About: The Toronto Arts Foundation 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 for making positive change through cultural leadership. Whether through starting a movement, creating an arts hub, collective, or organization, or through mentorship, events, or other creative activities, the recipient of the award must make an impact on people and/or the community through the arts beyond their artistic practice. Artists aged 18-35 working in any artistic discipline are eligible to receive the award. Established in 2024, the Che Kothari Artist & Instigator Award is presented every year at the Mayor’s Arts Lunch. The recipient and finalist prizes are generously supported by Che Kothari.  

About Che Kothari: The Che Kothari Artist & Instigator Award was founded in 2024 by Photographer, Director, Producer, Organizer, Manager, Artist & Instigator Che Kothari. Che received a Toronto Arts Foundation Award in 2013 in recognition of his cultural leadership through his work with Manifesto Community Projects, which he co-founded in 2007. Understanding the value of art, community, and youth-led movements, Che created this award to recognize young artistic instigators and inspire other established artists to think of how they can make change and give back.  Che is proud to be a role model and provide a space for people of colour to see themselves as cultural philanthropists.
 

Eligibility Criteria

Individuals:  

• must have demonstrated an ongoing association with Toronto; 

• must have contributed significantly to the arts and culture of Toronto; the individual must demonstrate early-stage cultural leadership in community beyond their individual artistic practise:  

• Cultural leadership can take all forms: city-builders, community-nurturers, connectors, or thought-leaders. The nomination must demonstrate the nominees’ leadership in an area similar to or as detailed above. 

• must be living at time of selection;  

• must be between the ages of 18 – 35 years of age  

• must identify as Black, Indigenous and/or Person of Colour (BIPOC)  

• must be an artist in the early stages of their professional career who has produced a small body of work and achieved some local recognition and/or has limited public exhibition experience;  

• should have between 2 and 7 years of independent arts practice in their nominated discipline;  

• undergraduate and college students are eligible to apply; 

• may self-nominate 

• are not eligible to nominate or receive Toronto Arts Awards while serving as an executive board member or staff of Toronto Arts Foundation or Toronto Arts Council  

 
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. 

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 Nominate  

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 organization 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 ten 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.