto. His institutional and independent curatorial career spans 30 years in community, museums, artist run centres, public spaces and galleries. Rice is the Executive Director and Curator, Indigenous Art at OCAD University’s Onsite Gallery.
Instagram: @aronienes
Maxine Heppner
Dance-intermedial artist / arts educator / community instigator
Maxine Heppner, dance-inter-medial creator & educator, instigates grand stage, bold ensemble, intimate chamber works and community building in Toronto and internationally. Her dedication since the 1970's spans from fundamental grassroots collaborations to co-founding such entities as Canadian Alliance of Dance Artists, International Network for Cultural Diversity, and platforms for elite and all artists through Across Oceans Arts.
acrossoceans.org
Instagram: @acrossoceansarts
Nova Bhattacharya
Dancer / choreographer / cultural leader
Founding Artistic Director of Nova Dance (2008), Nova Bhattacharya is a barrier-breaking, award-winning Bengali-Canadian artist and visionary cultural leader. Fusing a kaleidoscope of influences into bold, genre-defying work, she celebrates dance as humanity’s essential expression. Her innovative leadership nurtures diverse voices and instigates change, transforming and enriching our cultural landscape.
novadance.ca
Instagram: @novabhattacharya; @novadanceca
The NEWCOMER ARTIST AWARD provides micro-awards of $2,500 to six newcomer (immigrant and refugee) artists. The award aids the integration of newcomer artists into Toronto and Canada by supporting their artistic careers. Newcomer artists living across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and working in a range of disciplines are eligible for the award. The Newcomer Artist Award is presented every year on or around Toronto Newcomer Day. There are no finalists for this award, only recipients.
The 2025 Award Recipients are:
Segun Caezar
Visual artist
Segun Caezar is a Nigerian visual artist based in Toronto, known for his realistic portraits of Black subjects with De Stijl-inspired backgrounds. His work is currently exhibited at Toronto Union Station in A Transit Through Time, showcasing his unique approach to storytelling through portraiture.
hicaezar.com
Instagram: @hicaezar
Bibin "Bibz" George
Dancer / mentor / trainer / upcoming DJ
Bibz is a prominent figure in the Toronto House dance scene, known for his leadership and contribution to community. As the co-founder of Groovehouse Toronto and a founding member of House of Sole Crew, he has played a pivotal role in shaping the local House dance community post-pandemic. As winner of several dance battle competitions and talented DJ, he has earned respect and admiration in the Toronto dance community and beyond.
Instagram: bibz_g7
Honey Hoseiny
Interdisciplinary artist / actor / puppeteer / theater director
Honey is a Toronto-based interdisciplinary artist, theatre director, designer, actor, and puppeteer originally from Iran. Passionate about blending traditional techniques with modern technology, his work spans interactive installations, immersive art, and theatre. Currently an apprentice artist with Modern Times, Honey continues to explore innovative storytelling as co-founder of the Simiya Group, fostering creativity and cultural dialogue through the intersections of performance and visual arts.
Simiyagroup.com
Instagram: @honey_hoseiny
Adetona Omokanye
Photojournalist / visual artist
Adetona Omokanye is a Nigerian Toronto-based photojournalist and visual artist whose work explores Africa’s rich and diverse cultures, capturing its traditions, people, and social issues through the lens of their unique perspectives. With a keen eye for detail and a passion for storytelling, Adetona uses photography as a tool to showcase the beauty, complexity, and diversity of the African continent. Recently he started to explore new creative territory by integrating multimedia practice into his work.
adetonaomokanye.com
Instagram: Adetona_Omokanye
Warda Rose
Filmaker / arts organizer / cultural connector
Warda Rose is a filmmaker, artrepreneur, and cultural connector from Djibouti, now in Canada. She founded House of Arts, highlighting Black, BIPOC, and newcomer creatives. Her films and exhibitions explore roots, mental health, and sexuality. Currently, she's developing documentaries (A Cliff Becomes a Bridge & Ancestor Project) and a short film (Tahira), while preserving and globalizing East African arts and culture.
wardayoussouf.com
Instagram: lifetastessour
Jinoos Taghizadeh
Multidisciplinary artist / storyteller / journalist / art critic / activist
Jinoos Taghizadeh (born 1971) is a multidisciplinary Iranian artist, storyteller, and activist. A graduate in Sculpture and Literature Drama from the University of Tehran, she has exhibited her work internationally across various mediums for nearly 30 years. Since relocating to Toronto in 2022, she continues to evolve her creative practice by closely observing political and social issues.
jinoostaghizadeh.com
Instagram: @jinoostaghizadeh52hertzstudio
ASSESSMENT PANELS
The assessment panel for the 2025 Arts for Youth Award, Breakthrough Artist Award, Community Arts Award, Che Kothari Artist & Instigator Award and Margo Bindhardt and Rita Davies Cultural Leadership Award was comprised of Toronto artists and arts professionals Barbara Fischer, Jennifer Green, Rosina Kazi, Nevine Sedki, Saye Skye, Dainty Smith and Jera Wolfe.
The assessment panel for the 2025 Indigenous Artist Award comprised of Toronto artists and arts professionals Theresa Cutknife, Ange Loft and T'anchay Redvers.
The assessment panel for the 2025 Breakthrough Jazz Artist Award comprised of Toronto artists and arts professionals Jaymz Bee, Josh Grossman, Danae Olano and Joanna Majoko.
The assessment panel for the 2025 Newcomer Artist Award comprised of Toronto artists and arts professionals Renato Baldin, Rimah Jabr, Irina Lerman, Lionel (aka Borelson) and Azadeh Pirazimian.
ABOUT THE TORONTO ARTS FOUNDATION AWARDS
The Toronto Arts Foundation Awards celebrate artistic excellence and recognize the contributions of artists and arts supporters, across disciplines, to creative city-building in Toronto. The awards are presented annually at the Mayor’s Arts Lunch.
The Mayor’s Arts Lunch is Presented by
2025 Award and Finalist prizes are made possible through the generous support of:
Azrieli Foundation
Bell Canada
Michael Bourgeois & Marilyn Legge
Martha Burns
Neera Chopra
Jim Fleck
K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation
Che Kothari
MOD Developments
Valleyview Artist Retreat