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The Canada Council for the Arts also called the Canada Council, is an established corporation for the Government of Canada to foster and promote the studying and enjoyment of works in the arts.
It is located in Ottawa, Ontario, and is chaired by Pierre Lassonde, a known businessman and philanthropist.
Canada Council for the Arts – Things To Know
If you are an aspiring artist from Canada, you must know everything about the Canada Council for the Arts.

1. Division of Co-ordinates
The Canada Council for the Arts consists of six main divisions. They provide funds for the arts section.
They include the visual arts, the media arts, dance, music, theatre, and writing and publishing.
Three more divisions work with all six sections. They are the Aboriginal Arts Secretariat, which encourages First People arts in all media, the Equity Office, which fosters diversity in arts funding; and Inter-Arts Office, which deals with proposals that combine or transcend traditional artistic disciplines.
2. Activities

2.1 Renting Art Works by the Art Bank
The Art Bank is integral to the Canada Council for the Arts. The Council has superior authority over the Canada Council Art Bank.
Their purpose is to rent works of art to the public as well as private-sector offices. It is the storehouse for the most extensive contemporary Canadian art collection worldwide collection.
It includes around 18,000 works, of which one-third have been rented to approximately 200 private and public clients. This collection is worth over 71 million dollars.
The Art Bank buys art from notable Canadian artists through a system of peer-review juries. The bank is entirely self-funded by renting its collection of artwork.
With the money they get from renting the artwork, they buy new selections from the artists and expand their collections. These artworks are usually rented for two years, and the rental amount is often 20% of the work’s market value.
2.2 Loaning of Musical Instruments
The Canada Council for the Arts has many musical instruments on loan to Canadian musicians.
The loans are given based on the results of the juried competitions held to find deserving talents. This is done via the Musical Instrument Bank.
2.3 Supervision of Awards
The Council tries to spread awareness of the arts through its communication, research, and art promotion activities.
The Council has been giving various awards like the Killam Program of literary honors, the Governor General’s Literary Awards, and the Governor General’s Visual and Media Arts Awards.
By awarding deserving candidates, the Canada Council for the Arts provides a high awareness of the importance of arts and art-related activities.
3. Grant Requests

Every year, 60,000 grant requests are received by the Canada Council for the Arts.
These requests are reviewed by a panel of artists authorized by all the divisions in the Council. Only after these artists’ approval are the grants awarded to the deserving ones.
In the financial year 2006-07, the Council awarded almost 6000 grants to arts and art organizations around the country.
They also made payments to around 15,500 authors through The Public Lending Rights Commission. The gifts and payments summed up a total of more than 152 billion dollars.
Also, in 2018-19, over 2,800 Canadian artists, almost 450 groups, and over 2,000 arts organizations received Canada Council grants.
4. Funding Grants

4.1 Create an Account
Create an account on the Canada Council for the Arts portal. After this, identify and register your profile. This includes a voluntary self-identification form. Get an idea when you hear back from the program staff.
4.2 Apply to Programs
Find the appropriate programs and apply to them. You can view what you will expect during the application process.
Also, read some helpful advice for preparing an application if you are unsure how to do it.
4.3 If You Receive a Grant
When you receive a grant, you or your organization must also follow some conditions. This includes the duration of the award. Fulfill these requirements and use them within the time provided.
4.4 If You Do Not Receive a Grant
Everything depends on how hard you try to do it or sometimes on your luck. You may not receive the grant as expected.
It would be best if you did not give up until you succeeded. You can look for the next opportunity and apply again for your donation.
5. Practical Fields for Grants

