2018 K.M. Hunter Artist Awards Winners Announced

The winners of the 2018 K.M. Hunter Artist Awards were announced today.  The six winners will be honoured by the K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation at an event at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto in June.

A prize of $8,000 was awarded in each of six arts disciplines to:

Dance                                  Christine Friday, Ottawa              

Theatre                               Matthew Heiti, Sudbury

Literature                           Shane Book, Ottawa

Media Arts                         Luo Li, Dundas

Music                                  Allison Cameron, Toronto

Visual Arts                          Cree Stevens, Thunder Bay

The annual awards are given to Ontario residents to support mid-career, professional artists who have a reasonable body of work, a fair degree of public exposure, have made an impact in their chosen field and demonstrate an original artistic voice within their artistic tradition.  The awards are a means of encouraging their craft and propelling them to the next level.

“We are very impressed at the caliber of artists our awards attract and wish all the winners this year great success in the pursuit of their work,” says Sarah Hunter, President, K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation.  “We also would like to thank Dave Carley, Damiano Pietropaolo, and Bernard Leroux in helping chair our juries this year.  We welcome this year’s winners into the growing family of artists who have received the K.M. Hunter Artist Awards.”

Since the awards were created in 1995, 139 artists have received awards totaling $940,500.

The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) Awards Office administers the nomination process for the K.M. Hunter Artist Awards.  OAC juries nominate candidates from OAC project grant programs that accept applications from professional artists in each of the Award categories.  The K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation convenes six juries to select the winners of the awards.  The awards are financed by a gift from the K.M. Hunter Charitable Foundation to the Ontario Arts Foundation.