The Polygon Gallery has announced it will be increasing the sum of its Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize, following a $1 million donation from the Lind family.
The hefty endowment from the Lind family will increase the prize amount to $25,000, making it the country’s largest accolade dedicated to supporting emerging visual artists.
“The gallery is extremely proud and pleased about this incredible donation and grateful to Phil and Phil’s family,” said Reid Shier, director of The Polygon Gallery.
The Philip B. Lind Emerging Artist Prize was established in 2016 to support emerging artists working with photography, film, and video, and to honour the then-retiring Lind, who had been an enormous supporter of Canadian artists and museums.
Reid said Lind was “tremendously generous” with contributing funds to the grant, but it was after his death in 2023 that efforts from the Lind family were ramped up to establish the major prize and pay tribute to the late businessman.
Lind’s son, Jed, said the family “could not be more excited” to be working alongside Shier and the team at The Polygon.
“Our father was a lifelong advocate for contemporary art and we knew that expanding the future of the Lind Prize would be an incredible way to commemorate his legacy,” said Lind’s son, Jed.
“The Lind Biennial will ensure that future generations of young artists have an opportunity to show their work in The Polygon’s incredible exhibition space and engage in their rich history.”
The winner of the coveted cash prize will be selected from a shortlist of artists that have been chosen to mount their works in an exhibition within the gallery. Previously lasting just two weeks, the collective exhibition, dubbed The Lind Biennial, will now run for an extended 12-week show as a result of the new endowment.
“It’s really providing a platform for us to showcase a select group of important, young, visual artists just at the outset of their careers, and hopefully in a way that gives them a real boost,” said Shier. “We all think that Phil would be really proud, it was always something that was a major part of his schedule every year coming out for the awards ceremony, and it was just such a delight to host him during that time.”
The first iteration of the revamped showcase will open to the public this fall, with exhibiting finalists Mena El Shazly, Karice Mitchell, Dion Smith-Dokkie, Parumveer Walia, and Casey Wei to showcase after being selected from a longlist of more than 60 nominees.
Being named as a winner and being given that level of validation is a “tremendous boost” for young artists, and many of the grand prize’s previous winners have already gone on to have successful careers, said Shier.
“The artists that are coming out of British Columbia are some of the best in the world,” he said. “It’s often difficult, in a place that’s fairly geographically isolated like B.C., to gain visibility as an artist. This prize is an incredible way to lend some attention to the quality of the artists that are working here.”
The inaugural biennial exhibition will run from Nov. 9 until February next year, with the winner to be selected by a panel of judges and announced at a ceremony in January.
Mina Kerr-Lazenby is the North Shore News’ Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
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