By Martine Friesen
Manitoba is a province full of incredible artistic activity. At MAC, we want to shine a light on some the talented individuals, groups, and organizations that make Manitoba a province that punches above its weight when it comes to arts and culture. We are continuing the Award of Distinction that recognizes the best of the best in artistic achievement for individual artists. And to this we are adding four new prizes that celebrate emerging artists, Indigenous artists, accomplishments in rural Manitoba, and exceptional collaborations. If you know a professional artist, arts group or organization that has inspired you with outstanding work in one of these areas maybe it’s time to nominate them for a prize.
The Program
The Prizes program celebrates achievements in the arts, honouring the excellence, resourcefulness, and imagination of individuals, groups, and organizations working in Manitoba.
The Prizes
The Manitoba Arts Council’s Recognize – Prizes programs offers five different prizes. On odd year, we receive nominations for the Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction. Nominations for all other prizes are accepted during the even years.
The Connecting Creative Communities prize recognizes professional arts groups and organizations for exceptional collaboration. You can nominate a professional arts group or professional arts organization to receive a $ 10,000 award.
The Emerging Excellence prize recognizes emerging artists for their achievements and potential. This $ 10,000 prize will be awarded to a nominated professional artist.
The Indigenous Full Circle prize recognizes Indigenous artists or Knowledge Keepers for their achievements. You can nominate a professional Indigenous artist or an Indigenous Knowledge Keeper to receive a $ 10,000 award.
The Rural Recognition prize recognizes rural artists, arts groups, or arts organizations for their achievements. This $ 10,000 prize will be awarded to a nominated professional artist, professional arts group, or professional arts organization.
The Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction recognizes the highest level of artistic excellence and contributions to the development of the arts in Manitoba by professional artists and arts/cultural professionals. A nominated professional artist or arts/cultural professional will be awarded $ 30,000.
Who can nominate
Any Individuals, groups, or organizations that have no conflict of interest with the nominee can submit a nomination. For each prize category, only one nomination per candidate is allowed to be submitted. Candidates may only receive a prize once per category.
You can submit a nomination for any prize using your profile on MAC’s Online Application System. If you do not have a profile, you can create one as a nominator. This type of profile does not need to be validated by MAC staff, which means you can create your nomination sooner.
When you can submit a nomination
The Prizes program will have one deadline in a given calendar year. These will stay the same from year to year starting in 2019. The nominations for the Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction will be accepted during the odd years. Nominations for all other prizes are accepted during the even years. For this year, we are offering a one-time only deadline for Prizes nomination on December 13th, 2018.
As part of the nomination process, you, the nominator, must provide two references for the nominee explaining why the nominee is deserving of the award. These reference letters must be included in with the nomination at the time you submit it.
Nominations for all MAC prizes must be submitted by 11:59 PM on the day of the deadline. Previously, if a nomination deadline fell on a weekend or holiday, it would be moved to the following business day. This allowed nominators to deliver or mail their paper nominations during regular business hours. Now that nominations will be submitted online, deadline dates will be fixed.
How decisions are made
Your nomination to the Prizes program will be assessed by a peer assessment jury representing a discipline or group of disciplines. This jury will use the following criteria to evaluate your proposed candidate:
- Artistic Merit (50%)
- Impact (50%)
If you’re interested in reading up on MAC’s evaluation process, you should check out our Peer Assessment Handbook.
Take Away
- Manitoba Arts Award of Distinction nominations are accepted during odd years.
- Nominations for all other prizes are accepted during the even years.
- You must have a valid applicant profile or a nominator profile to nominate.
