Mid-Career Awards
The Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Excellence in Visual Arts of $30,000 (formerly $25,000), is awarded annually to a Canadian mid-career artist who has demonstrated excellence and innovation in their body of work and who shows promise of outstanding artistic achievement in the years ahead.
The Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Curatorial Excellence of $20,000 (formerly $15,000), is awarded to a Canadian mid-career curator of contemporary visual art in recognition of their contribution to the advancement of the contemporary visual arts in Canada.
Both prizes are awarded annually and can only be received once. The eligible disciplines for the visual arts prize include painting, drawing, engraving, sculpture, photography, sculptural installations, and multimedia installations.
Artists and curators cannot apply for these awards. A selection committee of arts professionals from across the country draws up the list of candidates and chooses the award recipients. Candidates must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
Notable Laureates
Among the many recipients of The Hnatyshyn Foundation’s Mid-Career Awards are Bridget Moser and Sharon Fortney (2023), Hajra Waheed and Michelle Jacques (2022), Isabelle Hayeur and Heather Igloliorte (2021), Marianne Nicolson and Emelie Chhangur (2020), Dana Claxton and Catherine Bédard (2019), and many more.
-
Candidates for the artists’ award are identified on the basis of excellence in a substantial body of work as reflected in peer group assessments, significant acquisitions and solo exhibitions in professional exhibition facilities.
Candidates for the curators’ award will have demonstrated exceptional support for innovative artistic expression through the creation of a significant number of important exhibitions which, through their vision, presentation and documentation advance Canadians’ awareness and appreciation of contemporary visual art. Independent curators, as well as those working within an institutional context, are eligible.
The Hnatyshyn Foundation defines a mid-career artist or curator as an artist or curator of any age who began working professionally or began gaining peer recognition in the last 8-20 years, who has demonstrated excellence and innovation in their body of work, and who shows promise of outstanding artistic or curatorial achievement in the years ahead. If there is ambiguity about an artist or curator’s eligibility for a mid-career award, the Foundation defers the decision to the selection committee responsible for determining the prize winner.
-
2023
The Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Excellence in Visual Arts
Bridget Moser (she/her)
Photo: Yuula Benivolski
Bridget Moser is a performance and video artist who combines strategies associated with prop comedy, experimental theatre, performance art, absurd literature, existential anxiety, and intuitive dance. She performs fragmented scenes that take multiple forms, including monologues, abstract body movement, and bizarre interactions with everyday inanimate objects. Her work deals with the trouble of constructing self-identity and the conditions of life under late capitalism.
Moser has presented work at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the Remai Modern, le Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal, the Art Museum at the University of Toronto, the Vancouver Art Gallery, Western Front, the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, SPACES Cleveland, and Xing Raum, Bologna. Her work has been reviewed and featured in Artforum, Frieze, Canadian Art, C Magazine, Art in America, and Artribune Italy, and she has been shortlisted for the Sobey Art Award. She holds a BFA, that she describes as “somewhat weathered and ancient,” from Concordia University. For the past 10 years, she has worked a day job at the top plastic surgery practice in Canada. She thanks Paul Tjepkema for unparalleled support and creative collaboration, Amy Ching-Yan Lam and Jon Pham McCurley for their labour and advocacy, and her family for its encouragement and care.
Section committee decision
The selection committee members attributed Moser’s win to unique brand of humour and her fresh contribution to Canadian art. Lesley Johnstone noted, “Moser’s practice is very smart, and she is in tune with what’s going on in the art world.” Similarly, Monique Régimbald-Zeiber said: “there is something desperate in her logorrhea that screams. She has a strong presence.” “I found Bridget's playful humour subversively distilled the darker critical position in her videos,” noted celebrated Canadian artist Suzy Lake.
The committee members also noted Moser’s dedication to performance art, which is challenging to publicize and monetize, and her raw approach to performance.
Performance stills: When I Am Through With You There Won’t Be Anything Left (2022). Courtesy of the artist and Texas State Galleries. Photo: Madelynn Mesa.
“I am really honoured to receive this award from the Hnatyshyn Foundation and to join this list of previous recipients whose work I greatly admire, including brilliant performers like Rebecca Belmore and Maria Hupfield. I am so thankful to this group of esteemed selection committee members, many of whom have influenced my practice. Perhaps one strength of my work is its profound unprofitability, and to that end, this prize will substantially support its continued existence and evolution—a support for which I have immense gratitude.”
