2025 CITY OF EDMONTON MUSIC PRIZE GUIDELINES

The Edmonton Arts Prizes recognizes work published, created, or shown in 2024. It celebrates artists from a range of art forms and practices, recognizing their work, and investing in their continued experimentation and creation.

One primary prize of $15,000 will be awarded, and two secondary prizes of $5,000 will be awarded to the runners up.

The City of Edmonton Music Prize recognizes artists, or ensembles of artists, that have released a music recording within the relevant 12 months (calendar year) prior to the deadline. The Prize celebrates artists from a range of art forms and practices, recognizing their work, and investing in their continued experimentation and creation.

In this context, recordings should be substantial, comparable to a full-length album or CD, regardless of format. Recordings must have been available to the public, usually for sale, regardless of commercial intent or return. Producers, engineers, executives, or other support personnel are not eligible. 

Nominations must be made with the knowledge of the artist nominee. Artists cannot self-nominate. Only one nomination is required to be considered.

A minimum of one letter of support must be submitted to maximum of three.

The prize recognizes artists that regularly reside in Edmonton and its immediate surrounding counties and Indigenous communities, commonly called the “Greater Edmonton Region.”

The prize program is coordinated by the Edmonton Arts Council, in collaboration with the City of Edmonton and our community partners, to enhance Edmonton’s reputation as a hub for extraordinary creation in the arts.

Prizes will be awarded in the spring of 2025. 

Shared Eligibility and Assessment Criteria for the Edmonton Arts Prizes:

1. Eligible artists/recipients must be an adult (18+) and a resident of the greater Edmonton region / amiskwaciy-waskâhikan. The greater Edmonton region is defined as the City of Edmonton, the Counties of Sturgeon, Parkland, Leduc and Strathcona, and the communities of Enoch Cree Nation, Alexander First Nation, Paul First Nation, and Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation.
2. By the submission deadline, nominated artists must have a current profile (with all required fields completed) with the Edmonton Arts Council: eac.smartsimple.ca. Contact support@edmontonarts.ca  or 780−424−2787 if you have questions or need help creating a profile.
3. Prize recommendations in each discipline will be based on an evaluation of the artistic merits of a specific work, or collection of work, by a knowledgeable group of peer assessors.
4. Assessors will be charged with basing their decisions on the artwork’s merits, including originality, creativity, relevance, and technical excellence. In all cases the prizes will attempt to recognize the highest standards of artistic achievement, regardless of the artist’s particular mode of expression, or style within the genre. 

In the case of equivalent merits, the assessors will be encouraged to consider the work in the context of the (in order):

1. Artist’s career; 
2. Relevant tradition(s), and arts practice in Canada; 
3. Representation of the demographic diversity of Edmonton’s population; 
4. Representation of the diversity of artistic expression or styles within the discipline.
   

Entries Must Include:

• Nominator contact information
• Completed profile in the Edmonton Arts Council online portal by nominee
• Brief biography of nominee
• Album/ recording project name & description
• Release date of qualifying recording
• Streaming link to recording
• One-page statement outlining why nominee is being submitted for the Edmonton Music Prize 
• Nominee full name, phone number, address and email address
• Nominee CV/ Resume

Optional: 

• One to two support letters

NOMINATION FORM – The nomination form can be found here.

QUESTIONS? Please review the FAQ If the question you are looking for is not answered email info@albertamusic.org 

USE OF SUPPORT MATERIALS
Alberta Music and the Edmonton Arts Council reserve the right to use the submitted support materials in the promotion of the Edmonton Music Prize. Biographic materials and stories may be published online and in print media, and submitted music may be made available for online streaming and for distribution to radio and television for use in promotional features. This will be done for the sole purpose of promoting the prize and its nominees, Alberta Music, the Edmonton Arts Council, the City of Edmonton and Edmonton’s music community. It will in no way be used to generate revenue.