Jovette-Marchessault Award

Who is eligible for this award?

The annual Jovette-Marchessault Award is awarded on a three-year rotation based on the candidates’ artistic roles, alternating between directors, designers and playwrights.

The 2023–2024 call for applications is for designers (costume, set, make-up, wig, hairstyle, puppet, mask, props, lighting, sound and video environment designers) who identify as women, regardless of years of artistic experience.

What are the objectives of this award?

• Showcase women artists’ contribution to the development of theatre arts and the vitality of Montréal’s theatre scene
• Recognize the excellence of their work
• Highlight an artistic approach that contributes to the development of theatre practice, whether as a director, designer or playwright

What is the background to this award?

In its 2018–2020 strategic plan, the Conseil des arts de Montréal made achieving a better gender balance a priority, particularly male/female parity in the arts community. To this end, the Conseil helped fund ESPACE GO’s Chantier féministe, a week-long event on the place of women in theatre, held in the spring of 2019. During this event, the theatre community emphasized the importance of creating awards to recognize the outstanding work of theatre artists and increase the reach of women artists.

The partners (CAM, ESPACE GO, Imago Théâtre, Théâtre de l’Affamée and artists associated with the F.E.T. movement) collaborated to create this new award and decided to name it in honour of the inspiring creator, Jovette-Marchessault (1938–2012), a Montréal novelist, poet, playwright, painter and sculptor.

The award is developed by partners, the Conseil des arts de Montréal and ESPACE GO, in collaboration with Nahka Bertrand, Micheline Chevrier, Margarita Herrera Dominguez, Gabe Maharjan and Marie-Ève Milot.

What type of assistance is provided?

The sum of the award is twenty thousand dollars ($20,000).

What are the eligibility criteria?

• Be a professional artist, as defined by the Conseil
• Be a professional artist who identifies as a woman and work as a theatre director, designer or
  playwright, regardless of her years of experience
• Reside on the island of Montréal
• For Indigenous creators only, reside within 50 km of the Island of Montréal (including the communities of Kahnawake and Kanesatake) and work on the Island of Montréal
• Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident of Canada on the application deadline
• Creators who have applied in the past and have not won, whether or not they were finalists, can re-apply

Which applicants/applications are inegible?

• Artists who do not meet the general eligibility criteria
• Artists’ collectives and organizations
• Public or parapublic organizations representing governments or municipal corporations
• Incomplete applications
• Applications received after the deadline
• Applications submitted by an employee or board of directors member of the main partners (the Conseil des arts de Montréal and ESPACE GO)
• Applications submitted a third party nominating an employee or board of directors member of the main partners

How many applications will be selected?

Three finalists will be selected and benefit from public visibility. Only one of them will be named the winner and receive the $20,000 grant. The other two finalists will each receive an airfare to Paris courtesy of Air Transat.

How can I submit an application?

The application can be submitted by the artist or someone representing her. The artist (or representative) must complete the application form. The form must be signed by the artist and, if applicable, her representative.

What information and documents must I include in my application?

For all applications:

• completed and signed application form
• the artist’s curriculum vitae
• a letter (750 to 1,500 words max.), written and signed by the applicant that presents her artistic background and approach and take into account the objectives and evaluation criteria of the award
• two letters of support (750 to 1,000 words each), written and signed by artists or cultural workers, regardless of their artistic function or years of experience. To avoid any conflict of interest, letters may not be written by an employee or board of directors member of any of the award partner organizations. Letters should explain to the selection committee members how the applicant meets the award objectives and evaluation criteria
• application support materials (Internet links, video or audio, photographs, texts, etc.) of the applicant’s choice, taking into account the maximum consultation time of 15 minutes
• documents and the form must be sent together in one email, in a ZIP file, using WeTransfer or Dropbox links. The accepted electronic formats are as follows: PDF, DOC, DOCX Internet, video or audio links that can link to digital platforms such as Vimeo, YouTube, SoundCloud, etc.
• applications must only be sent by email to prix@espacego.com. The subject line of the email must include “Jovette-Marchessault Award”

Please comply with the requested maximum number of pages and words for texts, maximum consultation time for support material and specified number of minutes for audio or video presentations.

No unsolicited appendices or documents submitted after the application deadline will be accepted for evaluation.

How are applications evaluated?

Applications will be evaluated by a selection committee assembled by the Conseil des arts de Montréal consisting of professionals representing the diversity of the theatre community.

What are the evaluation criteria?

Applications will be evaluated based on the following criteria:

• quality and originality of the artistic approach of one or more completed works
• impact of the artistic approach or artistic work on the development of theatre practice

When selecting the finalists and the winner, the Evaluation Committee will pay particular attention to the applicants’ diversity of experience, reflecting the richness of the theatre sector.

What is the response time?

The three finalists will be announced on April 22, 2024. The winner will be announced to the public on May 6, 2024. Participants will be notified of the decision by email. Finalists will be required to provide some communication tools and participate in a special awards ceremony at Théâtre ESPACE GO in May 2024.

How will the award be paid?

The recipient will receive the twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) via a single payment from Théâtre ESPACE GO.

The payment will be paid once the recipient has provided her social insurance number and contact details to Théâtre ESPACE GO so that a T4A can be issued for tax purposes. Under current tax laws, obtaining a cash prize is taxable income.