Stir receives Jack Webster Award nomination for Excellence in Arts and Culture Reporting
In-depth article shone a light on B.C. contemporary-dance artists wrestling with the fallout of losing Canada Council tour funding
STIR HAS JUST BEEN nominated for its first Jack Webster Award for its coverage of the local arts and culture scene.
The article “B.C. arts groups grapple with uncertainty after being turned down for Canada Council tour funding” by Stir editorial director Janet Smith, published August 14, 2024, is one of three finalists in the Excellence in Arts & Culture Reporting category.
It details how prominent local dance artists and groups—including internationally celebrated Vancouver troupe Kidd Pivot—did not receive the backing of the Arts Abroad funding from the Canada Council for the Arts last year. The article outlined the far-reaching implications, as well as raising wider concerns about economic uncertainty within the sector.
Smith spoke to several artists, presenters, tour managers, and producers who revealed a “perfect storm” of rising travel costs post-pandemic, as well as a rising number of applications for stagnant tour funding. They pointed to funding shortfalls and new approaches to grant decisions at the Canada Council. The article also explored wider issues around what kind of performance Canada should be sending abroad, and who’s making those calls on peer juries.
“On a morale level, for the community, it’s really harsh,” Montreal-based producer Sarah Rogers, who manages tours for dance companies and artists across the country, told Smith. “It doesn’t give a lot of hope for anybody doing this job to think that we should continue doing it if an artist who’s working at that level [Kidd Pivot’s Crystal Pite] is not getting the support that she needs to deliver.”
Lise Ann Johnson, acting director general of Arts Granting Programs at the Canada Council, acknowledged that reality when Stir interviewed her. “The financial precarity of being an artist has never been worse,” she said. “And it is heartbreaking because we know every time somebody doesn’t get a grant for a project that was planned, where they had investment, we understand what that means, not just for the applicant, but for the people they’re hiring.”
Stir is now celebrating its fifth year of covering Vancouver’s arts and culture scene as an independent online magazine. From the beginning, the team has been committed to providing a platform for in-depth coverage of the West Coast’s diverse arts scene.
Established in 1986 in honour of the late Scottish-Canadian journalist John Edgar Webster, the Websters are considered the highest accolade for journalists in B.C. Awards are given out for excellence in environmental reporting, legal journalism, video news reporting, and more.
The other two finalists for the Excellence in Arts & Culture Reporting Webster are “Inside the devotion of Taylor Swift’s superfans, descending on Vancouver” by Brieanna Charlebois, published by the Canadian Press; and “This music star lived quietly in B.C. for years. His songs live on in a popular video game” by Jon Azpiri, Jane Skrypnek, Hunter Soo, and David Horemans, published by CBC Vancouver.
See the full list of Webster Award 2025 finalists here.
This year’s Webster award winners will be announced on November 3 during a gala at the Hyatt Regency downtown. 
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