For almost three decades, Arts Awards Waterloo Region has been honouring artists, musicians, writers, event organizers, volunteers and supporters.
But in 2017, the organization’s Board realized that some revisioning was necessary. This launched an intensive project to re-create Arts Awards Waterloo Region.
In 2019 and onwards, we implemented a new process. A key change has to do with the method of nominating and choosing arts awards winners.
In the past, nominations were sought from the public, but over the years, the number of nominations declined annually. That led to the appointment of a nominating committee, whose mandate was to “top up” the list of nominees. The nominees were then presented to a jury (with a new membership every year), who were responsible for choosing arts awards winners in up to 18 categories. The awards were presented at an annual event, in the form of a gala.
Through a series of public consultations and our 2017 strategic plan, all of this changed. The Arts Awards Academy is now the body responsible for nominating people from the arts community to receive an Arts Award —and for ultimately choosing the annual winners.
Today, the Academy comprises over 80 members. It was formed in 2018 on the basis of invitations from the Awards’ Board of Directors. In particular, the Board strove to achieve a balance of people who are practitioners and participants/attenders in cultural activities in the Region, with members being drawn from a very wide range of cultural sectors and also covering the whole geography of the Region. The diverse people who accepted the invitation are listed on the Arts Awards Waterloo Region website here. There is a Charter for the Academy which governs the recruitment and working methods of the group. Each year, we review the membership and add new members.
There are other changes to Arts Awards. The many categories of awards have been reduced to just four: each year, we award seven across-the-spectrum (General) arts awards, as well as one Lifetime Achievement, two Emerging Artist awards, and one that will honour philanthropic efforts in the arts (Arts Philanthropist award).
- The Arts Awards nomination period, in which nominations are submitted and accepted, takes place over a year
- Voting for the winners is held in September
- Winners are honoured at an event in November
- All nominations and voting is completed by Academy members only.
To contact Arts Awards Waterloo Region, please reach out to us at admin@artsawardswaterlooregion.ca.