2024-25 Arts Across Canada Funding

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 2024-25 competition results for the Arts Festivals and Presenters component of its Arts Across Canada program. As this is the first time we are releasing Core competition results in this concerted way, 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.
• As a multi-year grant, the information and data below focus only on funding results from Year 1 of the competition.

Arts Festivals and Presenters component (2024-25)

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. By supporting activities such as travel, representation, promotion, translation, circulation, touring, foreign artist tours and public outreach, the program highlights the work of Canadian and international artists, and contributes to the growing dialogue and exchange on the arts in Canada.

The Arts Festivals and Presenters component specifically funds Canadian arts organizations to present and exhibit quality art and literary works to Canadian audiences. Grants support festivals and presenters to showcase important artistic work, strengthen artistic practice, and build bridges between artists and audiences. Eligible activities include bringing artistic programming to Canadian audiences, supporting and strengthening artists and their artistic practice while building relationships between artists and the Canadian public.

Funding Results | Overview

2024-25 highlights for the Arts Festivals and Presenters funding component of the Arts Across Canada program.

• 223 eligible applications assessed by 35 peers
• 152 eligible applications were from returning applicants and 71 were from applicants new to core funding
• 162 successful applications resulting in a 72.6% application success rate
• 12 successful applicants or 7.4% of all recipients received their first core grant from Council resulting in a 16.9% application success rate for applicants new to core funding
• $9.4M awarded in this component for Year 1, including $375,000 to first-time core grant recipients

Each of the 223 distinct core grant applications assessed in 2024-25 by peers was evaluated in a comparative group context where highly ranking evaluated applications received a grant. 

Table 1: Application and Funding Statistics

Applicant Type	Number of Applications Assessed	Number of Successful Applications	Application Success Rate	Total Requested Year 1	Total Awarded Year 1
Organization	223	162	72.6%	$27,433,624	$9,366,615
Total	223	162	72.6%	$27,433,624	$9,366,615

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 Year 1	Total Awarded Year 1
Indigenous	0	0	Not Applicable	$-	$-
Racialized	33	20	60.6%	$6,190,862	$1,210,994
Deaf and/or Disability	x	x	x	x	x
Anglophone Official Language Communities	10	7	70.0%	$1,616,004	$320,200
Francophone Official Language Communities	11	9	81.8%	$972,000	$284,915

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.

There were no applicants from organizations that identified as Indigenous.

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 Year 1	Total Awarded Year 1
Newfoundland and Labrador	6	5	83.3%	$559,000	$224,284
Nova Scotia	8	5	62.5%	$1,003,469	$343,000
New Brunswick	9	6	66.7%	945,000	$203,915
Québec	81	62	76.5%	$10,376,294	$4,214,040
Ontario	65	44	67.7%	$7,269,513	$2,177,058
Manitoba	x	4	x	x	$206,000
Saskatchewan	x	2	x	x	$84,500
Alberta	12	9	75.0%	$3,632,604	$441,313
British Columbia	35	24	68.6%	$3,084,244	$1,414,505
Northwest Territories	x	1	x	x	$58,000
Total - Canada	223	162	72.6%	27,433,624	$9,366,615

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

Funding Results | Field of practice

The Canada Council’s granting programs are outcomes-based. The Arts Festivals and Presenters component of Arts Across Canada funds Canadian arts organizations to present and exhibit quality art and literary works to Canadian audiences. Grants support festivals and presenters to showcase important artistic work, strengthen artistic practice, and build bridges between artists and audiences.

Consequently, we expect that organizations 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.

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 Year 1	Total Awarded Year 1
Circus Arts	x	-	x	x	$-
Dance	25	22	88.0%	$2,549,365	$1,185,750
Deaf and Disability Arts	x	1	x	x	$56,000
Digital Arts	x	3	x	x	$307,200
Inter-Arts	x	2	x	x	$193,000
Literature	55	45	81.8%	$3,775,552	$1,594,605
Media Arts	45	37	82.2%	$5,393,089	$1,986,810
Multidisciplinary Activities	41	24	58.5%	$5,700,635	$1,800250
Music and Sound	27	14	51.9%	$3,472,000	$1,007,000
Theatre	13	8	61.5%	$3,969,783	$558,000
Visual Arts	10	6	60.5%	$1,525,000	$678,000
Total	223	162	72.6%	$27,433,624	$9,366,615

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.

Table 5: Peer Assessment Statistics | Assessors by Region

Region	Number of Distinct Assessors
Newfoundland and Labrador	1
New Brunswick	3
Québec	11
Ontario	9
Manitoba	2
Alberta	3
British Columbia	6

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 were also held in this component with peer assessors that read and understand both official languages fully. 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
Indigenous Arts	6
Inter-Arts	2
Literature	8
Media Arts	2
Music and Sound	6
Theatre	6
Visual Arts	4

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

The number of peers corresponds to the number of committees in a particular year. In 2024-25 there were 35 peer assessors that made up the following six committees. As a result of English, French and Bilingual committees, this may contribute to an increased number of peers in committees, based on artistic practice:

• 1 literature committee (FR)
• 1 literature committee (EN)
• 1 performing arts committee (FR)
• 1 performing arts committee (EN)
• 1 music and multidisciplinary committee (EN)
• 1 studio arts committee (Bilingual)

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 Core competition results in this concerted way, 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 to share your feedback.

Funding Results | Overall List Recipients

For the full list of recipients, see Excel document below.