Emerging Artist Award

Celebrating the accomplishments and future potential of Toronto's emerging artists

Deadline: Nominations for the 2020 award are currently open. The deadline to nominate is February 3, 2020 at 11:59 PM EST.

About: The Toronto Arts Foundation Emerging Artist Award is a $10,000 cash prize, with finalists receiving $2,000. The award celebrates the accomplishments and future potential of an emerging Toronto artist working in any discipline. Established in 2006, the award is sponsored by Susan Crocker and John Hunkin and is intended to support the development or completion of new work. The finalist awards were established in 2014 and are supported by the Bulmash-Siegel Fund. The Emerging Artist Award is part of our Signature Awards, presented every year at the Mayor’s Arts Lunch.

“This award means that I have the opportunity to create work. It is an opportunity for me to allow other young black girls growing up to see that there are other things that they can become. It’s a huge affirmation to get this award. I would never have imagined the whole city coming together […] to tell me that I can keep going. It pushes me to keep going.” – Anique Jordon, 2017 Emerging Artist Award Recipient 

Eligibility Criteria:

Individuals:
• 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
• must be a professional artist 35 years of age or younger
• must have completed training (not necessarily at a formal educational institution) in their discipline
• may not nominate themselves for the award
• may only receive this award once 
• are not eligible to nominate or receive Toronto Arts Foundation awards while serving as an executive board member or staff of Toronto Arts Foundation or Toronto Arts Council
• Undergraduate & College students are not eligible to apply

No person may be selected for more than one Toronto Arts Foundation award within any given year. No person may receive the same Toronto Arts Foundation award twice. This does not preclude a recipient from being considered for a different Toronto Arts Foundation award in the future.

Full Eligibility Guidelines for 2020 (PDF).

How to Apply: To nominate an individual for the Emerging Artist Award you must,

• Visit the Toronto Arts Foundation Nomination portal https://tac.smartsimple.ca/welcome/taf/
• Register an account on the Toronto Arts Foundation Nomination portal or sign in to your existing account
• Submit the nomination online, complete with supporting material

Notes:

Along with the name of the individual you are nominating, the nomination form will also 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 the Toronto Arts Foundation Nomination portal as many times as needed before clicking ‘Submit’.

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

Selection Procedure: An Awards Assessment Panel of up to 10 members will review nomination profiles and select a shortlist and recipient recommendation for this award. Toronto Arts Foundation’s Board of Directors will make final determinations. Each panel is comprised of participants who are practitioners of the arts, organizers, programmers, producers, curators, critics, commentators and lay specialists.

This award is presented in recognition of a body of creative accomplishment, rather than for specific works or achievements. 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; and the candidate’s overall public impact including public engagement and animation.

Contact Info: For questions, please contact Rupal Shah, Awards Manager, by email at rupal[at]torontoartscouncil[dot]org or by phone at 416-392-6802 X 209

Click here to see all of our awards. 

Emerging Artist Award Recipients

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  Joshua Vettivelu, 2019 Recipient 

  Emerging Artist Award

  Joshua Vettivelu is an artist, programmer and educator working within sculpture, video, installation and performance. Their works explore how larger frameworks of power manifest within intimate relationships. Recently their practice examines the tensions that emerge when personal experiences are mined for art production, and how this allows institutions to posture and position themselves as self-reflexive. Currently, Vettivelu teaches in the faculty of Art and Continuing Education at OCADU and is the previous Director of Programming of Whippersnapper Gallery.

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  Jivesh Parasram, 2018 Recipient 

  Emerging Artist Award

  Jivesh Parasram is multidisciplinary artist, researcher, and facilitator of Indo-Caribbean descent. His work has played across Canada, and Internationally. He is the Artistic Producer at Pandemic Theatre and the Associate Artistic Producer at Theatre Passe Muraille. Jiv grew up in K’jipuktuk (Halifax) and currently endeavours to split his time between T'karón:to (Toronto) and the Unceded Coast Salish Territories (Vancouver).

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  Anique Jordan, 2017 Recipient 

  Anique Jordan is an artist, award-winning writer, educator, curator and entrepreneur. Her recent work thinks about working class aesthetics, time travel, invisibility, Caribbean carnival, and Black Canadian futurities. She is part of the curatorial team at the Art Gallery of Ontario and is the Executive Director of Whippersnapper Gallery.

