Call for Submissions NaAC X Won Lee Prize
National accessArts Centre
Submissions open: Friday, August 8, 2025
Deadline for Nominations: September 17, 2025, at 11:59pm MT
Notifications: Beginning of October, 2025
Prize Ceremony: October 30, 2025 in Calgary
The National accessArts Centre (NaAC) is pleased to announce the second annual NaAC X Won Lee Prize. In partnership with the family of the late artist Won Lee, the award commemorates Won Lee’s legacy and celebrates creative excellence among Canadian visual artists living with developmental, physical, and/or acquired disabilities. This year’s winner will be awarded a $3,000 CAD cash prize in addition to travel and accommodation in Calgary, Alberta for the award ceremony in October 2025. The NaAC will accept written applications, video applications, or audio applications; If none of these options are accessible please reach out to the Programs and Exhibitions Lead, Morgan Possberg morgan.possberg@accessarts.ca and we can find an accessible application option together.
Artists must meet the following criteria in order to be considered for the Won Lee Prize:
- Be a Canadian resident identifying as having a developmental, physical, and/or acquired disability
- Be a practicing, emerging, or mid-level career artist working in a visual art medium
- Be 18 years of age or older
Nominations for the Won Lee Prize will be accepted from arts administrators, educators, scholars, critics, curators, or other established arts professionals. Artists are also welcome to self-nominate; this may be done either by the artist or with the assistance of a peer, caregiver or support worker.
To better support nominated artists, self-nominating artists and nominating arts professionals, NaAC will host online drop-in information sessions during the months of August and September. For more information or to participate in a session, please see our website.
After an initial review of applications, an independent jury of arts professionals from across Canada will select the prize winner. The 2025 NaAC x Won Lee Prize recipient will be announced and honoured at a prize ceremony in Calgary, Alberta this October.
Artist Application Guidelines
Completed application packages must include:
- A nomination form signed by the self-nominating artist.
- A nomination statement on why the artist feels they should be considered for the prize (500 words max).
- An artist bio (200 words max).
- An artist statement (200 words max).
- The artist’s CV.
- Maximum 10 support images of the artist’s artwork from within the last five years (complete with image details: title, year, size, medium, image credit).
- Artist headshot (complete with image credit).
- A signed media consent form.
Have questions?
NaAC will be hosting two information sessions online via Microsoft Teams. This is an opportunity for you to meet with us, ask questions or get support with your application. Meeting details are below:
Won Lee Prize Information Session One:
- Date: August 14, 3 – 5pm MT
- Join the meeting now
- Meeting ID: 228 180 615 259
- Passcode: Bk6uqQ
Won Lee Prize Information Session Two:
- Date: August 21, 6 – 8pm MT
- Join the meeting now
- Meeting ID: 257 233 814 020
- Passcode: mheB6Z
Information about the prize and the nomination form can be found on our website accessarts.ca/won-lee/the-won-lee-prize.
Please submit complete nomination packages by email to submissions@accessarts.ca.
