2023-24 Arts Abroad Funding Results

Overview

• The Canada Council for the Arts has heard requests from various stakeholders within and beyond the arts community for more transparency about the results of our granting competitions, including a detailed breakdown of the results.
• In response, the Council is publishing the 2023-24 competition results for Circulation and Touring component of its Arts Abroad program. As this is the first time we are releasing competition results in this concerted way for this component, we look forward to your feedback. Your response will inform how the Council publishes the results of future competitions as they are completed.
• The results include summary results on number of applications, requested amounts and awarded amounts, and more detailed information about grant recipients and success rates by type of applicant, designated priority group, province and territory, and field of practice, and statistics on peer assessment committees.

Circulation and Touring component (2023-24)

About the Arts Abroad Program

The Arts Abroad program of the Canada Council for the Arts celebrates the creativity, innovation and excellence of Canadian artists by helping to bring Canadian works to the world. The program supports artists, arts professionals, groups and organizations to enhance international exposure, undertake artistic exploration or exchanges with international colleagues, and nurture new and existing art markets in a global context.

The Circulation and Touring component funds activities linked to artistic exchange and networking for Canadian artists, artistic groups and arts organizations. Grants help build international exposure and increase the visibility of Canadian artists and their works abroad.

Funding Results | Overview

2023-24 highlights for the Circulation and Touring funding component of the Arts Abroad program.

• 651 applications assessed by 35 peers
• 234 successful applications resulting in a 35.9% application success rate
• 15 successful applicants or 6.4% of all recipients received their first grant from Council
• $7.7M awarded in this component

Each of the 651 distinct project grant applications assessed in 2023-24 by peers was evaluated in a comparative group context where highly ranking evaluated applications received, in most cases the full amount of the eligible funds requested. Therefore, almost all the 234 successful grant applications were awarded the total eligible amount requested.

Table 1: Application and Funding Statistics By Applicant Type

Applicant Type	Number of Applications Assessed	Number of Successful Applications	Application Success Rate	Total Requested	Total Awarded
Individual	318	100	31.4%	$7,950,150	$2,175,365
Group	168	57	33.9%	$4,680,042	$1,466,589
Organization	165	77	46.7%	$9,049,362	$4,034,050
Total	651	234	35.9%	$21,679,554	$7,676,004

Funding Results | By Designated Priority Groups

In alignment with the Council’s 2021-26 Strategic Plan, Art, now more than ever, we are committed to improving access to our funding to youth, official language minority communities, and historically underserved and marginalized communities including Indigenous, Black, racialized, Deaf and disability, and 2SLGBTQI+ and gender-diverse communities, women, and artists at intersections of these groups.

Since 2017, the Council has used the term “designated priority group” to refer to communities for which it has implemented measures to address the historical and ongoing barriers they face in society, improve their access to our funding, and/or respond to legislative obligations. The Council supports Indigenous, racialized (formerly referred to as culturally diverse), Deaf and disability, and official language minority communities through targeted funding and initiatives. As the Council monitors and reports on funding to these groups, we can provide a breakdown of the competition results by designated priority groups.

We recognize that there are other communities facing racism and other forms of discrimination that are not identified in our Strategic Plan, which does not invalidate their lived experience.

Read more about the Council's funding mechanisms including dedicated funds and strategic investment provisions in the Equity Policy.

Table 2: Application and Funding Statistics by Designated Priority Group

Designated Priority Group	Number of Applications Assessed	Number of Successful Applications	Application Success Rate	Total Requested	Total Awarded
Indigenous	x	x	x	x	x
Racialized	141	73	51.8%	$5,132,045	$1,945,700
Deaf and/or Disability	21	x	x	$645,282	x
Anglophone Official Language Communities	61	29	47.5%	$1,788,956	$718,920
Francophone Official Language Communities	x	x	x	x	x

Information on designated priority groups was obtained through the self-identification form, profile and/or Strategic Groups section of the portal. Applicants may belong to one or more of these designated priority groups.

Data with the following symbol x was suppressed to meet the confidentiality requirements.

Funding Results | By Region

The Council is aware of disparities in our funding between certain provinces and territories. This is why we are committed to working with the arts community and other funders in those regions to address the imbalances and to better serve the arts ecosystem across Canada.

Table 3: Application and Funding Statistics by Region

Region	Number of Applications Assessed	Number of Successful Applications	Application Success Rate	Total Requested	Total Awarded
Newfoundland and Labrador	x	5	x	x	$73,950
Prince Edward Island	x	3	x	x	$53,500
Nova Scotia	x	1	x	x	$1,920
New Brunswick	x	4	x	x	$86,800
Québec	293	113	38.6%	$9,097,514	$3,600,224
Ontario	190	63	33.2%	$7,541,692	$2,455,620
Manitoba	21	5	23.8%	$491,573	$138,100
Saskatchewan	x	-	x	x	$ -
Alberta	22	7	31.8%	$647,654	$225,650
British Columbia	77	29	37.7%	$2,276,289	$807,240
Yukon Territory	x	1	x	x	$50,000
Northwest Territories	x	-	x	x	$ -
Nunavut Territory	x	-	x	x	$ -
Total - Canada	634	231	36.4%	$20,708,477	$7,493,004
Outside Canada	17	3	17.6%	$971,077	$183,000
Total - including Outside Canada	651	234	35.9%	$21,679,554	$7,676,004

The region “Outside Canada” refers to any geographic region other than within Canada’s ten provinces and three territories, where an eligible applicant might be based or residing at the time of undertaking their artistic project. The published program guidelines describe no specific restrictions as to where eligible grant recipients can make their artistic or literary works, nor where collaborators or partners they work with must be based geographically, or where their final works are required to be produced, presented, and/or distributed.

