Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts
The Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, recognizes the highest level of artistic excellence and distinguished career in the performing arts. It is awarded annually to a Canadian artist who is actively performing or who has spent the major part of his/her career in Canada in dance, theatre or music - in creation or interpretation. The prize is awarded on a four-year cycle – in dance, theatre, dance, music - and is in the amount of $30,000.
Walter Carsen, a noted philanthropist, established the endowment fund for the prize in February 2001 with a generous donation of $1.1 million to the Canada Council for the Arts. The Canada Council administers and promotes the prize. The inaugural Walter Carsen Prize for Excellence in the Performing Arts, in dance, was awarded in 2001.
The next award is in 2006 in Dance.