The City of Hamilton’s Arts Awards are being revamped, writes Director of Tourism and Culture Carrie Brooks-Joiner in a information update shared with Council on October 20.
Nominations will be simpler for the public to submit to the City. Instead of the “current requirements for extensive information about the nominee’s career”, the new process will ask the nominator “to confirm basic eligibility criteria and provide reasons why they think the artist should be recognized”.
There will be changes to how the nominations are evaluated:
The jury will consist of 12 to 15 arts community leaders that represent key disciplines and will be reflective of our diverse communities including: Black, Indigenous, People of Colour (BIPOC) and LGBT2S+. They will be involved throughout the process providing guidance to staff and the program partner and an evaluation at the end of the program. They will select the award winners from the short-list and play an important role in recognizing and celebrating the short-listed nominees and award winners. They will be offered an honorarium for their contribution.
They will replace the current 11 award specific volunteer juries and the volunteer steering committee.
More details are available in the information memo.