MAYWORKS 2024 LABOUR ARTS AWARDS

 

CALL FOR NOMINATIONS!

Deadline extended to August 28, 2024

The Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts is accepting nominations to the 2024 Labour Arts Awards. Mayworks recognizes the artistic contributions of artists and activists to the labour movement with our annual Labour Arts Awards. We look forward to celebrating our 2024 award recipients at our next Labour Arts Awards Gala on Friday, November 29, 2024.

Nominations are now open. If you would like to celebrate the achievements of an artist or activist in your union or community, and they qualify for one of these awards, please complete a nomination form (details below).


Award categories

The Artist Award for Excellence in Contribution to the Labour Movement

for an artist, working in any artistic discipline (e.g. visual arts, writing, performance, music, etc.), who has significantly captured the values of the labour movement in their work.

The Activist Award for Excellence in Contribution to Labour Arts

for an activist who has promoted and incorporated labour arts in their activism.

The Traditional Labour Arts Award

for the creative design and use of a quilt, banner, badge, button, placard, or apparel, etc., to promote labour solidarity.

The Labour Creative Maverick Award 

for an unusual and creative use of the arts to promote workers’ rights.

The Labour Organization Award for Excellence in Contribution to Labour Arts

for a labour organization that has made outstanding use of the arts to engage their membership and/or the community.

The Min Sook Lee Award for Outstanding Contribution to Labour Arts

for an individual who has captured the values of the labour movement in their art and activism over many years.

This award is named in honour of Min Sook Lee, an activist-artist whose own contributions moved Mayworks Festival toward its current artistic vision to actively encourage representation of equity-seeking groups as audiences and artists. Lee also helped Mayworks focus on programming that engages new, non-arts audiences, and that challenges Eurocentric notions of art.

 
 

Who can be nominated?

The Mayworks Labour Arts Awards recognise the contributions of individuals or organisations in Ontario who produced artistic work in service of the labour movement in 2023/24 that is relevant to the category for which they are being nominated. In the case of the Min Sook Lee Award, nominees should have multi-year history of contributing to labour arts as an artist and activist and do not need to reside in Ontario.

How do I nominate an individual or organisation?

Nominators must submit a one-page summary explaining why the nominee(s) should be considered for the specific award. References that can help elucidate the reasons behind the nomination are welcome. Nominations should include images (up to 10) and/or recordings where relevant.

Nominations can be submitted by e-mail to awards@mayworks.ca

Please contact Mayworks Chair, Emily Visser, with any questions at chair@mayworks.ca

DEADLINE

The deadline to submit nominations for the Mayworks Labour Arts Awards is Monday, August 28, 2024, at midnight. Late submissions will not be considered.

When is the Mayworks Labour Arts Awards Gala?

Award recipients will be notified in October, and will be expected to attend the Mayworks Labour Arts Awards Gala on Friday, November 29, 2024.