Data with the following symbol x was suppressed to meet the confidentiality requirements.

Funding Results | Field of practice

The Council’s granting programs are outcomes-based. The Circulation and Touring component of Arts Abroad funds activities linked to artistic exchange and networking for Canadian artists, artistic groups and arts organizations. Grants help build international exposure and increase the visibility of Canadian artists and their works abroad. International presenters, partners or host organizations must pay performance or exhibition fees to the presented artists, groups or organizations.

Consequently, we expect that projects from all fields of practice support the meeting of these outcomes. This said, we are sharing the results by field of practice recognizing stakeholders’ interest in this type of data.

Results are reported based on the field of practice associated with an applicant’s profile, which was selected at the time of creating their Council profile and, therefore, in certain cases may not be indicative of the field of practice of the specific project funded in this competition. For example, a project related to music and sound funded in this competition could be captured under the visual arts or dance profile/field of practice.

Table 4: Application and Funding Statistics by Field of Practice

Field of Practice	Number of Applications Assessed	Number of Successful Applications	Application Success Rate	Total Requested	Total Awarded
Circus Arts	26	15	57.7%	$1,436,103	$922,500
Dance	60	22	36.7%	$3,093,851	$1,040,000
Deaf and Disability Arts	x	1	x	x	$55,000
Digital Arts	x	2	x	x	$10,355
Indigenous Arts	x	3	x	x	$161,100
Inter-Arts	x	-	x	x	$ -
Literature	11	3	27.3%	$497,547	$34,820
Media Arts	14	5	35.7%	$481,647	$102,000
Multidisciplinary Activities	x	3	x	x	$75,100
Music and Sound	435	136	31.3%	$11,502,806	$3,415,209
Theatre	68	32	47.1%	$2,501,639	$1,277,020
Visual Arts	24	12	50.0%	$1,607,966	$583,000
Total	651	234	35.9%	$21,679,554	$7,676,004

Data with the following symbol x was suppressed to meet the confidentiality requirements.

Funding Results | Peer Assessment Committees 

Peer assessment committees are at the heart of the Council’s granting decision-making processes. The Council engages peer assessors to provide relevant knowledge and expertise. Peer assessors may be artists, arts workers, Knowledge Keepers, Elders, academics and individuals who bring a range of types of experience to the assessment process. Peer assessment committees represent different artistic and cultural practices and perspectives, career levels, demographics and regional awareness. Further, peer assessors generally reflect Canada’s population by representing Indigenous and racialized communities, the Deaf and disability communities and official language minority communities.

The Council is committed to improving the peer assessment process by undertaking regular reviews, including surveys with our peers.

Read more about the decision-making process.

Peer Assessment Statistics

Number of Peer Assessors: 35

Peer Assessment Statistics | Assessors by Designated Priority Group

Designated Priority group information is gathered from the voluntary self-identification form, participant profiles, and/or the Strategic Groups section of the portal. Unfortunately, Council is unable to publish this information for the assessors of this component because of confidentiality requirements.

Table 5: Peer Assessment Statistics | Assessors by Region

Region	Number of Distinct Assessors
Newfoundland and Labrador	2
New Brunswick	1
Québec	11
Ontario	7
Manitoba	2
Saskatchewan	1
Alberta	4
British Columbia	7

The regions are determined by the current province or territory of residence of a peer at the time of the committee.

To comply with the Official Languages Act, the Council has an obligation to ensure that peer assessors can fully participate in the assessment process using one of Canada's official languages. In practice, this means that the Council mostly holds committee meetings in English only or French only. Bilingual committees are sometimes held in this component with peer assessors that both fully read and understand both official languages. The Council also ensures representation from the anglophone official language minority community that resides in Quebec. These two requirements may increase the overall representation of peers from Quebec.

Table 6: Peer Assessment Statistics | Assessors by Field of Practice

Field of Practice	Number of Distinct Assessors
Circus Arts	1
Dance	10
Deaf and Disability Arts	1
Digital Arts	2
Indigenous Arts	1
Inter-Arts	1
Literature	1
Media Arts	2
Multidisciplinary Activities	8
Music and Sound	15
Theatre	9
Visual Arts	3

Assessors may have more than one validated profile belonging to multiple fields of practice.

Questions?

For specific questions related to the Arts Abroad results, please contact the Program Director at maude.laflamme@canadacouncil.ca

As this is the first time the Council has released competition results in this concerted way for this component, we welcome your feedback on how the results are presented, their clarity, and their usefulness, so we can improve future releases.

Please contact the Research, Measurement and Data Analytics Section at research@canadacouncil.ca.

Funding Results | Overall List Recipients

For the full list of recipients, see Excel document below