UBCO’s Tania Willard, a local artist and Director of the UBC Okanagan Gallery, was presented with the 2025 Sobey Award Saturday in Ottawa. She is pictured here at a workshop creating hummingbird flags to honour and remember the children who never came home from residential schools across Canada.
UBC Okanagan’s Tania Willard has earned one of the highest honours for Canadian artists.
Willard, Director of the UBC Okanagan Gallery, was presented with the 2025 Sobey Art Award Saturday in Ottawa. The award is thought to be one of the most prestigious prizes for Canadian artists of all ages. Shortlisted earlier this year, Willard is part of a group show at the National Gallery of Canada and her work will remain part of the exhibit until February 2026.
“It is an incredible feeling to be acknowledged alongside all the long-and short-listed artists for this award,” says Willard. “I want to thank my community, all Secwepemc people and all Indigenous people for carrying our languages and knowledges despite so many challenges that continue today—our culture is our power. I also want to encourage all people to spend time with art. We need more of it in our lives, especially now in the face of austerity and injustice around the world.”
Willard, a mixed Secwépemc and settler artist, is a curator whose research traverses land-based art practices. An associate professor in the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies, her practice activates connection to land, culture and family, centring art as an Indigenous resurgent act, through collaborative projects such as BUSH Gallery and Secwépemc language revitalization efforts.
She earned her Master of Fine Arts at UBCO in 2018 and has led the Indigenous Art Intensive since then. In 2019, Willard was hired as Assistant Professor of Visual Arts and named Director of the UBC Okanagan Art Gallery.
“We are incredibly proud to have Willard as part of our community, as an alumna from our Master of Fine Arts program, a visual arts professor and as gallery director,” says Dr. Bryce Traister, Dean of the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies. “The Sobey Art Award is one of the highest honours an artist can receive in Canada. This recognition is a testament to her remarkable achievements and enduring impact in the arts.”
Founded in 2002, the award is funded by the Sobey Art Foundation and presented in partnership with the National Gallery of Canada. This year, $465,000 in prize money was handed out, with $100,000 presented to the winner. Shortlisted artists, whose work is also on display at the National Gallery of Canada until February, receive $25,000 each and longlisted artists receive $10,000.
“Willard’s dedication and creative excellence make this recognition not only well-deserved, but also highlight her extraordinary accomplishments and lasting contributions to the arts. It’s a fitting tribute to her inspiring career,” adds Dr. Traister.
In another recognition of her work, Willard was recently appointed director and curator of UBC Vancouver’s Morris and Helen Belkin Gallery, a role she begins in January. Alongside her directorship, she will also join the UBCV Department of Art History, Visual Art and Theory as an associate professor.
Willard continues to support her work in Syilx territory in various ways and says she is committed to promoting art in smaller communities and centres.
“Art is for everyone and it belongs everywhere,” she adds. “My research has been invested in Interior Salish art and culture as a Secwépemc person, and I see the possibilities art can create in rural reserves and smaller city centres like Kelowna. I believe we need to support that.”
