Toronto Arts Council provides grants to outstanding artists and arts organizations that contribute to the cultural life of the City of Toronto.
Video Cabaret, Scandal & Rebellion featuring Linda Prystawska, Jamie Cavanagh, Kevin Bundy and Kat Letwin. Photo by Michael Cooper (2017)
Supporting the city’s artists and arts organizations through an established and effective granting program has been Toronto Arts Council’s core business since 1974.
Through its support, TAC cultivates a richer engagement between artists and audiences and reflects the City of Toronto through the diversity of artists, arts communities and audiences that it serves. The City of Toronto provides the funding for TAC grant programs through its Community Partnership and Investment Program.
Discipline-based programs
Discipline-based programs provide assistance for ongoing operations or for specific projects.
- Project grant programs provide one-time funding for time-limited projects. Project funding is available to eligible arts organizations and collectives and to eligible individual artists.
- Operating grant programs provide support to non-profit arts organizations (incorporated and unincorporated) for their ongoing activities. The funding contributes to both the artistic and administrative costs associated with the organization’s operations. Operating programs are offered on an Annual cycle, where the assessment determines the grant allocation for the organization’s next fiscal year, and on a Multi-Year cycle, where the assessment determines the grant allocation for the organization’s next three fiscal years. The Multi-Year Operating cycle is only open to applications once every three years.
Discipline-based programs include:
Strategic Funding Programs
TAC has developed a number of new programs that were created in response to specific needs such as: access to arts space, network and community building through the arts, and leadership training.
The objectives of these programs are to encourage collaboration between artists and institutions, provide access to space for arts programming, offer opportunities for arts activities outside the downtown core, and to provide leadership opportunities for arts workers.
These new programs are a result of key partnerships that allow TAC to leverage arts funding with matching funds or in-kind resources. TAC’s partnership programs create new opportunities for artists and audiences at the local level, enhance assets that are already available within the community, and build on Toronto’s vibrant arts ecology.
Strategic Funding programs include:
With a few exceptions (TAC Leaders Lab, Newcomer & Refugee Artist Mentorship, and TAC-CS Digital Solutions Incubator), applicants can receive only one grant from the Strategic funding envelope per year. See the program guidelines for details.
Grants available to individuals
Grants available to organizations and collectives