One of Canada’s most prestigious awards for emerging artists is the Sobey Art Award, jointly administered by the National Gallery of Canada and the Sobey Art Foundation. This year, one of MacEwan’s own faculty members has been longlisted as a finalist for the prize.

Anna Hawkins, assistant professor in the Studio Arts program, is one of 25 artists from across the country to be named to the longlist. “It was a wonderful surprise,” she says of learning she was up for the award. “It's a fabulous list of artists from across Canada and I’m really honoured to be included with them.”

Hawkins’s practice focuses on moving image and installation. Her works centre around the ways that images, gestures and language are circulated and transformed online and the impacts of technology on the intimate spheres of daily life. She has exhibited at galleries across Canada, including the Art Gallery of Alberta, Dazibao in Montreal and The Bows in Calgary.

In the past, Hawkins has used the Sobey Art Award list as a resource in her classroom, researching the finalists she’s unfamiliar with and sharing her findings with her students. “As a teacher, it's a fabulous resource, whether I'm on the list or not,” she says. “But I think that anytime students can see a faculty member’s work being shown, it's a nice way to enable them to see themselves and think about their future paths and careers.”

Being longlisted for the award comes with a prize of $10,000, which Hawkins will use to bring more of her work to life. “Going into the next few months, I am starting a new project. I'm planning to work with film again, which can be quite an expense,” she says. “So I feel like heading into the summer, I have both the encouragement to keep working on the project and also some funds to help get moving on it.”

The Sobey Art Award winner will be announced later this year. For more information on the award and this year’s longlisted artists, visit the Sobey Art Award website.