Toronto, April 19, 2016 – The winners of the 2016 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 event at the Gladstone Hotel in Toronto later in May.
A prize of $8,000 was awarded in each of six arts disciplines to:
| Dance | Penny Couchie, Nipissing First Nation | |
| Literature | Zoe Whittall, Toronto | |
| Media Arts | Terril Calder, Toronto | |
| Music (classical) | Brian Harman, Toronto | |
| Theatre | Charlotte Corbeil-Coleman, Toronto | |
| Visual Arts | Christian Chapman, Fort William First Nation |
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 calibre 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 Eleanor Hart, 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 KM Hunter Artist Award.”
Since the awards were created in 1995, 127 artists have received awards totaling $844,500.
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.