The Universities Art Association recognizes excellence through the honours and awards programs which also serve to acknowledge the work of its members.
Members can submit nominations using the online form. Nominations are received and reviewed by the Board of Directors and winners will be 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 |
| 2022 | Georgia Phillips-Amos | A Threatening Presence: Regina José Galindo’s Aparición |
| 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 |
| 2022 | Joan Coutu |
| 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 |
| 2022 | Ruth Phillips |
| 2021 | Sherry Farrell-Racette |
| 2020 | John O’Brian |
| 2019 | Sandra Alfoldy |
Award for the advancement of equity, diversity, inclusion and accessibility
The UAAC-AAUC Award (established in 2022) for the Advancement of Equity, Diversity, Inclusion and Accessibility is intended to recognize and celebrate the achievements of those whose work in our fields foster change and build an equitable, diverse, inclusive, and accessible community in Canada. The outputs of such work may look like many things, such as: building a more inclusive, equitable, diverse, and accessible practices and working environments; increasing diverse representation; promoting research and insights relating to Equity, Diversity, Inclusivity and Accessibility; leadership and engagement in addressing systemic inequality.
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
Prize: UAAC Life Membership + $1000 prize + 1 year of RACAR
The inaugural recipient is Dr. Alice Ming Wai Jim, Professor of Contemporary Art in the Department of Art History at Concordia University in Tiohtiá:ke/Montreal, and the Concordia University Research Chair in Ethnocultural Art Histories (2017-2022). An art historian and curator, her research on diasporic art in Canada and contemporary Asian art has generated new dialogues within and between ethnocultural and global art histories, critical race theory, media arts, and curatorial studies. Focusing primarily on contemporary Asian Canadian and Black Canadian artists, Jim has curated exhibitions of over sixty artists of colour and Indigenous artists and organized major scholarly events within academic settings and for the broader arts community in Canada and internationally. She has also been involved in a leadership capacity in several formal partnerships involving international networking and community building initiatives, with a strong commitment to research and social justice. Learn more about Dr. Jim.
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✍️Book Prize *NEW in 2023*
The UAAC-AAUC Book Award (established 2023) is intended to recognize and celebrate the scholarly achievements of our members. Monographs, edited anthologies, and exhibition catalogues published in English or French between January 1 and December 31 prior to the award year, are eligible. (For the 2023 award, books must have been published in 2022). Works published posthumously are ineligible.
Nominations must be submitted via our online form listing the nominator, title of the work, author, press, year, and nominee’s contact information. Authors or presses will be responsible for providing 3 copies (paper or digital) to the awards jury.
Eligibility: The prize is open to
- Monographs, edited anthologies, and exhibition catalogues
- published in English or French between January 1 and December 31 prior to the award year
- regardless of subject-matter, written by a UAAC member in good standing who is employed or studying at a Canadian institution;
- or any book on a Canadian topic (broadly conceived) by a UAAC member in good standing who is not at a Canadian institution.
Prize: 1-year UAAC Membership + 1-year subscription to RACAR