VIVA Awards Recipients to be Recognized March 26th
byThe Jack and Doris Shadbolt Foundation for the Visual Arts has announced Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill and T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss as the two winners of the 2024 VIVA Awards. They will be recognized in an awards ceremony at Emily Carr University on March 26th, marking the first in-person VIVA Awards celebration since 2019.
VIVA Awards Ceremony
- Date: Wednesday, March 26, 2025 at 6:00pm
- Location: Emily Carr University (520 East 1st Ave, Vancouver)
- Tickets: Admission is free for the awards ceremony, but an RSVP is required here.
The March 26th ceremony will also mark an opportunity to celebrate those who received awards in years without an in-person presentation: Hazel Meyer and Laiwan (2023), Charles Campbell and Jan Wade (2022), Diyan Achjadi and Samuel Roy-Bois (2021), and Lucie Chan, Cindy Mochizuki and Tania Willard (2020). Recipients of the two most recent Alvin Balkind Curator’s Prize, Daina Augaitis and Makiko Hara, will also be honoured.
About the Awards
The VIVA Awards, established in 1988 by Jack and Doris Shadbolt, are annual prizes awarded to mid-career visual artists in British Columbia who demonstrate exceptional creative ability and commitment to the visual arts. The 2024 jury consisted of Sean Alward, Charles Campbell, Laiwan, Hazel Meyer, and Samuel Roy-Bois. Each recipient is awarded $15,000.
2024 VIVA Award Winners
Gabrielle L’Hirondelle Hill is an artist and writer whose practice explores the history of found materials to examine concepts of land, property, and alternative economies. Her work often addresses capitalism and its vulnerabilities, using readily sourced materials to consider private property, exchange, and black-market economies. A member of the Indigenous artist collective BUSH gallery, Hill prioritizes land-based teachings and Indigenous epistemologies. She holds an MFA from the California College of the Arts and degrees from Simon Fraser University. Her work has been exhibited at institutions including MoMA, the Venice Biennale, and the Vancouver Art Gallery.
T’uy’t’tanat Cease Wyss is a Sḵwx̱wú7mesh, Sto:lo, Hawaiian, and Swiss interdisciplinary artist, educator, and Indigenous ethnobotanist. With 30 years of practice, her work encompasses storytelling and collaborative initiatives centered on Indigenous plant knowledge and natural space restoration. Recognized for sharing traditional knowledge through various mediums, including digital media and weaving, Wyss has exhibited at institutions such as the Vancouver Art Gallery and the Morris and Helen Belkin Art Gallery. Recipient of the 2010 Mayor’s Arts Award, she has also held residencies with Griffin Art Projects and the Vancouver Public Library, among others. In 2022, Wyss received an Honorary Doctorate of Letters from Emily Carr University.
