TAC Leaders Lab is a facilitated program for arts professionals to enhance leadership capacity in Toronto’s arts and culture sectors.
TAC Leaders Lab Fellows at Artscape Gibraltar Point. Photo by Gilad Cohen (2017)
- We are not accepting applications in 2025. Please check back in 2026.
For questions about this program, contact Peter Kingstone, Program Manager
WHAT TO EXPECT
Through a process led by facilitators from across disciplines and sectors, participants in the TAC Leaders Lab will enhance the skills, tools, networks and knowledge that will support personal leadership growth and new collaborative opportunities.
Participants of the program can expect to:
- Engage in an intensive leadership process at the retreat aimed at reframing personal perspectives and challenges;
- Examine the multiple contexts of the Toronto arts ecology;
- Identify key challenges in leadership development, and the necessary steps to create positive action;
- Exchange information and ideas related to personal leadership, change strategies, creative place-making, equity, community engagement, collaboration and best practices in arts leadership;
- Build an active network of Toronto peers working in different disciplines;
- Share opportunities for participation in the activities of Leaders Lab participants;
- Participate in ongoing evaluation of the program including surveys and interviews;
- Engage with innovative leaders from the arts and other sectors about change-making initiatives;
- Make a year-long commitment to the program that will include events in Toronto focused on skills and connections, and online engagement with fellow participants;
- Challenge assumptions.
COSTS
All program costs will be covered by TAC and include the following:
- Transportation, meals and lodging at the retreat.
- A stipend oto cover business and personal costs during the program.
Projects involving Deaf artists and artists with disabilities may apply for a TAC Accessibility Grant by completing the Accessibility Expenses section of the application. A TAC Accessibility grant will provide up to a maximum of $5,000 towards accessibility costs incurred during the program. Accessibility costs include but are not limited to: ASL interpretation, audio description, closed captioning, communications assistants, and attendant care.
ELIGIBILITY
This program is open to professional arts workers living and working in Toronto. TAC recognizes the diversity of artistic, administrative, generational and cultural leadership styles and backgrounds that make up the Toronto arts sector and will factor that into its selection process.
Each applicant must:
- Be a permanent resident of Toronto;
- Be a professional arts worker1;
- Have demonstrated leadership qualities in the arts and culture sphere;
- Have demonstrated experience with community engagement;
- Not be an employee of the City of Toronto.
1 TAC recognizes that due to systemic barriers within the broader arts community (e.g. limited mainstream presentation opportunities for artists from equity-seeking communities) that some flexibility may be required in interpreting eligibility criteria to take into account equivalent professional experience and contexts. Potential applicants from equity-seeking communities are encouraged to discuss their eligibility with the program manager in advance of submitting an application.
TAC has two distinct funding envelopes: 1) Arts Discipline funding (e.g. discipline-specific project grants and operating grants) and 2) Strategic funding (e.g. Animating Historic Sites, Animating Toronto Parks, Artists in the Library, etc.). Eligibility exception: you are able to receive a grant from this program in addition to one other grant from the Arts Discipline envelope and one other grant from the Strategic funding envelope per calendar year. Applicants are not eligible if they have an outstanding final report in any other program within the Strategic funding envelope (e.g. Animating Historic Sites, Animating Toronto Parks, Artists in the Library, etc.).
TAC ACCESSIBILITY GRANT
Projects involving Deaf artists and artists with disabilities may apply for an additional TAC grant by completing the Accessibility Expenses section of the application and including the requisite information in their budget. A TAC Accessibility grant will provide up to a maximum of $5,000 towards accessibility costs for artists incurred during the project. Accessibility costs include but are not limited to: ASL interpretation, audio description, closed captioning, communications assistants, attendant care (including helpers for Elders), support workers and equipment rentals or other supports required to meet artists' accessibility needs).
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Learn more about the TAC Leaders Lab Fellows