In 2015, Moser also won the Hnatyshyn Foundation’s annual William and Meredith Saunderson Prize for Emerging Artists. The fact that this year’s selection committee felt that, only eight years after winning a prize for an emerging artist, Moser was deserving of this prestigious mid-career award, is a testament to The Hnatyshyn Foundation and its selection committees’ ability to recognize and support truly exceptional talent.
The Hnatyshyn Foundation Mid-Career Award for Curatorial Excellence
Sharon Fortney (she/her)
Photo: Rebecca Blisset. Courtesy of the Museum of Vancouver, 2018.
Sharon Fortney is the Curator of Indigenous Collections and Engagement at the Museum of Vancouver.
“I have been working as a Curator since 2000 when I guest curated Sátet te síwes (Continuing Traditions) at the UBC Museum of Anthropology. Growing up in Victoria, my parents often took me to visit the RBCM (Royal British Columbia Museum) as a child. I didn’t know much about my Indigenous heritage at that time, but I recognized baskets in the displays as being the same style as ones in my grandparent’s home. This is how I learned that my mother’s family was Coast Salish.
In high school I did my work experience at the RBCM and afterwards decided I wanted to study archaeology. I was the first person in my family to attend university. Part way through my studies, I met my husband and moved to Calgary. This brought me to the Glenbow Museum, where I eventually started my museum career. I learned a lot about how to work with communities while I was there and was lucky to attend a culture camp on the Siksika Reserve organized by Clifford Crane Bear and the late Gerry Conaty.
Since then, I have worked contract projects for several museums, and First Nations, in the Greater Vancouver area. In 2017, I was offered a permanent position at the MOV (Museum of Vancouver). I like connecting with other Salish community members through my curatorial work. In this way I honor my grandmother’s memory. She was a survivor of the Kuper Island residential school. I want to make the places I work safe spaces for community members to explore their history and reconnect with lost belongings. It’s important to me that my work supports what communities are trying to achieve. Right now, I am undertaking ‘Knowledge Repatriation’ work by curating workshops about traditional knowledge no longer practiced in Vancouver, for members of the host nations. This involves working with knowledge holders from neighboring Salish communities to learn about harvesting materials and creating different types of belongings. I am learning beside my friends, and we are documenting our work for teaching others in their communities.”
Haida repatriation. Courtesy of Sharon Fortney and the Museum of Vancouver, 2019.
Selection committee decision
The selection committee found choosing a single curator to win this award was a massive challenge: so many are incredibly deserving of such recognition of their diligent and creative work in sharing contemporary art and diverse stories with the Canadian public. It was thus decided that an additional criterion would be added: who would most benefit from this show of support? Fortney operates within a publicly-funded institution with a local scope, with less visibility and less funds than many larger institutions. Yet, her curatorial practice facilitates deep community engagement with art and artifacts, and breaks down museological barriers. Additionally, her background in collections strengthens her curation. Fortney not only creates outstanding exhibitions; she brings art into communities beyond the art world canon.
Exhibition view: Acts of Resistance, 2020. Courtesy of Sharon Fortney and the Museum of Vancouver. Photo: Rebecca Blisset.
“I am thankful to the Hnatyshyn Foundation for their recognition of my curatorial work. I delayed my career for many years for family reasons, and at times I thought about giving up on the idea of being a curator. Being selected for this award was a powerful sign that I am where I need to be and doing what I need to do. I acknowledge the entire team at the Museum of Vancouver for creating a supportive environment that prioritizes community engagement, redress and decolonization.”
-
2023
Mid-Career Artist Award
Lesley Johnstone, Director of Exhibitions and Research, Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal
Suzy Lake, Artist, Georgia Scherman Projects, Toronto, and Professor Emerita, University of Guelph
Philip Monk, Independent writer
Monique Régimbald-Zeiber, Artist
Jana Sterbak, Artist
Mid-Career Curator Award
Audrey Genois, Executive Director of MOMENTA | Biennale de l'image
Jon Tupper, former Director of the Art Gallery of Greater Victoria
Su Ying Strang, Executive Director, Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin, Lethbridge
Jennifer McRorie, Director and Curator, Moose Jaw Museum and Art Gallery
Jaimie Isaac, Curator and Artist, former Chief Curator, Art Gallery of Greater Victoria, former Curator of Contemporary and Indigenous Art, Winnipeg Art Gallery, and co-founder, Ephemerals Collective
