Deadline: 1-Feb-23
Applications are now being accepted for the ArtReach’s Grant Program to support community-based arts programming led by youth artists and youth-led groups/ collectives/ organizations that serve youth from equity-deserving populations in Toronto who face systemic barriers to accessing high-quality arts opportunities.
The grant funds are available each year thanks to their partnership with the Toronto Arts Council (TAC).
Funding Information
- Stream 1: Any applicant
- You can request up to $10,000 for your program
- Stream 2: If you have been funded by ArtReach before (as an individual artist, a group/ organization/ collective, or as a lead team member of a previously funded group/ organization/ collective)
- You can request up to $15,000 for your program
- Programs involving Deaf artists, artists with disabilities, and artists living with mental illness may apply for an additional grant of up to $5,000 to cover accessibility-related expenses.
What Art Forms Does ArtReach Support?
- ArtReach supports skill-building programs in emerging, popular, and traditional art forms . This includes but is not limited to hands-on art making in the following disciplines: music creation/ recording/ production, dance, drama/ theatre/ performing arts, creative writing, poetry, spoken word, carnival and circus, Indigenous arts, film, TV, radio, podcasting, culinary arts, photography, digital media, multimedia, visual arts, zine-making, street art, graphic design, textiles, storytelling, fashion design, aesthetics, floral design, etc.
- ArtReach also supports programs that provide artistic professional development (artrepreneurship) to youth participants. This includes the development of skills needed to succeed as an artist (EG. branding and marketing as an artist, arts administration, selling your art, exhibition planning, writing artist grants, portfolio development, legal considerations for artists such as copyright and IP, etc.). Artrepreneurship programs do not require hands-on art making as part of their programming.
The programs they fund must
- Be coordinated and delivered by individual artists 13-29 or groups/ organizations/ collectives where leadership positions and decision-making responsibilities are held by young people 13-29 from equity-deserving communities
- Be offered to youth participants aged 13-29 from equity-deserving communities who face systemic barriers to accessing high-quality arts opportunities
- Be a program and not a project
- Be delivered in Toronto, by a Toronto-based applicant, for participants in Toronto (this includes only the City of Toronto, Scarborough, North York, and Etobicoke, not the GTA)
- Be free for participants to participate in
- Be first and foremost focused on the arts and artistic skill-building. Other benefits/ focuses must be secondary to a focus on the arts
- Be registration-based and serve the same group of participants throughout its duration
They don’t fund
- Drop-in style programming
- Events, festivals, etc.
- Personal or collective projects
- Art therapy programs
- Programs whose primary activities are religious or political
Eligibility Criteria
- ArtReach’s funding mandate is to support programs being carried out by individual youth and youth-led groups/ organizations/ collectives. The applicant name and primary applicant on your application must be a youth or youth-led group/ organization/ collective, and cannot be an adult individual or an adult-led organization.
- They recognize that there are many models for youth-led programming. ArtReach will fund:
- Unincorporated groups/ organizations/ collectives, or incorporated non-profit organizations/ registered charities led by youth 13-29
- Individual young artists aged 13-29
- Youth groups that are housed within larger not-for-profit or charitable organizations
- Adult applicants providing arts training opportunities to youth facing severe barriers
- If you are an organization that is not youth-led but are seeking funding for a program that is led by youth 13-29, please have the youth leaders apply for a grant directly.
- Proposals from applicants that are not youth/ youth-led will only be considered where the barriers being faced by the participants are severe. In these cases, there must be a strong youth engagement model in place to allow for young people to still carry meaningful leadership roles in the program. In this case, applicants must receive approval from ArtReach’s Program Manager before applying. Failing to seek this approval before applying will result in your application being ineligible for review.
- Applicants who currently have a TAC Operating Grant are not eligible for ArtReach funding
- Applicants can receive a maximum of three ArtReach grants
For more information, visit ArtReach.