Deadline: 8-Mar-23
The City of Vancouver is seeking applications for the Cultural Grants Program that aims to celebrate, elevate, and support the range of creative people, projects, and organizations who contribute to Vancouver’s diverse creative stories.
These investments will:
- Celebrate and reflect the diversity of the unique creative people who live here
- Uphold, recognize, and support Musqueam, Squamish, Tsleil-Waututh, and Urban Indigenous artists and cultural workers, grounded in inherent and constitutionally protected Indigenous Rights
- Elevate racialized artists and cultural workers, and support work to dismantle racism in the arts and culture sector
- Provide accessible opportunities for diverse public participation in arts and cultural activities
- Build reciprocal and meaningful relations
- Be embedded in community (informed by and led by)
- Centre the artists and people whose stories are being told
- Compensate artists and creative people involved
- Draw from the depth of local knowledge
- Build leadership, knowledge, and resources for artists and cultural leaders across the sector.
Program Goals
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This program aims to leverage the collective community efforts of Vancouver’s arts and culture sector to:
- Centre the voices of underrepresented, marginalized, and racialized artists, cultural practitioners, and organizations to research, develop, create and present their work.
- Provide meaningful opportunities where artists and cultural workers have the freedom, agency, and safe spaces to share their stories.
- Support co-creative projects between communities and artists or cultural workers that build and strengthen connections across and between diverse communities.
- Expand public access to culturally relevant and diverse work, programs and services to broaden understanding of Vancouver’s cultural history and creative stories.
- Amplify cultural life throughout Vancouver neighbourhoods, communities and public spaces.
- Create a more equitable, collaborative, vibrant and sustainable arts and culture sector.
Funding Information
- Grant amounts range from $2,500 – $20,000.
Eligible Projects & Activities
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CASC grants support projects:
- In any artistic discipline (e.g., Indigenous arts and culture, community-engaged arts, dance, literary, media, music, theatre, visual arts, multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, cultural heritage)
- In any phase of a project, from research and development through to presentation
- In all forms (e.g., exhibitions, performances, publications, presentations, video, film, media, radio, audio recordings, virtual, online-based creative initiatives, or communityengaged art or cultural projects led by professional artists, cultural workers, Elders, knowledge-keepers).
Eligible Expenses
- Honoraria for Host Nation welcomes, land acknowledgements and consultation with Elders, knowledge-keepers
- Accessibility fees and costs to facilitate artist, project contributor, participant, audience access and inclusion
- Artist fees
- Technician fees
- Programming and production expenses including venue and equipment rental, materials, supplies, ceremony requirements, childcare and hospitality costs (excluding alcohol), permits
- Technical equipment and space rental
- Communications, outreach, promotion costs and fees
- Cultural worker, administrative and professional fees
- Organizations that are sponsoring an individual artist, collective, or other non-registered group and meet the mandate criteria noted may include an administration fee of $500 in addition to the grant request amount. The cash matching requirement only applies to the base grant request amount.
Eligibility Criteria
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To apply to this program, the applicant must:
- Be a non-profit society, a community service co-op legally registered and in good standing with BC Registries and Services, a First Nations Band Council on whose unceded traditional homelands Vancouver sits, or a registered charity with the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA).
- Note: Groups and individuals from equity-deserving communities that are not incorporated as registered non-profits, co-ops, or charities may submit an application via a sponsor organization that is a registered non-profit society, co-op, charity or First Nations Band council. The sponsor organization must have a mandate to serve the same equity-deserving community(ies) as the group or individual.
- First-time applicants must provide documentation of non-profit, registered or charitable status, e.g., Certificate of Incorporation
- Note: Organizations that are currently receiving City of Vancouver Cultural Operating funding (COFA, COFI, Cultural Equity or Cultural Indigenous Grants) are not eligible to apply unless they are a sponsor organization of an individual artist or non-registered collective and fulfill the mandate criteria noted. The project must be outside of the activities supported through the sponsor organization’s core operating grant.
- Have an active presence in and deliver programs and services within Vancouver, or if led by either the xʷməθkʷəy̓ əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish) and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples, held in their traditional homelands.
- Be working with artists and creative collaborators and have leadership with the relevant lived experience, permission, knowledge, skills, and expertise to lead and contribute to the work.
- Aim to compensate artists, cultural practitioners, and project contributors at standard industry rates.
- Provide respectful and safe working conditions for artists, staff, volunteers and contractors.
- Have accessibility and inclusion policies and practices in place.
- Have a mix of revenue sources (earned, private and public) for the project.
- Provide financial statements signed by the Board for the most recently completed fiscal year, including a Balance Sheet and Income/Expense Statement.
- Have a Governance model that is supportive of the mission, a healthy and inclusive work place, and the staff and people served.
- Comply with all applicable laws, governing acts, regulations, bylaws and guidelines, including obtaining any necessary licenses, permits or approvals required for the project.
- Have completed all previous projects funded through Cultural Services OR Can provide an interim report if the previous project is not complete by the application deadline. If funding for a new project is approved, release of funds will be conditional upon receipt of an interim report.
For more information, visit Cultural Grants Program.