Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics
The Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery is delighted to announce that Erin Berry of Victoria, BC is the winner of the 2026 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. Berry will receive a $10,000 prize, which will support the development of her career at this critical time.
The only national award for emerging ceramic artists in Canada, the Winifred Shantz Award is a prestigious honour. Presented through an ongoing partnership with the Keith and Winifred Shantz Fund for the Arts held at Waterloo Region Community Foundation, winners and finalists of the award are recognized as the best and brightest of the future of Canadian ceramic art.
We are pleased to celebrate this year’s Shantz Award runner-up, Etty Anderson (Montréal, QC), who will receive a $5,000 prize. We also celebrate the achievement of the finalists for this year’s award: Mariana Bolaños Inclan (Toronto, ON), Undine Foulds (Halifax, NS), and Parvin Peivandi (Vancouver, BC). Each finalist will receive a prize of $1,000 to further their practice.
This summer, the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery will feature the winner and finalists in our annual Emergence exhibition alongside the winner and finalists of the RBC Award for Glass. The exhibition will provide a rare opportunity for these emerging makers to share their work with an extensive audience while helping to build their careers at a pivotal moment. An opening reception presenting the 2026 awards will be held on Thursday, May 28, 2026, from 6-8pm. All are welcome.
The 2026 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics was juried by Melanie Egan, Julie Hall, and Eekta Trienekens. On selecting Erin Berry as the 2026 winner, the jurors state:
“Erin’s commitment to an expansive, immersive practice and her exploration of materials, methods, scale, and exhibition installation all added up to an impressive application. Her strong reflections on the body, geological time, and a range of materials makes for thought-provoking storytelling. The jury was unanimously impressed with Erin’s ambitious practice and plans to deliver on her proposed work. Congratulations, Erin, we’re looking forward to seeing the work you make as the winner of the 2026 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics.”
Recognizing Etty Anderson as the 2026 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics Runner-up, the jurors state:
Etty’s practice embraces an impressive variety in their modes of making and invention, combining conceptual development with technical proficiency, resulting in lush tactile narratives, exquisite surfaces, and a true demonstration of their impressive skills. The jury saw Etty Anderson as a highly committed and evolving artist, presenting a very professional portfolio of ambitious and compelling work. Their quirky scenes of elevated humble objects, curated with great care and contemporary aesthetics, are memorable and inspiring.
Short List
Erin Berry is a Canadian artist working in ceramics, metal, and processed bio materials extruded, moulded, or translated through digital technologies. She received my BFA from Concordia University in Montreal and completed my MFA at the New York State College of Ceramics at Alfred University. Her work bridges traditional ceramic processes and digital fabrication, with a focus on modular construction, material ecology, and sculptural installation. Berry has participated in several international residencies, including the Guldagergaard International Ceramics Research Centre in Denmark, Harbourfront Centre in Toronto, and the Medalta Historic Clay District Residency in Medicine Hat.
Etty Anderson is a multidisciplinary queer and trans artist, whose main focus is ceramic arts. Etty’s work evokes the relationship between pop culture, art history, nostalgia and class and how queerness offers a particular perspective on these threads. Single pieces gather as a whole, weaving threads of queer histories and tactile sculpture into a tapestry of beauty and power that lies in the act of resistance and the celebration of queer identities. Etty has shown works in both North America and Europe, most recently in 2025 at The Hole Gallery in NYC and Paris for the Craft Biennale in 2023. In 2025, Etty completed a year-long Artist in Residence at Medalta, was a finalist for the Winifred Shantz Award, the Prix Francois Houdé and the Salt Spring National Art Prize. Etty is a non binary trans, white Canadian settler. They live and work in Tiohtià:ke Quebec.
Mariana Bolaños is a Mexican ceramic sculptor based in Toronto. She has exhibited her work in Canada, Mexico, and the United States. Focusing on art with a social purpose, she works as a facilitator in community programs around Toronto and the GTA. Mariana studied visual arts in Mexico and obtained a Diploma in Fine Arts from Centennial College when she moved to Canada. She graduated from the Ceramics program at Sheridan College in 2023 and is currently an artist-in-residence at Harbourfront Centre in Toronto.
Undine Foulds is an interdisciplinary artist, facilitator, and curator based in Kjipuktuk/Halifax. She received an Intermedia BFA from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design in 2021. Her practice moves fluidly across rural and urban contexts, curatorial and independent projects, and functional and sculptural ceramic forms. Drawing on extensive experience coordinating wilderness camps, public arts programming, and political community organizing, Foulds brings a strong foundation in collaboration and group facilitation to her work, alongside a high level of craftsmanship and material knowledge. Foulds holds citizenship with the Métis Nation of British Columbia, the Republic of Ireland, and Canada. She works within a shared studio collective of twelve artists, lives in a cooperative household with fellow professional artists, and regularly collaborates with artist-run and artist-led initiatives. Connectivity, mutual support, and collective infrastructure are foundational to both her artistic practice and her approach to living and working as an emerging artist.
