Toronto Arts Foundation Launches 2026 Toronto Arts Awards Season

Toronto Arts Foundation launches its annual Awards Season, beginning with the Awards Season Kick-Off Party on April 14 and culminating in the Mayor’s Arts Lunch on April 28, one of Toronto’s most significant civic celebrations of arts and culture. The Foundation also announces this year’s award finalists and the recipients of the Newcomer Artist Award.

The Foundation’s Awards Season Kick-Off Party will be held on April 14, 2026. At this invitation-only event, the Newcomer Artist Award will be presented. The award provides prizes of $2,500 to six newcomer (immigrant and refugee) artists with the aim of aiding the integration of newcomer artists into Toronto and Canada by celebrating their achievements and supporting their future artistic careers. Newcomer artists living across the Greater Toronto Area (GTA) and working in a range of disciplines are eligible for the award. The Newcomer Artist Award is presented every year to six artists and is generously sponsored by Bell Canada through their support of the Newcomer Artist Program. 

“We’re thrilled to kick off our awards season with prizes that recognize the incredible contributions of six newcomer artists to our dynamic city,” said Kelly Langgard, Director & CEO of Toronto Arts Council & Foundation. 

According to a 2025 report, newcomers face challenges in accessing meaningful employment due to a lack of Canadian work experience, credentials, and professional connections. They can also experience language barriers, discrimination, and feelings of loneliness and isolation.

“Given these challenges, newcomer artists often need support to help them land on their feet,” Langgard said. “With the Newcomer Artist Award, we help newcomers bridge that gap so they can continue to excel in their creative pursuits, and amplify their work so more Torontonians can find it.”

The signature event of the Toronto Arts Awards Season is the Mayor’s Arts Lunch on Tuesday, April 28. The Mayor’s Arts Lunch, hosted this year by Mayor Olivia Chow, takes place annually in the spring. The Mayor’s Arts Lunch is a high-profile event that brings together a carefully curated room including artists, cultural leaders, arts philanthropists, key business and civic leaders, and politicians from all levels of government to celebrate and spotlight the artists and arts organizations whose work shapes and strengthens this creative city through the presentation of selected Toronto Arts Foundation awards. Full details will be released in early April.

Award Finalists and Recipients:

Celebration of Cultural Life, Finalists
Mi-Young Kim, Christine Moynihan, Dr. d'bi.young anitafrika 

Arts for Youth Award - Organizations & Collectives, Finalists
House of Sole, Rainbow Hunt, TIFF Next Wave

Che Kothari Artist & Instigator Award
Pixel Heller, Quentin VerCetty, Chason Yeboah-Brown

Breakthrough Artist Award, Finalists
Elham Fatapour, Vladimir Kanic, Johnathan Morin 

Community Arts Award, Finalists
Beny Esguerra, Jennifer D. Fabico-Smith, Chloe Sanchez

Muriel Sherrin Award, Finalists
Alexis Baro, Alice Ping Yee Ho, Densil McFarlane Jr.

Breakthrough Jazz Artist Award, Finalists
Julian Anderson-Bowes, Agneya, Jon Chiong-Catanus 

Newcomer Artist Award, Recipients
Jingshu Yao, Jim Diamond Libiran, Sepideh Behrouzian, Cécé Haba, Trâm Anh Nguyễn, Hong  Casey Chan  

2026 Newcomer Artist Award Recipient Biographies: 

Sepideh Behrouzian (b. 1985, Iran) is an artist and researcher based in Canada. Her work examines extractivist culture, petro-modernity, and linear progress through moving image and installation. She is currently a fellow of the Mensch–Maschine Programme at E-WERK Luckenwalde. 

Cécé Haba is a Guinean percussionist specializing in djembe and dundun. A member of Lua Shayenne Dance Company, he tours with Yassama and the Beaded Calabash and performs widely across Canada. His credits include major festivals, theatre productions, television appearances, and collaborations with leading Toronto artists.

Hong Yu Casey Chan is a Deaf photographer and visual artist from Hong Kong, based in Canada. He travels to photograph traditions and share them with audiences, advocating for accessible Deaf arts spaces. His works have been exhibited in Hong Kong, Japan, and Canada, including exhibitions at CONTACT Photography Festival.

Trâm Anh Nguyễn (he/him) is a Vietnamese interdisciplinary artist working in film and photography. Against a backdrop of quiet poetry and sensitivity, his practice moves between documentation and storytelling, exploring memory, identity, and connection. His work examines intersections of queerness, politics, and Vietnamese heritage, considering how landscapes and bodies carry history across generations and geographies.

Jim Libiran is an internationally awarded filmmaker and writer whose practice fuses cinema and social realism. His debut feature, Tribu (Tribe), cast real gang members from Manila’s urban slums; Happyland follows football-playing youth rising from poverty. He was longlisted for the 2025 CBC Nonfiction Prize.

Jingshu Yao is a writer and community artist born and raised in Nanjing, China, and based in Toronto. Jingshu’s writings focus on intersectional identities, and common themes include food, immigration, language, and queerness. Her ongoing research creation series “Leftover Ingredients” investigates the role of recipes in passing down community heritage.

Photo Credit: Kat Rizza Photography