John Fleming Award in Decorative Arts Writing

The John Fleming Award honours his lasting contribution to Canadian decorative arts scholarship and writing.

This $1,000 annual juried award recognizes an exceptional example of magazine writing on decorative arts in Canada. Decorative arts are creative works, often of a practical or useful nature, produced by a designer, craftsperson, artist, or amateur, which have aesthetic, cultural, or historical value. 

The Canadian Society of Decorative Arts/Cercle canadien des arts décoratifs (CSDA/CCAD) publishes the article in Ornamentum magazine and on ornamentum.ca. Ornamentum critically addresses the aesthetics, meanings, traditions, and innovations of Canadian material culture in the areas of decorative arts and design for a general audience.

Past winners and their submissions can be viewed below.

About John A. Fleming

John A. Fleming, Professor Emeritus of the French, Museum Studies, and Comparative Literature departments at the University of Toronto, passed away in April 2022. He studied at McMaster (BA), University of Toronto (MA), and Harvard University (PhD). John’s academic research and publications have earned multiple awards, and his influence in the field of decorative arts in Canada is substantial. His books include Ukrainian Pioneer Furniture, with Michael Rowan and Halya Kluchko (1992); Les meubles peints du Canada français 1700-1840 (1994); Folk Furniture of Canada’s Doukhobors, Hutterites, Mennonites and Ukrainians, with Michael Rowan (2004); and Canadian Folk Art to 1950, with Michael Rowan and James A. Chambers (2012). John also played an important role in the Canadian Society of Decorative Arts: he was the editor and publisher of Ornamentum magazine from its inauguration in 2006 to 2018 and a CSDA director from 1990 until his retirement in 2019.