A legacy of Calgary’s year as a Cultural Capital of Canada, each Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Award is funded by a contribution from a local philanthropist or organization with matching money from Calgary Arts Development.
These annual awards are $5,000 cash prizes that support artists, arts organizations, arts administrators and volunteers. See below for individual award criteria and deadlines.
The 2024 nominations open Monday, March 18, 2024. The award categories, with guidelines and information about the nominations process, are listed below. The awards will be presented at an event celebrating the arts on October 4, 2024.
You can find a list of past award recipients here.
For more information about the awards or nomination process, please read the Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Awards FAQ or email awards@calgaryartsdevelopment.com.
2024 Award Categories
ATB Powering Possibility Through the Arts Award
This award was established to recognize the work of small to mid-sized organizations who are committed to enriching Calgary through arts programming that powers possibility for the local creative community. It recognizes and supports the creation of new possibilities — for artists, for participants, for audiences and for the community — and prioritizes inclusivity.
Calgary Catholic Immigration Society New Canadian Artist Award
This award was established to recognize that artists from all parts of the world enrich Calgary’s arts sector. It recognizes and supports an individual artist whose cultural background and relatively recent arrival to Canada presents communication barriers, difficulties in transferring relevant credentials, and isolation from Calgary’s arts community. The award intends to help these artists pursue their artistic work and connect with the institutions and support networks that are available to all Calgary artists.
The Legacy of Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist Award
This award was established to honour artists who are lauded for their work in national and international arenas and choose to make Calgary their home. Regardless of career length, these artists are acknowledged by their peers around the world for the calibre of their work and their contributions to the arts. They are innovators who have significantly enriched artistic discourse in Canada. This award is an opportunity for Calgarians to celebrate our own.
Mamdani Arts Leadership Award
This award was established to recognize and reward the integral role of board members who lend their expertise, talent, and time to support the work of arts organizations and festivals that make Calgary a vibrant and creative city. This award honours an arts volunteer board member who goes above and beyond to support the logistics, programming, operations, or culture of the organizations they choose to support.
RBC Emerging Artist Award
The Emerging Artist Award was established to recognize up-and-coming, Calgary-based artists. The award recognizes that a thriving cultural community includes artists who choose to live and build their careers in Calgary from the onset. The intent of the award is to bring recognition and awareness to outstanding artists in the early phases of their careers.
Rozsa Foundation Emerging Arts Manager Award
This award was established to recognize and encourage the role of professional arts managers and administrators who are dedicating their careers to promoting and supporting the work of Calgary’s artists and not-for-profit arts organizations. In an economic climate where budgets and resources are limited, the work of these professionals needs to be as creative as the artists and organizations they serve.
Indigenous Artist Award
Sponsored by TD Bank Group, the Indigenous Artist Award was established in 2020 in partnership with the Calgary Public Library’s residency program and aims to recognize the contribution of Indigenous artists, craftspeople, and Knowledge Keepers to Calgary. The Calgary Public Library manages the selection process for this award and residency.
Past Award Categories
ATB Financial Healing Through the Arts Award
This award was established to recognize artists whose artistic practices encompass health and wellness to improve the wellbeing of individuals, groups or communities. The award is intended to promote the healing nature of the arts and its critical role as a means of expression for those facing physical or mental health issues.
Colin Jackson and Arlene Strom Creative Placemaking Award
This award was established to recognize and encourage the role of the arts in shaping Calgary’s social, physical and economic character. Often referred to as creative placemaking, this award honours an individual artist or collective of artists energizing how we interact with our neighbours and neighbourhoods through the arts.
Enbridge Emerging Artist Award
This award was established to recognize up-and-coming, Calgary-based artists. The award recognizes that a thriving Calgary arts community includes artists who choose to live and build their careers in Calgary from the onset.
MacLachlan Community Beacon Award
This award was established to recognize artists who connect people from a diverse array of disciplines, practices and generations, for the purposes of developing engagement and artistic opportunities in the community at large. This award recognizes an individual who serves as a beacon to both their artistic peers and to the broader public, and in turn enriches the arts and the city.
SANDSTONE City Builder Award
This award was established to recognize artists and/or organizations that make Calgary a better place to live through the arts. This award recognizes and supports those individuals and groups who are committed to enriching Calgary through an artistic practice or arts programs driven by a social impact outcome.