Community Arts Award

2023 Finalists 

Honouring three outstanding Toronto based arts organizations, learn more about our finalists. Click here

2021 Finalists 

Celebrating three incredible artists who are making significant contributions to Toronto’s communities by creating access to the arts.

2020 Finalists 

Celebrating three incredible arts organizations who are making significant contributions to Toronto’s communities by creating access to the arts.

2019 Finalists 

Celebrating three incredible artists who are making significant contributions to Toronto’s communities by creating access to the arts.

Collette 'Miss Coco' Murray, 2019 recipient 

Community Arts Award

Also known as 'Miss Coco,' Collette is a dance performer, instructor, mentor, and cultural arts programmer. She holds a Sociology BA from University of Toronto, an Honours BA in Race, Ethnicity and Indigeneity from York University, and a certificate in Anti-Racist Research and Practice. Her performance background includes traditional West African drum/dance and Caribbean folk dance. Engaged in the Caribbean and African arts for over 17 years, she was the 2013 recipient of the Canadian Dance Assembly’s I Love Community award and named a 2014 Role Model by the Black Canadian Awards. Collette’s mobile dance education business offers dance instruction and performance rooted in African and Caribbean experiences. She is also a contributing writer for The Dance Current and Dance Collection Danse. Currently, Collette is a MEd candidate at York University’s Faculty of Education, where her graduate research focuses on the successes and challenges of culturally responsive artists teaching in the Ontario education system.

UrbanArts, 2018 Recipient 

Community Arts Award

UrbanArts is a progressive not-for-profit local arts service organization (LASO) linking the needs of those who create/make art, those who engage the artist as an essential element of their own development, and those who support UrbanArts because it adds value (sense of identity, lifestyle, prosperity) to the neighbourhood. UrbanArts is committed to the goal of building inclusive, engaged communities by enriching people’s lives through the arts, culture and heritage, with programs, services and resources delivered within the former City of York boundaries, with a focus on York South-Weston.

Syrus Marcus Ware, 2017 Recipient 

Community Arts Award (formerly the TD Diversity Arts Award)

Syrus is a Vanier Scholar, visual artist, activist, curator and educator. Syrus uses painting, installation and performance to explore social justice frameworks and black activist culture. His work has been shown widely, including in a solo show at Grunt Gallery, Vancouver (2068: Touch Change) and in group shows at the Art Gallery of Ontario, the University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, Art Gallery of York University, the Art Gallery of Windsor and as part of the curated content at Nuit Blanche 2017 (The Stolen People; Won’t Back Down). His performance works have been part of festivals across Canada, including at Cripping The Stage (Harbourfront Centre, 2016, 2019), Complex Social Change (University of Lethbridge Art Gallery, 2015) and Decolonizing and Decriminalizing Trans Genres (University of Winnipeg, 2015). He is part of the PDA (Performance Disability Art) Collective and co-programmed Crip Your World: An Intergalactic Queer/POC Sick and Disabled Extravaganza as part of Mayworks 2014. Syrus' recent curatorial projects include That’s So Gay (Gladstone Hotel, 2016-2019), Re:Purpose (Robert McLaughlin Gallery, 2014) and The Church Street Mural Project (Church-Wellesley Village, 2013). Syrus is also co-curator of The Cycle, a two-year disability arts performance initiative of the National Arts Centre. Syrus is a core team member of Black Lives MatterToronto and a co-curator of Blackness Yes!/Blockorama. Syrus has won several awards, including the TD Diversity Award in 2017. Syrus was voted “Best Queer Activist” by NOW (2005) and was awarded the Steinert and Ferreiro Award (2012). Syrus is a PhD candidate at York University in the Faculty of Environmental Studies.

Regent Park Film Festival, 2016 Recipient 

Community Arts Award (formerly the TD Diversity Arts Award)

Regent Park Film Festival is Toronto’s only free community film festival, dedicated to showcasing works relevant to inner city and inner suburban communities across the city of Toronto. Founded in 2003, RPFF’s principal activity is to organize an annual festival along with year-round school community screenings and workshops at no cost. Their work is based on the idea that everyone deserve safe affordable housing, healthcare, healthy food AND access to stories that open up possibilities. The Festival aims to reach isolated communities throughout Regent Park and beyond, providing a forum for people from all walks of life to engage in critical dialogue on social issues and to enjoy films from all over the world.

Mammalian Diving Reflex, 2013 Recipient 

Community Arts Award (formerly the TD Diversity Arts Award)

Mammalian creates performances by looking for contradictions to whip into aesthetically scintillating experiences. Mammilian creates site and social-specific performance events, theatre productions, participatory gallery installations, videos, art objects and theoretical texts to foster dialogue and dismantle barriers between individuals of all backgrounds by bringing people together in new and unusual ways.