2025 Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Awards recipients announced
MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
April 24, 2025
(Calgary AB) – The 2025 Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Awards were announced at the Celebration for the Arts hosted by Mayor Gondek on Thursday, April 24 at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in Calgary with more than 800 people in attendance. The Celebration for the Arts showcased more than 100 local performers and featured a video announcing the award winners. The onstage portion of the event was followed by an after party in the Jack Singer Lobby.
This year, 67 outstanding artists and organizations were nominated, representing just some of the artistry that vitalizes our city every day. In 2024, Calgary Arts Development invested $14.9 million through 659 grants to individual artists and arts organizations, which resulted in over 37,000 arts experiences with a participation rate of five million. The Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Awards are one way of recognizing artistic accomplishment and community impact.
The Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Awards are a legacy of Calgary’s year as a Cultural Capital of Canada in 2012. Each award is funded by a contribution from a local philanthropist or organization with each recipient receiving a $5,000 cash prize. We thank the benefactors, nominators and juries of these awards, and congratulate all the nominees and 2025 award recipients.
The ATB Powering Possibility Through the Arts Award recognizes and supports small to mid-sized organizations that are committed to enriching Calgary through arts programming that powers possibility for the local creative community. This year’s award recipient, the East Side Dance Festival Society, inspires dance artists and empowers public and private sector instructors to take socially conscious approaches to dance education, raising the public esteem of dance in society.
The Rozsa Foundation Emerging Arts Manager Award is intended to recognize and encourage the role of emerging professional arts managers who are dedicating their careers to promoting and supporting the work of Calgary’s artists, arts collectives and arts organizations. Given the complexity of the challenges they face, the work of these arts managers needs to be as creative as the artists and organizations they work with. The recipient also receives no-cost entry into the Rozsa Arts Management Program (RAMP). This year’s award recipient, Cosmo Christoffersen, Managing Producer of the Festival of Animated Objects, elevates Calgary on the international stage as a hub for puppetry, supports emerging artists and builds community connections.
The RBC 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 outset. The intent of the award is to bring recognition and awareness to outstanding artists in the early phases of their careers. These artists may have received public recognition already but are considered relative newcomers to their field. This year’s award recipient, Monique Barrie, is a brilliant businesswoman and filmmaker, whose emerging but impressive filmmaking career has already profoundly impacted the local film industry for the better.
The Mamdani Arts Leadership Award was established to recognize and reward the integral role of volunteer board members who lend their expertise, talent and time to supporting 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 and/or culture of the organization(s) they choose to support. This year’s award recipient, Eva Verity, is the board chair for Swallow-a-Bicycle Theatre and goes above and beyond for the staff to have living wages and benefits, a rarity in Calgary independent arts organizations.
The Legacy of Doug and Lois Mitchell Outstanding Calgary Artist 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. The winner of this award receives a one-week, self-directed residency in Banff Centre’s Leighton Artist Studios. This year’s award recipients, Mia + Eric, are internationally recognized interdisciplinary, socially engaged artists. Their research-driven, participatory work reshapes how people engage with environments, histories and civic systems, fostering new ways of imagining the public realm.
The Indigenous Artist Award sponsored by TD Bank Group 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. In response to the calls to action in The City of Calgary’s White Goose Flying report, the award seeks to honour Indigenous cultures and to promote intercultural understanding, perspective-taking and communication between Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples. The winner of this award receives a paid residency courtesy of Calgary Public Library. This year’s award recipient, Morgan Black, is a St’át’imc & Secwépemc artist/curator living in Treaty 7 territory. She spends her time connecting to diverse creative processes that deepen her relationship to her ancestral cultures, the Land and all relations. Morgan is a co-founder of Crawlspace Gallery and works in Cultural Services at Miskanawah.
The Calgary Catholic Immigration Society New Canadian Artist Award was established to recognize that artists from all parts of the world enrich Calgary’s arts sector. This award recognizes and supports an individual artist whose cultural background and relatively recent arrival to Canada result in communication challenges, 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 winner of this award also receives a paid residency courtesy of Calgary Public Library. This year’s award recipient, Yeisen Chang, is a Cuban artist based in Calgary. Her work explores migration, identity and cultural transformation through video art and digital media. She addresses the emotional impact of relocation, fostering dialogue on belonging, adaptation and cultural connection.
Thank you to all the benefactors whose generosity makes these awards possible: ATB Financial, Calgary Catholic Immigration Society, the Rozsa Foundation, Riaz Mamdani and Strategic Group, RBC, TD Bank Group and the Honourable Lois E. Mitchell. We also thank the Central Public Library and Banff Centre for Arts and Creativity for their support through artist residencies for the New Canadian Artist, Indigenous Artist, and The Legacy of Doug & Lois Mitchell Outstanding Artist Award winners. And we acknowledge and thank the Rozsa Foundation for including a spot in their Rozsa Arts Management Program (RAMP) for the winner of the Emerging Arts Manager Award.
The Celebration for the Arts event is made possible through the support of Champion Partner Rozsa Foundation; Artist Showcase Partner Calgary Foundation; Venue Partner Arts Commons; Lobby Activation Sponsor Tourism Calgary; Ticket Accessibility Sponsor Bird Creatives; VIP Sponsor Calgary Economic Development; and Patrons Alberta Blue Cross, ATB Financial, Calgary Downtown Association, Calgary Hotel Association, Calgary Municipal Land Corporation and DIALOG.
Learn more about the Cultural Leaders Legacy Arts Awards at calgaryartsdevelopment.com.
About Calgary Arts Development
As the city’s designated arts development authority, Calgary Arts Development supports and strengthens the arts to benefit all Calgarians. We invest and allocate municipal funding for the arts provided by The City of Calgary and leverage these funds to provide additional resources to the arts sector. Our programs support hundreds of arts organizations, individual artists, artist collectives and ad hoc groups in Calgary.
calgaryartsdevelopment.com
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Further Information
Helen Moore-Parkhouse
Director, Communications and Events, Calgary Arts Development
Phone: (office) 403.264.5330 ext. 102; (mobile) 587.227.0150
Email: helen.moore-parkhouse@calgaryartsdevelopment.com
