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City's leading creatives to be honoured at the 2026 Edmonton Arts Prizes 

March 26, 2026

On May 4, the Edmonton arts community will convene for an evening of celebration and connection at the 2026 Edmonton Arts Prizes Presentation. Twelve remarkable artists will receive a combined $100,000 in recognition of their work in music, visual art, film, and literature. 

This year’s shortlisted artists: 

City of Edmonton Music Prize 
ARDN, Cikwes, Joe Nolan 

The Eldon + Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize 
AJA Louden, Elsa Robinson, Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet 

City of Edmonton Film Prize 
Adam Scorgie, Colin Waugh, Simon Glassman 

Robert Kroetsch – City of Edmonton Book Prize 
Conor Kerr, Jason Purcell, Jennifer Bowering Delisle 

“Now in its fourth year, the Edmonton Arts Prizes have quickly become a beloved celebration of our city’s diverse talent across disciplines,” says Renée Williams, Chief Executive Officer of the Edmonton Arts Council. ​“It’s a joyous gathering where all 12 shortlisted artists are celebrated and will receive a cash prize.” 

At the awards presentation, the top recipient of each prize will be announced and will receive $15,000, while two secondary prizes of $5,000 will be awarded to the runners up. All are welcome to attend the awards ceremony on May 4 at 6:30 pm at Metro Cinema. To RSVP, click here. 

The prizes are coordinated by the Edmonton Arts Council, in partnership with the City of Edmonton, Alberta Media Production Industries Association, Alberta Music, Audreys Books, CARFAC Alberta, Edmonton Community Foundation and Writers’ Guild of Alberta.

Shortlisted musicians for the City of Edmonton Music Prize

(in partnership with Alberta Music) 

ARDN for Keep Your Eye on The Sparrow 

  • Keep Your Eye on The Sparrow is a nine-track EP showcasing the full range of ARDN’s artistry — sharp, introspective verses, infectious hooks, and dynamic production. The project explores ambition, love, nostalgia, and the chaos that comes with growth. 

Cikwes for Nehiyaw Iskô 

  • An innovative blend of traditional and contemporary music, Nehiyaw Iskô is a Cree language album with chanting and hand drumming taking the lead. This is Cikwes’s most vulnerable work yet, breaking the silence of intergenerational trauma and transforming it into healing for her and her family. 

Joe Nolan for Luv in the New World 

  • Luv in the New World was recorded live off the floor in Los Angeles with an all-star cast. The record captures Nolan at his most raw and expressive. As Country Music News writes, ​“Joe Nolan’s Luv in the New World is a gritty, poetic masterpiece of Americana.” 
Shortlisted artists for the Eldon + Anne Foote Edmonton Visual Arts Prize 

(in partnership with the Eldon and Anne Foote Fund at the Edmonton Community Foundation & CARFAC Alberta) 

AJA Louden for Enoch’s Fireweed 

  • The Mitchell Art Gallery (MAG) has nominated Louden’s tufted tapestry, Enoch’s Fireweed (2025), ​“for its complex, Afrofuturist vision of hope for collective liberation through Louden’s skilled capacity in a craft medium.” It was titled in reference to Enoch’s Hammer, a name the Luddite movement gave to the tools they used to smash the machines in textile factories, an act of disruption whose history has been mistold. 

Elsa Robinson for The Garden 

  • The Garden was nominated by Emily Baker, Curator of the Art Gallery of St. Albert. Baker describes the exhibition as ​“a monumental achievement in ambition and scale, Elsa conceived of The Garden as a single artwork with many parts,” … ​“taking over four years of intensive effort to bring to it life.” 

Kiona Callihoo Ligtvoet for when chokecherries are ready on top the hill 

  • Callihoo Ligtvoet’s painting when chokecherries are ready on top the hill was nominated by Leah Louden, Director of the Art Gallery of St Albert, from the exhibition Your hands touch between brambles. Louden describes the exhibition as ​“bathed in the golden light of harvest and reflecting memories of family gatherings, picking berries, and learning from the land.” 
Shortlisted films for the City of Edmonton Film Prize

(in partnership with Alberta Media Production Industries Association) 
 
Adam Scorgie for Tootoo 

  • Tootoo shares the extraordinary story of Jordin Tootoo, who broke barriers as the first Inuk and the first player raised in Nunavut to compete in the NHL and represent Team Canada. Growing up in Rankin Inlet, he was shaped by traditional Inuit life while carrying the weight of childhood trauma. 
  • Score G Productions (Instagram, website). Tootoo is currently available on Super Channel and most major TV on demand platforms. 

Colin Waugh for The Secret Long Tree Society 

  • The Secret Long Tree Society digs into the incomprehensible lifespan of long-lived tree species and contemplates how seeds planted today might shape our urban environments over the next millennia. 
  • The Secret Long Tree Society is currently available on CBC Gem.

Simon Glassman for Buffet Infinity  

  • Glassman’s debut feature film, Buffet Infinity, is a horror-comedy that tells a surreal tale of capitalist dystopia entirely through a series of grainy, lo-fi commercials. Buffet Infinity presents a satire of consumerism where the mundane becomes monstrous. What starts as a simple rivalry between local eateries — like Jenny’s Sandwich Shop and the title restaurant — quickly spiralling into cosmic horror. 
Shortlisted authors for the Robert Kroetsch – City of Edmonton Book Prize

(in partnership with Audreys Books & Writers’ Guild of Alberta) 

Conor Kerr for Beaver Hills Forever 

  • “A book about some sick Métis bros,” as the author put it, Beaver Hills Forever, takes a riotous, uncompromising look at the intertwined lives of four characters, each an abstract expression of the few paths available to Métis people on the Prairies. 

Jason Purcell for Crohnic 

  • Jason Purcell’s sophomore poetry collection, Crohnic, asks, what is the landscape of a medicated life? The author looks specifically at chronic illness and autoimmune disease — particularly Crohn’s disease — through an ecological lens because of the disease’s geographic prevalence in Alberta. 

Jennifer Bowering Delisle for Stock 

  • Stock photographs are everywhere. Their ubiquity shapes and reinforces the biases, privilege, and stereotypes of their distinct aesthetic. Delisle’s poetry collection, Stock, takes a playful look at stock photography’s clichés and delight in all its strangeness, while casting a critical eye on its representations of women. 

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