Parvin Peivandi is an Iranian/Canadian artist living and working in Vancouver, Canada. She holds an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2019), the University of British Columbia and a BFA from Emily Carr University of Art and Design. She has shown her works internationally and won awards such as Illinois emerging artist award and NCECA 2021 multicultural award. Peivandi has shown her art in local and international exhibitions including Sullivan gallery in Chicago, Expo Chicago, Ridley Gallery in Sacramento and Polygon Gallery in Vancouver. In 2024, her ceramic arts was acquired for the permanent collection of the Gordon Smith Gallery of Canadian Arts.
Jurors
Melanie Egan has been involved with contemporary craft and design for over 40 years. She was Director of Craft & Design at Harbourfront Centre (1989-2025); is a curator, senior cultural administrator, produces programs, lectures, mentors, and writes.
Curated exhibitions include Elaborate – Contemporary Ceramics (2024); Pullulate: Jess Riva Cooper (2024); Thirty-Six Brooches (2024), Animal Vegetable Mineral: International Jewellery and AVM c.1700s: Mary Anne Barkhouse (2022); The Mind is the Hand is the Bomb that Blows: Anders Ruhwald (2018); Aberrant Tales: Lindsay Montgomery (2016).
She partnered with Craft Ontario on three major symposiums, Space & Place (2024) with Sheridan College; Shifting Ground (2022) and Material Sampling (2020); worked with DesignTO exhibitions at Harbourfront; was Harbourfront’s Project Lead for Indigenous Fashion Arts Festival (2018, 2020, 2022) and was on the IFA curatorial team (2018, 2020, 2022, 2024).
Julie Hall is a visual artist working in soft sculpture, video, writing, and performance, alongside their job as the Executive Director of CAFKA, where they’ve found an administrative outlet for arts advocacy and community building through the arts.
Julie makes art with their partner, Jacob Irish; their over decade-long co-creative practice produces large-scale and interactive installations, with public showings in Ontario, Quebec, and Nova Scotia. Julie’s career began in Chemical Engineering and Food Science before shifting to visual and culinary arts. Julie loves cooking, cycling, and talking; raised outside of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and is currently based in Kitchener, Ontario.
Eekta Trienekens works from her studio in Kitchener, ON. She grew up in the Netherlands, spent significant time in India, and came to Canada more than a decade ago. The contrasts between these worlds are of strong influence on her work, oscillating between a sense of belonging and otherness. She has degrees in Arts Education (Utrecht) and South Asian Studies (Leiden). She loves working with a variety of materials, but since 2016, ceramics has been her main artistic practice.
About the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics
The Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics is presented annually by the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery and is supported by the Keith and Winifred Shantz Fund for the Arts, held at Waterloo Region Community Foundation. With $18,000 in prizes presented each year, this prestigious award allows practising early-career ceramic artists to undertake a period of independent research or other activities that advance their artistic and professional practice. The winner of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics receives $10,000 and one of their artworks is acquired for the Gallery’s Permanent Collection. One runner-up will receive a prize of $5,000. Up to 3 finalists will also be selected, each receiving a $1,000 prize. Each summer, the winners and finalists of the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics and RBC Award for Glass will have their work presented in an awards exhibition held at the Gallery.
Past recipients of the award truly represent the best of the emerging ceramic artists in Canada. Sami Tsang of Toronto, Ontario was the winner of the 2025 Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics. Click here to learn more about the winners of the award in past years.
About Winifred Shantz
The late Winifred Shantz was a driving force for the arts in Waterloo Region for more than 40 years. Her philanthropy, dedication, and passion for the arts is what allows many local cultural institutions to thrive – including the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery – through a legacy of support. A successful ceramist, entrepreneur, and ardent supporter of the arts, Winifred, along with her husband Keith Shantz, were integral in the founding of the Canadian Clay & Glass Gallery and have enabled the Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics to continue in perpetuity.
About Waterloo Region Community Foundation
Waterloo Region Community Foundation (WRCF) collaborates with partners to create sustainable, equitable and thriving communities. We connect regionally and locally, working with three cities and four townships – to include the people and places across our region. Together, we develop forward-thinking innovative solutions and seize opportunities to meet current and future needs of our community. We make philanthropy easy for individuals and companies to support organizations and issues they care about. WRCF is focused on Granting, Impact Investing and Convening to make measurable and sustainable impacts. Gifts are directed to WRCF’s endowed funds that drive positive change through grants with the income generated being distributed in partnership with Fundholders to support a wide range of charitable causes within our community. A portion of the endowed funds are also used for impact investments that deliver both financial returns as well as positive social or environmental outcomes. As a leading community-building organization we also work to amplify voices and issues of importance by convening conversations and sharing information, while approaching our work with an equity mindset. www.wrcf.ca
Past Winifred Shantz Award for Ceramics Brochures
Contact:
For additional information, contact Peter Flannery, Senior Curator & Collections Manager: 519.746.1882 x235 or peter@theclayandglass.ca.