5.1 Circus Arts
The circus arts are a kind of artistic expression that, according to the Canada Council for the Arts, focuses on mastering circus methods employed and instructed by professional circus art schools.
The circus arts include aerial acrobatics, balancing, clowning art, equestrian art, floor acrobatics, and juggling.
This venture encourages a set of artistic genres and various approaches to the contemporary art of the circus, like the social circus art led by professional performers.
5.2 Dance
The Canada Council for the Arts encourages dancers and their organizations in various ways and expressions.
Whether they are bound to the traditional approach or the new and modern research technologies, the Council supports deserving talents. Also, they support these people despite the medium they use to express their skills.
One should note that the dance competitions that fall under a college or university program cannot be qualified for this support from the Council.
5.3 Deaf and Disability Arts
The Canada Council believes that the encouragement of Deaf and disabled arts could be disciplinary or interdisciplinary and include practices like Mad arts and Mixed Ability or Integrated arts.
For this, the artists, arts professionals, and cultural connectors must self-identify as Deaf, having a disability, or living with a mental illness.
They should have a history of public presentation. Also, the organizations receiving the grant must be dedicated to advancing Deaf and disability arts. They must have deaf and disability-identified artists, arts professionals, or cultural connectors within their leadership team.
Their sole purpose through this venture must be to encourage disability art to promote humanities.
5.4 Literature
The Canada Council for the Arts supports the excellence and flourishing of Canadian literature expressed through literary genres and performances like fiction, poetry, drama, graphic novel, young adult literature, literary non-fiction, and so on.
The Council supports literary writers and artists in oral literature who work professionally according to the organizations’ requirements, including literary publishers and magazines, authorized literary associations, specialized presenters like literary festivals and literary fairs, and production organizations.
It must be noted that the Council does not support academic or scholarly publications.
5.5 Media Arts
For the Canada Council, media arts are considered new media and practices. It includes methods that involve a broad range of digital art, social media art for public awareness, web-based art, theatre art, database art, bio-art, robotics, and so on.
These practices are reviewed broadly; for example, the moving image works may be single or multi-channel, expanded cinema, or based on installation.
For any artwork to be considered a part of the media artwork, its work must have a significant portion that comprises the Media Arts Act.
The Canada Council funds work where the artist initiates and drives the project while maintaining complete creative and editorial control. This does not include work intended for the creative industries of film, television, and video games.
5.6 Music and Sound
For the Canada Council, music and sound must include classical music forms from all world cultures, folk, jazz, new music, audio art, and other innovative forms of rational expression that use digital technologies as an essential part of the complete work.
The Canada Council supports artistic and culturally-driven music made by professional artists. It values distinctive creative voices free from commercial considerations and encourages excellence, innovation, experimentation, and creativity in all kinds of music.
According to the Canada Council for the Arts, a professional artist is someone who has specialized training in the field. He should be recognized by others working in the same tradition.
An Artist must be committed to his visions, have a history of public presentation, and receive professional compensation for his work’s general performance.
5.7 Visual Arts
For the Canada Council of Arts, visual art is a wide field of practice, including photography, fine craft, performance art, independent curating, critical writing, and publishing in the visual arts and architecture.
It supports emergent forms and multidisciplinary practices that include, but are not limited to, artist’s books, audio, video, film, and a wide range of innovative visual arts expressions that use digital technology as a critical part of the complete work.
5.8 Theatre
The Canada Council supports professional theatre creation, production, and dissemination.
It endorses a wide range of theatrical genres and techniques, such as original Canadian works, classical and contemporary repertory, theatre for young audiences, music theatre, puppetry, object theatre, and physical theatre.
It includes Commedia dell’arte, mime, clown, movement, and dance theatre, site-specific and environmental theatre, live art, micro-performance, and interactive theatre, as well as interdisciplinary work, digital and multi-media performance, and community-engaged arts.
The applicants should also make sure that their creation and production works should not be only limited to these areas mentioned above.
Closing Thoughts
These are some of the necessary information you need to know regarding the Canada Council for the Arts.
The Canadian Commission Art Bank Collection launched a new purchase program in 2022 with a budget of $600,000 for new acquisitions. This is the first open call since 2011. It is in solidarity with Ukraine, led by Vice Chairperson and CEO Simon Brault.
Additionally, the Council is extending its support to various arts promotion activities and works to highlight and promote skilled labor.
Last Updated on by Apeksha Soni, B.Tech