Back to All Grants Visual Artists program: Creation Grants for individuals to support the creation and production of new work or works-in-progress for a variety of visual arts mediums. Application Deadline Rolling Deadline Grant Category Discipline Apply Guidelines Reach out to a Grant Manager Peter Kingstone Program Manager, Visual & Media Arts 416-392-6802 x 208 peter@torontoartscouncil.org WHAT DOES THIS PROGRAM SUPPORT? Toronto Arts Council’s Visual Artists Program: Creation provides support to visual artists who have a professional independent art practice for the creation/production of new work or the completion of works in progress. Funds are intended to cover direct costs of creation/production, and materials. Visual Arts includes drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, mixed media, printmaking, performance art, installation and fine crafts and more. The Visual Artists Program does not include film or video makers: they apply to the Media Artists Program. Grants for this program are $10,000. THIS PROGRAM DOES NOT FUND: Projects that have been completed prior to the announcement of results. Toronto Arts Council does not fund retroactively. Project funding solely for the purpose of travel or exhibition of work, including the cost of framing. Capital purchases, such as tools, equipment, etc. Commissioned, instructional or promotional projects. WHO CAN APPLY? To be eligible for this funding, an applicant must:1 A professional artist is someone who has specialized training in the field (not necessarily inacademic institutions), who is recognized as such by their peers (artists working in the same artistictradition), who has a history of public presentation, publication and/or production and who iscommitted to devoting more time to their artistic activity if financially feasible. Applicants must be Canadian Citizens or Permanent Residents or have an application pending for Permanent Resident status or be a Protected Person (approved refugee claimant) and, if requested, be able to provide documentation to verify this. Applicants must be residents of the City of Toronto for at least one year prior to the application deadline. Temporary absences of up to 12 months may be considered, subject to written explanation and special permission; please contact the Program Manager. Neither a Post Office Box address nor a studio address can be used to meet the residency requirement. Undergraduate students cannot apply. Applicants must have spent a minimum of one year working on and developing an independent art practice after completing full-time studies. Professional artists pursuing graduate studies may not apply for work related to their program of study. A letter from the graduate program director specifying that the project is not related to the graduate student’s program of studies must be submitted with the application. Applicants must retain full copyright, financial and creative control. Applicants to TAC’s 2025 Visual Artists Program may not apply to TAC’s 2025 Media Artists Program. Individual artists may only receive one discipline-stream project grant and one strategic initiative grant per calendar year and can only have one open application in each stream at a time. Please note: if you apply for a Visual Artists grant you cannot also apply to another TAC program for the same project. Collaborative proposals (involving a co-applicant) are eligible. For these proposals, one of the applicants must identify a principal applicant. Co-applicants are subject to the same eligibility criteria as single, individual applicant. If the application is successful, the grant payment will be payable to the principal applicant, as listed in the application. Similarly, a T4A slip will be issued to the principal applicant. Additional Information How do I apply? You may submit an online application anytime, and may submit only one application to this program during the year via TAC Grants Online. You will be notified with the application results approximately 4 months after the submission date. The first result notifications will be made by March. Applications must be submitted through our online application system, TAC Grants Online. TAC does not accept applications by any other means of delivery. Submitting an application through TAC Grants Online requires you to first register in the system, which enables you to log in and out as many times as needed before submitting. Online applications may be submitted anytime, and you may submit only one application to this program during the year. You will receive a confirmation email when your application is submitted. When the application results are 3 available, approximately 4 months after the submission date, we will send you an email and you will be able to log in to TAC Grants Online to receive the results. Check your spam/junk mail folder if it doesn’t arrive in your in-box. After 11:59 pm on October 1, 2025, your 2025 application can still be accessed in your Application History page in TAC Grants Online. To work on a new application after October 1, 2025, you can start a new draft from the Apply page after the program re-opens October 15 for the following granting year. 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). Application Accessibility Support Applicants who are Deaf or have a disability and need support to complete their grant applications can apply for funds to cover the costs of assistance from Application Support Service Providers. Up to $500 is available per eligible applicant in each calendar year. Please contact your Grant Program Manager at least six weeks before the grant program deadline to determine eligibility, request application support funding, and to review the process for payment to be made to your Service Provider. Requests for application support require approval from the Grant Program Manager. Additional information here. Can I apply to other TAC grants? Toronto Arts Council has two Grant Categories:1. Discipline (e.g.: discipline-specific project grants and operating grants in Theatre, Dance, Music, etc.)2. Strategic (e.g.: Animating Toronto Parks, Artists in the Library, Animating Historic Sites, Artreach, Open Door, etc.) Visual Artists Program: Creation is a Discipline program. Applicants may receive a maximum of one Discipline grant per calendar year. Applicants may not apply for more than one Discipline grant at a time. However, we offer other types of granting opportunities through our Strategic Category, and you may be eligible to apply to one of these programs. Please note: if you apply for a Visual Artists Program: Creation grant you cannot also apply to another TAC program for the same project. For more detail on our granting categories, go to our About Our Grants page. about our grants What is a rolling deadline? We created rolling deadlines to offer flexibility to grant applicants. A rolling deadline means that applications are accepted on an ongoing basis with notification of results released approximately 3 to 4 months after the submission date. Program Guidelines include a specific date when applications for that year must be submitted. To work on a new application after the date specified in the Program Guidelines, you can start a new draft from the Apply page after the program re-opens for the following granting year. 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.