Individual Arts Grants: Professional Performing Artists (Canada)

Performing arts includes dance, music, theatre, multidisciplinary, or other performing arts practices such as circus arts and comedy.

The program supports artists and has two categories:

• Development and Creation supports the initial stages of the creative process including research, creation, and project development.
• Production and Realization supports latter stages of project development, production, remounts, post-production and presentation and those projects intended for presentation.

Funding Information

• Maximum request amount is $25,000.

Examples of Eligible Projects 

• BC Arts Council Individual Arts Grants provide one-time grants for specific projects or activities led by an individual.
• Examples of eligible activities include but are not limited to:
  • Artistic research, exploration, and experimentation
  • Composition of all genres of music, including those expressions primarily using digital technologies
  • Playwriting projects in workshop, preproduction, or production phases. Playwrights looking for funds to support initial drafts may be eligible through the BC Arts Council’s Individual Arts Grants for Creative Writers
  • Various methods of creation, either in-residence or independently
  • Workshops and other development activities supporting the creation of new work
  • Public presentations
  • Commissioning of new work
  • Remounting or reimagining of existing work
• Examples of activities that are not eligible for support in this program:
  • Amateur, pre-professional or student productions or projects
  • Recording projects that are intended for commercial distribution
  • Non-audition-based community choirs
  • Projects or activities that support organizational programming activities rather than your individual artistic practice. (If you are affiliated with an organization, be clear how this application is supporting your practice as separate from the activities of your organization.)
  • Projects or activities that do not involve or benefit artists or arts and culture practitioners and professionals
  • Projects that are focused on providing professional development or arts education

Designated Priority Groups 

• The BC Arts Council has committed to targeted investment in underserved and equity-deserving groups and the development of equity support initiatives, including a policy to support designated priority groups. These identified groups will be the focus of BC Arts Council strategic measures, through dedicated programs, funding prioritization processes, partnerships, and outreach.
• The BC Arts Council’s designated priority groups include applicants and arts and cultural practitioners who are:
  • Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, or Inuit) Peoples
  • Deaf or experience disability
  • Black or people of colour
  • Located in areas outside greater Vancouver or the capital region
• Applicants who would like to identify as part of a designated priority group must complete the Designated Priority Groups section in their online Personal Profile. All applicants are encouraged to also complete the Voluntary Self-Identification section, but it is not mandatory.

Eligibility Criteria

• To be eligible, you must:
  • Be a Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident of Canada who ordinarily resides in B.C. and has lived in the province for at least 12 months immediately prior to the application closing date.
  • Be recognized as professional by other practitioners working in a similar artistic practice.
  • Be committed to working full-time at your practice when financially possible.
  • Demonstrate professional status by submitting a CV or resume that includes the following:
    • Details about the appropriate and relevant training you have completed that has prepared you to work in your field of practice. Training may be through post-secondary institutions, traditional knowledge transfer, or apprenticeship with a qualified practitioner.
    • Have a minimum two years of being paid to do your work in your field following basic training.
    • Have a demonstrated body of previous work for which you have received payment aligned with industry standards.
• For Indigenous Artists: Received at least one grant to assist with the creation of work through the First People’s Cultural Council’s Individual Artists Program or Indigenous Arts Programs.
• You must also:
  • Have final creative control over the proposed work.
  • Fairly compensate artists, arts and cultural practitioners, technicians, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers. Compensation must align with project and community contexts and industry standards within the field of practice.
  • Follow international intellectual property rights standards and cultural ownership protocols.
  • Engage skilled artistic, curatorial, and administrative leadership (volunteer or paid) for project or service delivery.
  • Follow the Criminal Records Review Act which requires that people who work with or may have unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults must undergo a criminal record check by the Criminal Records Review Program.
  • Be applying for either the first or second time with a project; if you have applied twice unsuccessfully for the same project, the proposal must be substantively changed.
  • Have completed and submitted any overdue final reports on previous BC Arts Council grants by the submission deadline for this program.

Ineligible

• Grants are not available to support:
  • Operating expenses.
  • Project phases or activities that have begun prior to the application closing date.
  • Project deficits, budget deficits or contingency funds.
  • Capital expenses (construction, renovation, or purchase of property or equipment).
  • Feasibility studies, start-up costs, or seed money.
  • Projects or activities that are not based upon artistic or curatorial decision making, or where arts and culture is not the primary focus.
  • Activities that require payment from artists to participate; fundraising activities; competitions; conferences and conventions; family, religious, anniversary, or community celebrations.
  • Podcasts and radio programming that are not embedded within established artistic practice or specifically dedicated to the dissemination of artistic works.
  • Projects where art therapy, health or therapeutic work is the primary project focus or outcome.

For more information, visit BC Arts Council.