The Universities Art Association (UAAC) recognizes excellence through the honours and awards programs which also serve to acknowledge the work of its members. UAAC annually presents three awards:
Award Nomination
Current UAAC-AAUC members can submit nominations for the UAAC-AAUC Recognition Award and Lifetime Achievement Award. Nominations for these awards are received and approved by the Board of Directors. The deadline for nomination is August 1st. This award is usually presented at the UAAC-AAUC annual conference each fall.
Graduate Student Essay Award
Graduate students who presented papers at the current annual UAAC-AAUC conference can submit complete versions of their essays, in English or French, for consideration by the UAAC-AAUC Board for the Annual Graduate Student Essay Award. The winning essay will be awarded a $250 prize and will be published in the subsequent spring issue of RACAR.
Year | Recipient | Essay |
2021 | Erika Kindsfather | From Activism to Artistic Practice: (Re)imagining Indigenous Women’s Labour Activism in Contemporary Art |
2020 | Marie Ferron-Desautels | Satire et sociabilité au cœur de la pratique caricaturale de Lady Dalhousie (1786–1839) : vers une histoire des femmes caricaturistes britanniques |
2019 | Sarah Carter | India and the Antiquarian Image: Richard Payne Knight’s A Discourse on the Worship of Priapus |
2018 | Caitlin E. Ryan | Eli Lotar and Jacques-André Boiffard aboard the Exir Dallen |
2017 | Vanessa Bateman | Ursus Horribilis: Seth Kinman’s Grizzly Chair at the World’s Columbian Exposition |
2016 | Elysia H. French | Transformations of Oil: Visibility, Scale, and Climate in Warren Cariou’s Petrography |
2015 | Elizabeth Anne Cavaliere | Onward! Canadian Expansionist Outlooks and the Photographs that Serve Them |
2014 | Kathryn Desplanque | Repeat Offenders: Reprinting Visual Satire Across France’s Long Eighteenth Century |
2013 | Jennifer Orpana | Turning the World Inside Out: Situating JR’s Wish within Cultures of Participation |
2012 | Erin McLeod | By a Wing and a Tale: Authenticating the Archive in Mohamad Said Baalbaki’s Al Buraq | The Prophet’s Human-Headed Mount |
Recognition Award
Established in 2010, the UAAC-AAUC Recognition Award acknowledges members who have demonstrated their unselfish and devoted service to our association and their commitment to our profession’s ideals. These individuals have shown leadership and have made significant contributions to the organization. To honour the UAAC-AAUC conference’s 50th anniversary in 2017, the board decided that, henceforth, a lifetime membership in the association will accompany this award.
Year | Recipient |
2021 | Anne Whitelaw |
2020 | Martha Langford |
2019 | Annie Gérin |
2018 | Lynda Jessup and Sally Hickson |
2017 | Lora Senechal Carney |
2016 | Nicole Dubreuil |
2015 | Joyce Zemans |
2014 | David McTavish |
2013 | Brian Foss |
2012 | Barbara Winters |
2011 | Mary and Alan Hughes |
2010 | Catherine Harding and Allister Neher |
Lifetime Achievement Award
The UAAC-AAUC Lifetime Achievement Award is presented to a past or present member of UAAC who has made an outstanding contribution to the profession over the whole of a career either through leadership, creation, education, curatorial projects, service, or publications.
Year | Recipient |
2021 | Sherry Farrell-Racette |
2020 | John O’Brian |
2019 | Sandra Alfoldy |
Award for the advancement of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility
New in 2022, the UAAC-AAUC Award for the advancement of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility, recognizes and celebrates the achievements of those whose work in our fields foster change and build an equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible community in Canada.
Eligibility: This award recognizes and celebrates the achievements of those whose work in our fields, foster change and build an equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible community in Canada.
UAAC member at any career stage with a demonstrated contribution to:
- building a more inclusive, equitable, diverse, and accessible practice / working environment
- increasing diverse representation
- promoting research and insights relating to Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Accessibility
- leadership and engagement in addressing systemic inequality
Deadline for submissions: September 16th
Prize: UAAC Life Membership + $1000 prize + 1 year of RACAR