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Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts Announce Steele and Tomczak as the 2023 Founders Achievement Award Winners

CONGRATULATIONS to our founders Lisa Steele and Kim Tomczak who are the recipients of the Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts 2023 Founders Achievement Award!

In 1982, Steele and Tomczak undertook an international research study to determine how best to improve the distribution and dissemination of artists’ video work. The following year Steele and Tomczak co-founded Vtape, Canada’s largest distributor of video art, documentaries, and installations and the world’s largest distributor of Indigenous film and video. Vtape has contributed significantly to establishing standards for exhibition and archiving and the preservation of video art.

Steele and Tomczak are recipients of many awards, including the Governor General’s Award for lifetime achievement in Visual and Media Arts (2005), and the Peter Herrndorf Media Arts Award (Toronto Arts Awards).

As two of Canada’s prominent artists, they have contributed an awe-inspiring body of work and supported the creation, preservation, and archiving of video art.

Please read Toronto Friends of the Visual Arts full press release here.

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Elisa Coish is a Curator with the Toronto-based art consulting firm Demetriou Art Group. Her expertise is rooted in contemporary art, and her curatorial practice has been deeply informed by the diverse collections and artists she has worked with to date. She previously held the role of Curator at Latcham Art Centre and was formerly the Senior Associate Curator at BMO Financial Group’s Corporate Art Collection. Elisa is an Art History and Cinema Studies graduate from the University of Toronto.