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  BENJAMIN KAMINO, 2016 Recipient 

  Benjamin Kamino is a dancer and curator whose work undertakes dance as armaturge for ulterior modes of study. His endeavours in performing, making-dance, and dance pedagogy are enmeshed as a continual research of "what is dance?" His recent interest concerns dance and choreography as distinct ideas towards the possibility of a languageless condition.

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  EMILIE LEBEL, 2015 Recipient 

  Canadian composer Emilie Cecilia LeBel has presented her work across Canada and internationally. In 2013, Emilie completed her Doctorate in Composition at The University of Toronto. She is an Associate Composer at the Canadian Music Centre and a member of the Bluee Moss Ensemble.

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  JORDAN TANNAHILL, 2014 RECIPIENT 

  Jordan Tannahill is a multidisciplinary artist. Jordan creates performances for theatres, galleries and found spaces. He is the winner of the 2014 Governor General's Literary Award for English Drama.

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  DANIEL KARASIK, 2013 Recipient 

  A Toronto-based playwright, poet, and fiction writer, Daniel is the artistic director of the independent theatre company Tango Co, which produces new Canadian plays, including Daniel’s own work. He is also an accomplished director, producer, and actor.

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  CHRIS CURRERI, 2012 Recipient 

  Is a Toronto-based artist, who works predominantly with film, photography and sculptures. Recent exhibitions include: 'Beside Myself (2011)', 'Something Something (2011)' and 'An Unpardonable Sin.' Curreri's work can be found in the University of Toronto Hart House collection, the Queen’s University Agnes Etherington Collection and the collection of the Art Gallery.

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  ADAM GARNET JONES, 2011 Recipient 

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  JAIME TRAVIS, 2010 Recipient 

  Is a Toronto-based filmmaker who has written and directed two trilogies of award-winning short films. His six shorts – Why the Anderson Children Didn’t Come to Dinner, The Saddest Boy in the World, The Armoire and the Patterns Trilogy – all premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival and went on to international acclaim. Travis’ growing body of work was played extensively in film festivals and at art galleries, from Toronto to Sundance to the Pompidou Centre in Paris.

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  ANUSREE ROY, 2009 Recipient 

  Anusree Roy is a Governor General’s Award nominated writer, and actor whose work has toured nationally. Her plays include: Brothel # 9, Roshni, Letters to my Grandma and Pyaasa. Her Opera librettos include: The Golden Boy and Noor over Afghan. Her latest libretto Phoolan Devi will premiere at N.Y.C in the fall of 2014. She is the Co-Artistic Director of Theatre Jones Roy and has been published by the Playwright’s Canada Press.

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  WEYNI MENGESHA, 2008 Recipient 

  Award winning director and dramaturge, Mengesha started her career directing 'da Kink in my Hair' across North America and in London, helping build it into an international sensation; and composing its Dora-nominated score. She was named one of the most versatile directors in Toronto by the Globe and Mail along with her mentorship and production of youth initiatives.

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  d’bi.young anitafrika, 2007 Recipient 

  d’bi.young anitafrika is an internationally celebrated African-Jamaican-Canadian dubpoet, monodramatist, educator. She is the published author of two collections of poetry, eight plays, two dubpoetry albums, and The Sankofa Trilogy. Her storytelling and mentorship have taken her to Africa, the Caribbean, South Asia, North America, Europe and the United Nations, where she has shared her passion for equality and integrity.

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  NATASHA MYTNOWYCH, 2006 Recipient 

  Natasha is an award-winning producer and theatre director. She has initiated numerous critically-acclaimed theatre and multi-disciplinary projects, and has led many programs in support of the development of artists and youth.

2019 Finalists

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  Susanna Fournier 

  2019 Emerging Artist Award Finalist

  Susanna Fournier is a theatre-maker whose practice spans writing, producing, performing, directing and educating. She is the artistic producer of PARADIGM Productions. Her work is feminist, anti-imperial, experimental, rowdy and sometimes "impossible." In a culture of alienation, she's interested in performance that cultivates the intimate, the epic, the blasphemous and the sacred.

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  Brittany Exmiranda Manu 

  2019 Emerging Artist Award Finalist

  Brittany Exmiranda Manu, lyricist and spoken-word poet, has been turning heads with her unique sound, dynamic flow and ability to infuse various genres into her eclectic rap style. As an advocate for inclusion and diversity, she uses her artistic prowess to engage her community and inspire youth from vulnerable populations.