Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Announces the 2026 Project Support Award Winners (Part 1)

Barbara Lemaire, President of the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts, recently announced the recipients of the 2026 TFVA Project Support Awards.

TFVA committee members chose the following projects after researching and carefully considering many others. These awards provide support funding for visual arts activities within the GTA that demonstrate excellence, originality, creativity and artistic merit.

Congratulations to awardees whose work will impact Torontonians, artists, and the city’s visual arts scene. Since TFVA was formed twenty-eight years ago, they have supported 85+ worthy projects within the GTA.

Founded in 1998, the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts is an independent, membership based, non-profit organization that promotes knowledge of the visual arts to its members through an extensive education program, and provides support and recognition for artistic achievement to artists and art organizations in the GTA and surrounding area.

TFVA awarded five Project Support Awards this year, and is proud to announce three of the five Project Support Award Recipients:

The Bentway, to support the project Petal and Stone, a Gardiner Wallworks Initial Public Art Commission, with a new biannual series showcasing Canadian Artists.

The Bentway’s mission is to reimagine the Gardiner Expressway as a new model for hybrid infrastructure and to be a leader in leveraging the power of public art. TFVA will contribute to support the maintenance of “Petal and Stone” which is Toronto artist Rebecca Munce’s mural animating a 10,000 sq. ft. concrete exterior wall on the city’s busiest rail corridor. The mural creates a visual rhythm that echoes the movement of the Gardiner above, transforming a highway underpass into a site of movement, storytelling, and imagination.

It is the inaugural commission of Gardiner Wallworks, in partnership with Exhibition Place. It will be in place for two years.

Website: thebentway.ca
Instagram: @thebentway

Photo: Mila Bright Zlatanovic

NAMARA | projects Curatorial Residency—Material Conversations publication led by GAS Collective

NAMARA | projects Curators’ Studio is a privately-funded, not-for-profit venue for research, deliberation, and presentation of curatorial work. The Curatorial Residency reflects the commitment to advancing research and developing strategic resources that sit at the intersection of curation, art, and business.

Material Conversations, led by GAS Collective, will conduct artist-led community workshops in natural ink-making, paper-making, and weaving beginning in Spring 2026. TFVA will fund the resulting publication, focusing on highlights of the processes, reflections, and shared knowledge in material practices. It will enable the elevated design and expanded print run of the publication, increasing the project’s educational capacity and reach.

Instagram: @NAMARA_projects
LinkedIn: NAMARA

Photo: Sarah Bodri

Isza Gallery – Elicser Elliot’s Don’t Forget to Remember, a new body of work exploring memory in the Caribbean, to support his designated show at the gallery in July 2026

Isza Gallery is a new gallery space at 95 King Street East, run by Toronto figurative abstract artist Elicser Elliot. His new project, Don’t Forget to Remember is a series of paintings that will explore childhood, memory, and home through a series of new portraits and landscapes done on site in St. Vincent and other Caribbean islands.

Instagram: @iszagallery

Image: Courtesy of the artist

Our sincere thanks to the 2025-26 Project Support committee for their hard work, and congratulations to all the Project Support Award recipients.

Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts
Contact: Charlotte Durand, externalrelations@tfva.ca
Website: tfva.ca | Instagram: @tfva.ca