CALL FOR NOMINATIONS - TORONTO ARTS FOUNDATION AWARDS

Toronto Arts Foundation Awards are presented to artists, cultural leaders and businesses in recognition of artistic excellence, cultural leadership and contribution to the arts. With prizes ranging from $2,500 to $20,000, the awards spotlight Toronto’s finest professional artists and arts organizations, celebrating their contributions to our city of arts.

The deadline to submit a nomination is November 26th, 2025. Click the links below to learn more about each award!

🏆 Arts for Youth Award: A $20,000 cash prize, with finalists receiving $2,000 each. The award celebrates an individual, collective or organization that has demonstrated an outstanding commitment to engaging Toronto’s youth through the arts.

🏆 Breakthrough Artist Award: 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, and is intended to support the development or completion of new work.

🏆 Breakthrough Jazz Artist Award: A $10,000 cash prize with finalists receiving $2,000 each. The award celebrates either an outstanding Toronto-based jazz artist with two to seven years of experience in the field, or an artist who previously devoted their career to supporting other artists and are now able to focus on their own solo work.

🏆 Celebration of Cultural Life Award: A $10,000 cash prize, with finalists receiving $2,000 each. The award recognizes excellence in a senior arts practitioner or leader (a performer, teacher, administrator and/or creator working in any arts discipline, including architecture and design), whose work is a celebration of life through the arts.

🏆 Che Kothari Artist and Instigator Award: A $10,000 cash prize, with finalists receiving $1,000. The award supports and encourages a young BIPOC artist who is recognized for their artistic contributions and is 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.

🏆 Community Arts Award (individuals): A $10,000 cash prize, with finalists receiving $1,000 each. The award celebrates an individual artist or arts organization or collective that has made a significant contribution in Toronto by working with, in and for communities, while increasing access to arts and culture.

🏆 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.

🏆 Muriel Sherrin Award (music): A $10,000 cash prize with finalists receiving $1,000 each. The award celebrates an artist or creator who has made a contribution to the cultural life of Toronto through outstanding achievement in music or dance. The recipient will also have participated in international initiatives, including touring, studying abroad and participating in artist exchanges. In addition to the prize money, the 2024 recipient will receive a complimentary week-long stay at Valleyview Artist Retreat.