Nominations are open for the inaugural Toi Kō Iriiri selection panel

We need your help! We’re crowdsourcing a selection panel to appoint the inaugural recipient of the Toi Kō Iriiri Arts Award. This award – a New Zealand first – is for an outstanding artist whose practise has an impact on New Zealand’s queer communities. The artist needs to come from a queer community, and the art works of that practitioner(s) needs to be representative of queer communities and contribute to social change.

We created this award to celebrate excellence and impact by queer artists in Aotearoa. And so we’re asking the people who know best to be part of the process.

We’re seeking nominations to fill a panel of five. Each person on the selection panel will:

• Bring exceptional knowledge of the arts sector, and queer artists in Aotearoa.
• Will be available for one day in June to meet and select the inaugural recipient of the Toi Kō Iriiri Queer Arts Award.
• Identify as queer (please note – we acknowledge that there is no single umbrella term to encompass the LGBTQIA+ communities. We also recognise that the use of ‘queer’ as a positive and reclaimed term isn’t for everyone. We use it in this context as an inclusive term to reference those who fall outside of cisgender or heterosexual identities – not as a pejorative. We use it here in celebration, with respect and love!).