Dozens of photographers, curators and other artists announced on Monday that they will boycott the Scotiabank Photography Award to protest the bank’s continued investment in Elbit Systems, Israel’s largest arms manufacturer.
The campaign was launched by No Arms in the Arts (NAITA), an artist-led coalition of organizers advocating for an end to arts funding in Canada that is tied to genocide and displacement in Palestine.
The boycotting artists are refusing to take part as award nominees, nominators or jurors, until Scotiabank divests its stake from Elbit Systems, according to a press release by NAITA. Among the 70 current signatories are past finalists, nominees and nominators of the award.
John O’Brian is an esteemed art historian and curator known for his work on postwar nuclear photography. Quoted in NAITA’s press release, O’Brian asked: “Why would you want an investor in death-dealing drones to have its name on a prize for photography?”
Palestinian photographer Rehab Nazzal also joined the boycott, stating that “(a)n award funded by a bank that finances genocide betrays not only the arts, but humanity itself. In these dark times, the world needs courage and conscience, not silence and complicity. Amidst the ongoing atrocities, including ethnic cleansing, colonization, and livestreamed settler state violence, boycotting Scotia Photography Award is the minimum moral responsibility by every photographer.”
Touted by Scotiabank as “Canada’s largest and most prestigious annual peer-nominated and peer-reviewed award” for contemporary art and photography, the winner of the annual prize receives a $50,000 cash prize and a book of their work published and distributed worldwide.
The award was co-founded in 2010 by Scotiabank and Edward Burtynsky, a renowned Canadian photo artist known for his large format photographs of industrial landscapes. Burtynsky is currently the Chair of the Scotiabank Photography Award jury.
A spokesperson for the Scotiabank Photography Award did not immediately reply to The Grind’s request for comment.
Over the past two years, artists have targeted Scotiabank’s involvement in funding Canadian arts organizations in protest of its investments in Elbit Systems, which produces the vast majority of Israel’s military drones and land-based equipment.
Before the start of the war in Gaza, Scotiabank’s subsidiary, 1832 Asset Management, was the third-largest shareholder in Elbit Systems. Over the past two years, the subsidiary substantially divested from the weapons company, but increased its investment again in 2025.
Earlier this year, the Giller Prize announced the end of its sponsorship with Scotiabank. Hot Docs International Film Festival also dropped the bank from its name, and confirmed it would be cutting ties with the sponsor after its 2025 festival.
But NAITA organizers are not lifting their foot off the gas.
“While their current number of shares is still substantially lower than it was previously, this boycott is a renewed call to not allow Scotiabank to use the arts as a way of whitewashing these bloody investments,” a statement from NAITA reads.
“We wanted to raise awareness and create a boycott ahead of the nominations for the 2026 award,” Sukaina Kubba, a NAITA organizer tells The Grind, noting the group has protested events and created “soft pickets” at ceremonies associated with the award in the past. “We believe that collective action through a boycott will compel artists and other interested parties to act.”
