The award

This award is intended to recognize the achievement of a final-year student in a Master of Fine Arts program at a Québec university and to provide that student with the opportunity of having a professional-level exhibition of his or her work.

Who is elligible

Art students who have completed at least 18 credits of a Master of Fine Arts program at a Québec university and who have already created a body of work that could be presented as part of a professional-level exhibition.

Evaluation process

Applications are evaluated by a jury made up of people who have a thorough knowledge of the contemporary art scene. The jury meets in April of each year in order to determine the recipient of the award. All applicants receive a letter informing them of the jury’s decision. The recipient of the award is announced in May.

Evaluation criteria:

• Quality of the work and interest of the proposed project in terms of its artistic approach
• Feasibility of the proposed exhibition
• Quality of the application’s presentation

What the award include

The recipient of this award will receive:

• A $1,500 bursary
• A three-week solo exhibition in Galerie Simon Blais’ second gallery, a maximum $5,500 value. More specifically, this includes: 
• rental of the gallery for the exhibition
• transportation costs for the works to be exhibited
• production and mailing costs of invitations
• advertising and public relations
• vernissage expenses
• production of a brochure

Applications

Students who wish to apply for this award are asked to provide the following:

• A duly completed and signed application form
• Photocopies of your student card and most recent transcript
• An up-to-date C.V. that includes your academic training, as well as any professional experience related to the visual arts
• Examples of your recent work on a CD, which should include from 8 to 12 images. These must be in jpeg format and each file should be labelled in the following way: Name_Title_year_media_size (e.g., Gordon_Clouds_2008_oiloncanvas_50x75cm)
• A short text (about a page long) explaining your artistic approach and proposed exhibition project
• A letter of recommendation
• Any other documents (publications, articles, etc.) you feel would be useful in evaluating your application (max. 10 pages)
• Postage-Paid Return Envelope

Application dates

Applications will be accepted from January 18 to April 1, 2011 Please note that any applications that are incomplete or that are postmarked after the application dates will not be examined by the Selection Committee for the Award.

Interested art students should send their applications to the following address:

Sylvie and Simon Blais Foundation
5420 Saint-Laurent Boulevard, Suite 100
Montréal, Québec H2T 1S1

For any further information, please
contact Andréanne Roy at 514 849-1165

Download the application form