We need to keep our eyes on more than the prize
Canadian arts awards: Is there a better way?
At the 33rd annual Dora Mavor Moore Awards last month, philipakin gripped his bronzed statue and announced to the audience: “Joy!”
It had been a great evening for the artistic director of Obsidian Theatre. Among the Toronto company’s many awards, Akin won directing honours for Topdog/ Underdog, which was named outstanding production of a play, while Obsidian’s Caroline, or Change won best musical. After the gala, company members celebrated at a street party with music, ice cream and hotdogs.
But how long would this joy last? The answer tells the story of Canadian arts awards.
“I got a lot of teasing phone calls about, ‘Will my head fit in a room?’ and, ‘Will I build another shelf for the awards?’ ” Akin says. “But the wheel turns fast in Doraville. You’re king of the walk one minute and you’re in the mud next year. I have no illusions about anything other than it was a couple of great shows.”
The after-effects of winning a Canadian arts award are difficult to measure. For artists, of course, it feels good to be nominated, and great to win. But success in terms of career advancement and sales is far from guaranteed, as is audience awareness and post-award publicity.
The last Gemini awards, for instance, reeled in only 430,000 viewers, while the Genie awards average 378,000. (A typical episode of Dragons’ Den can net 1.5 million viewers.) And other award ceremonies, such as the Doras, are not televised at all.
Is our national modesty to blame? Are we quietly patting ourselves on the backs at insular parties when we could be adding more heft to our accolades? Is there, in fact, a way to build a better awards system?
“In Canada ... no one really cares if you’ve won an award. The Gemini is the Canadian Emmy, for God’s sake, and there’s very little homage paid to it,” says comedian Debra Digiovanni, winner of a Gemini and four Canadian Comedy Awards.
At times, it can even seem like our awards system is a sly, if brutal, joke. At the upcoming Canadian Comedy Awards, to be doled out next month, all five nominees for best TV show have already been cancelled.
“It’s a rite of passage for a lot of shows. They get cancelled and then they win an award,” says Andrew Bush, whose Halifax-based group Picnicface won the Canadian Comedy Award for best sketch troupe last year.
“We don’t have a star system. … We don’t hold and value the talent of our artists.”
Jacoba Knaapen, Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts
(The honour didn’t protect their Comedy Network show from getting the axe.)
But not all arts awards are created equal. The Giller Prize and Canada’s music awards, for instance, directly translate to publicity and sales. After the 2012 Juno ceremony, Feist, who took home artist-of-the-year honours, saw her album sales double in Canada. Similarly, after last month’s MuchMusic Video Awards, sales for winner and performer Carly Rae Jepsen’s Curiosity single jumped 64 per cent. And after Johanna Skibsrud won the 2010 Giller Prize, Gaspereau Press could barely produce enough copies of her novel, The Sentimentalists, to meet the demand.
Meanwhile, the monetary gift that accompanies such visual-arts awards as the Sobeys are often a much-needed boost to cashstrapped winners. Emerging artists especially appreciate the access to new contacts and curators associated with the award.
The challenge with the Doras, which recognize the best in Toronto theatre, dance and opera, is that many of the winning shows already had their time onstage, meaning any post-award publicity is for naught – a problem also familiar to the Canadian Comedy Awards.
“The Doras have become a local Toronto phenomenon. … It’s now become an industry insider’s view and frequently skewed to the notfor-profit,” theatre producer Aubrey Dan says. “It’s nice to add to your trophy case, but it doesn’t help sell tickets.”
“We’ve talked internally about televising the Doras again,” Jacoba Knaapen, executive director at the Toronto Alliance for the Performing Arts, says about the awards. “But because we don’t have a star system (in Canada), because we don’t hold and value the talent of our artists, that’s a tough sell.”
The star-system argument is a difficult one to refute, especially since the Academy of Canadian Cinema and Television announced this year it would tackle lacklustre interest in its annual galas by combining the Genies and the Geminis into one broadcast event on March 3, 2013, to celebrate both film and television.
“We wanted to put a much bigger spotlight on those industries. … Merging the awards is part of the fix,” says Helga Stephenson, the academy’s chief executive. “Canadians have been forever known as a modest people, but I think Canadians are starting to shake that. I think the last Olympic Games were a huge step forward. There’s a sense of Canadian pride that is growing.”
Maybe that’s the spirit – perhaps it is not the award itself that matters, but how you use it. Knaapen says producers tout Dora wins when applying for government funding. Bush jokes that he wants to start wearing Picnicface’s award “like bling.”
“When we write letters to festivals, we say we’re a five-time Canadian Comedy Award winner,” says Naomi Snieckus, co-artistic director of the National Theatre of the World comedy troupe. “We went to Berlin and Amsterdam in March and April and it helps people sit up, seeing that we’ve won awards.
“Some people just put awards on their mantel and forget about it, I think it’s important to use it to build a buzz and build steam. It’s important to us, and it’s important to let people know it’s important.”