2023-24 Arts Across Canada 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 Public Outreach component of its Arts Across Canada 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.

Public Outreach component (2023-24)

About the Arts Across Canada Program

The Arts Across Canada program of the Canada Council for the Arts fosters meaningful relationships and exchanges between artists and the Canadian public. It enables artists, arts professionals, groups, and organizations to present and share their work with diverse communities nationwide, engage more deeply with audiences, and develop a stronger national profile. Festivals and other presenters can apply to highlight the work of Canadian and international artists, and contribute to the growing dialogue and exchange on the arts in Canada.

The Public Outreach component supports activities of Canadian groups and organizations, as well as professionals in architecture, that contribute to the public appreciation and enjoyment of the arts. Grants fund a wide range of live events, publications and other initiatives that build connections between artists and diverse audiences.

Funding Results | Overview

2023-24 highlights for the Public Outreach funding components of the Arts Across Canada program (excluding composite grants).

• 702 applications assessed by 37 peers
• 244 successful applications resulting in a 34.8% application success rate
• 26 successful applicants or 10.7% of all recipients received their first grant from Council
• $10.2M awarded in this component
• $9.4M or 92.7% of total funding was awarded to arts organizations

Each of the 702 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 244 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	x	-	x	x	$ -
Group	x	20	x	x	$737,010
Organization	628	224	35.7%	$26,114,939	$9,413,160
Total	702	244	34.8%	$28,709,699	$10,150,170

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

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	177	59	33.3%	$8,459,196	$2,636,800
Deaf and/or Disability	x	x	x	x	x
Anglophone Official Language Communities	41	x	x	$1,952,693	x
Francophone Official Language Communities	32	x	x	$1,510,104	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	4	x	x	$216,500
Prince Edward Island	x	3	x	x	$115,000
Nova Scotia	31	12	38.7%	$975,350	$346,000
New Brunswick	22	8	36.4%	$1,042,111	$383,000
Québec	229	73	31.9%	$9,686,600	$3,039,810
Ontario	201	68	33.8%	$8,511,577	$3,145,410
Manitoba	37	16	43.2%	$1,570,080	$791,500
Saskatchewan	x	2	x	x	$75,000
Alberta	31	9	29.0%	$1,251,387	$210,450
British Columbia	127	45	35.4%	$4,685,871	$1,685,200
Yukon Territory	x	2	x	x	$74,500
Northwest Territories	x	2	x	x	$67,800
Nunavut Territory	x	-	x	x	$ -
Total - Canada	702	244	34.8%	$28,709,699	$10,150,170
Outside Canada	x	-	x	x	$ -
Total - including Outside Canada	702	244	34.8%	$28,709,699	$10,150,170

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 Public Outreach component of Arts Across Canada supports activities of Canadian groups and organizations, as well as professionals in architecture, that contribute to the public appreciation and enjoyment of the arts. Grants fund a wide range of live events, publications and other initiatives that build connections between artists and diverse audiences.

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	x	1	x	x	$25,000
Dance	41	17	41.5%	$1,817,997	$772,900
Deaf and Disability Arts	x	4	x	x	$227,200
Digital Arts	x	3	x	x	$153,000
Inter-Arts	12	8	66.7%	$640,601	$415,300
Literature	79	26	32.9%	$2,002,800	$798,660
Media Arts	68	27	39.7%	$3,177,770	$1,157,400
Multidisciplinary Activities	169	52	30.8%	$7,281,245	$2,124,750
Music and Sound	170	58	34.1%	$6,905,414	$2,639,100
Theatre	38	15	39.5%	$1,493,608	$532,500
Visual Arts	105	33	31.4%	$4,309,529	$1,304,360
Total	702	244	34.8%	$28,709,699	$10,150,170

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: 37

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
Nova Scotia	3
New Brunswick	3
Québec	6
Ontario	11
Manitoba	4
Alberta	2
British Columbia	5
Yukon Territory	1
Northwest Territories	2

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
Dance	4
Deaf and Disability Arts	2
Digital Arts	2
Indigenous Arts	3
Literature	10
Media Arts	9
Multidisciplinary Activities	10
Music and Sound	16
Theatre	10
Visual Arts	11

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

Questions?

For specific questions related to the Arts Across Canada 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.