Toronto Arts Foundation Awards

A jury of up to 12 members will review candidate profiles and make a recipient recommendation for each award to TAF Board of Directors, which will make final determinations. Jury members must have recognized expertise, prestige, credibility and experience along with a sense of history and perspective. Each jury is comprised of participants who are practitioners of the arts, organizers, programmers, producers, curators, critics, commentators and lay specialists. TAF will endeavour to ensure that the majority of jury members are arts and culture professionals. Nominations through this process are received from the public.

Congratulations to all the past winners of the Toronto Arts Foundation Awards!

Jian Ghomeshi has been the Master of Ceremonies for the Mayor's Arts Awards Lunch since its inception in 2006, and we're thrilled to have him back for the 2010 Mayor's Arts Awards Lunch.

Each year at the Mayor’s Arts Awards Lunch we present some of Toronto’s finest artists which reflect our city.

Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement in Dance

Artistic director of Toronto Dance Theatre since 1994, Christopher House is one of Canada’s most exciting choreographers. He has transformed TDT into a company known internationally for its fresh, intelligent and provocative dance.

Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement in Dance

Marie-Josée Chartier is a choreographer, performer, director, vocalist, teacher and artistic director of Chartier Danse. As an artist she finds great inspiration in contemporary art forms and believes in bringing contemporary artists of diverse disciplines from the beginning of the creation of a new work to allow the development of layered and integrated work and foster a level of communication that is central in accomplishing a strong artistic vision.

Muriel Sherrin Award for International Achievement in Dance

Menaka Thakkar is a master dancer in three classical Indian styles – Bharatanatyam, Odissi, and Kuchipudi.

Arts For Youth Award

Supporting Our Youth (SOY) is a dynamic volunteer program, based at Sherbourne Health Centre, that works within an anti-oppression framework to create opportunities for queer and trans youth and adults to build an inclusive, welcoming community together. The annual success of SOY’s photography and writing workshops, as well as their youth arts festival each year at Pride, prove that through artistic processes, young people who are all too often relegated to the margins of society are able to explore and expand their reality and engage with the world in ways that are creative, innovative and exciting.

Arts for Youth Award

Mammalian Diving Reflex is an interdisciplinary company that creates opportunities for youth to be valued creators in their own right and have their voices respected in collaboration with adults through various youth-driven events, theatre-based performances, theoretical texts and community happenings. Most notable programs for youth include their international touring projects Haircuts by Children and The Children’s Choice Awards, and local projects Parkdale Public School vs. Queen St. West I & II. MDR is helmed by Artistic Director Darren O’Donnell and Producer Natalie De Vito.

Arts for Youth Award

Expect is a registered charity that was formed in 1996 by Laura Mullin and Chris Tolley to create cutting edge, multi disciplinary productions and programs that engage urban youth in the arts.