Jess Dobkin

Jess Dobkin is one of the most important queer performance creators in Canada and the international art world—a reputation supported through numerous awards and other recognitions she has received during her 25+ years of celebrated art practice. She is also an exceptional community organizer, curator, and researcher. Dobkin has made a huge impact on queer arts and theatre communities in Canada over the last two decades. It is not only her many theatrical and artistic accomplishments that make her an ideal candidate for the Honorary Associateship, but also her formidable ability to create meaningful international networks of activists and artists.

Given her enormous and wide-ranging impact, Dobkin’s performances are routinely the focus of scholarly research presented at CATR and published in major journals and books on Canadian theatre and performance. Her work regularly appears in histories of queer and feminist performance art internationally, presented in theatre, performance, and gender and sexuality studies books taking up her work. The sheer number of Dobkin’s performances, along with the many performance forms she has explored (theatre, cabaret, puppetry, musical theatre, relational art, body art, staged photography, site-specific actions, magic shows, etc.) is staggering. A full list of her performances can be found on her website at https://www.jessdobkin.com/work/.

Dobkin’s daring, intellectually sophisticated, and playful performances often centre LGBTQ2S+ artists and perspectives, and they are strongly connected to her extensive activist work, from serving as community organizer for major Toronto Pride events to mentoring emerging queer and racialized artists. This award honours Dobkin's passionate commitment to equity, creative inquiry, and transnational community building, along with her fiercely collaborative spirit, which have transformed the lives of so many within the theatre and performance community.