Jean Johnson Craft Writing Award 2026
Established by Anne Stadlmair, the Jean Johnson Craft Writing Award recognizes the importance of supporting writing about craft by an emerging writer or curator. The award supports emerging careers in craft discourse, furthers the appreciation and understanding of craft in Canada, and recognizes critical analysis and the contemporary significance of the awarded work. Exploring current issues in relation to craft practice, the Jean Johnson Craft Writing Award is designed to help develop and promote the work of emerging writers and curators.
2026 Jean Johnson Craft Writing Award Winner:
Gladys Lou
Gladys Lou is a Hong Kong-Canadian writer and curator. She holds an M.A. in Curatorial Studies at the Center for Curatorial Studies (CCS), Bard College in New York and a B.A. in Art & Art History from the University of Toronto. She was awarded a Fulbright scholarship with a placement at the University of Washington, where she studied Art and Art History in 2022. Her critical writing and journalism have appeared in Hyperallergic, ArtReview, C Magazine, Studio Magazine, Ornamentum, ArtAsiaPacific, MUBI Notebook, Public Parking, PhotoED Magazine, The AMP, Femme Art Review, and Impulse Magazine.
Lou has held research and curatorial positions at the Blackwood Gallery, Vtape, Ontario Culture Days, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the National Gallery of Art (Washington, D.C.). Her independent curatorial projects include "Curator Diary": The Curatorial Work of Shigeko Kubota (2026) at the Hessel Museum of Art, Depixelating History (2026) at The New Gallery, To see the world in a grain of sand (2025) at Factory Media Centre, and All watched over by machines of loving grace (2023) at InterAccess.
Jean Johnson Craft Writing Award Shortlist Finalists:
Nima Esmailpour
Photo: ENE / Jean-Sébastien Veilleux photographe.
Nima Esmailpour is an art historian, writer, and curator currently based in Toronto. His writing has appeared in art publications and platforms in Canada and internationally. He was an Exhibitions Curatorial Fellow for the 2024 Toronto Biennial of Art and a curator-in-residence with Résidences Transatlantiques in France in 2025. In 2026, he served as Guest Curator for the Mayworks Festival of Working People and the Arts and as an author-in-residence at Est-Nord-Est.
Miles B. Clarke
Miles B. Clarke is a queer writer and artist of Afro-Caribbean descent who works primarily in ceramics. He is deeply aware of the ways bodies, human and clay are shaped by history, labour, and belonging. Through his work and practice, he holds a deep appreciation for craft and is currently pursuing an Honours Bachelor of Craft and Design in Ceramics at Sheridan College. He has been recognized for his practice both academically and professionally, having exhibited in Nia Centre’s A Black Art Fair (2025) and the Emancipation Art Exhibition at the Helson Gallery in Halton Hills, ON (2025) where he was awarded second best in show. His work navigates themes of identity and connection to land, drawing from histories both personal and collective.
We would like to congratulate the recipient and finalists! Please join us at the 2026 Craft Award Recipient Exhibition and Ceremony, taking place on Thursday, October 22nd from 7-9 PM at the Craft Ontario Gallery, unit 108, at 401 Richmond Street West in Toronto.
RSVP on Eventbrite here:
