Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence
in the Performing Arts 2010
Deadline
30 April 2010
Description of Award
The Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts is an annual prize that recognizes the highest level of artistic excellence and distinguished career achievement by a Canadian professional artist in music, theatre or dance. The prize is awarded on a four-year cycle – in dance, theatre, dance and music – and is in the amount of $50,000. The prize to be awarded in 2010 will be in the field of dance.
Walter Carsen established the endowment fund for the prize in February 2001 through a generous donation of $1.1 million to the Canada Council for the Arts. The Canada Council administers and promotes the prize.
Eligibility
Candidates must be professional artists who are Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. The Canada Council defines a professional artist as someone who:
- has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
- is recognized as such by her or his peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition)
- is committed to devoting more time to the artistic activity if financially feasible, and
- has a history of public presentation.
Candidates in the current competition must have created, as creative and (or) interpretive artists, an outstanding and distinguished body of work in classical or contemporary dance.
The nominee must be actively involved in the performing arts in Canada or have spent the majority of his or her artistic career in Canada. The nominee’s career will likely have covered a significant period of time. Ideally, the nominee’s work will have been recognized and respected for its artistic excellence by the nominee’s peers at the national and international levels.
This prize is designed to recognize individual achievement rather than for recognition of the work of an organization, but it may also recognize artistic partnerships in which each artist meets the eligibility requirements for the prize. No posthumous awards will be given.
Members of the Board of the Canada Council for the Arts are not eligible to be considered for this prize during the course of their terms as members and for six months following the end of their term.
This Canada Council prize is accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Amount of Award
One prize valued at $50,000 will be awarded in 2010 in the field of dance.
Nomination Process
Candidates cannot apply for the prize; they must be nominated by a member of the Canadian professional performing arts community.
Nominators are responsible for gathering the required documentation and submitting it with the attached nomination form. They must ensure that the documentation complies with the requirements set out in these guidelines.
The Canada Council for the Arts may submit additional nominations, with appropriate documentation, to the peer assessment committee.
2010 Nomination Form for Dance
Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts (PDF format). This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
Further Information
Janet Riedel Pigott
Program Officer
Endowments and Prizes
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 4116
TTY: 1-866-585-5559
Fax: 613-566-4430
March 2010