Canada Council for the Arts - Explore and Create

Insider Tip

Create your Canada Council portal profile at least 30 days before your first application — profile validation is a hard prerequisite and cannot be rushed. You get a maximum of three applications and $150,000 per calendar year, so sequence them deliberately rather than firing off a weak one. The most common rejection is a vague artistic rationale; peer assessors need to understand why this project, why now, and how it advances your practice. Every project must involve creation — a proposal built mainly around touring or public sharing is ineligible on its face. Keep budgets clean and narrative-forward — itemizing every $50 expense hurts more than it helps. Artists who have attended Canada Council information sessions or webinars for their discipline have a measurable advantage in understanding what the peer cohort expects.

Rejection Pitfalls 11

• Vague or poorly articulated artistic rationale — peers cannot evaluate unclear concepts
• Project is mainly focused on public sharing, dissemination or touring without an element of creation
• Translation project (explicitly ineligible)

Success Profile

Professional Canadian artists with an established body of work, a clearly articulated project rationale, and a realistic dissemination plan. First-time applicants from under-represented groups (Indigenous, Deaf/disabled, artists of colour) receive priority consideration in assessment. Organizations must be incorporated NPOs with 5+ years of public activity and verified revenue history for the Artist-Driven Organizations component.

Evaluation Criteria

Peer assessment using comparative ranking within discipline cohort. Three criteria: Artistic Merit (50%, minimum 35/50) — quality and depth of artistic rationale, significance of creative vision, strength of work samples/portfolio; Impact (30%, minimum 15/30) — potential to advance the discipline or reach new audiences, contribution to artistic sector development; Feasibility (20%, minimum 10/20) — applicant's capacity to execute, budget reasonableness, timeline realism.

Application Steps

Required Documents 8

Eligible Expenses 13

• Professional fees and compensation for artists and collaborators involved in the project
• Materials and supplies for artistic creation
• Equipment purchases required specifically for the activity, excluding equipment related to a building (max $2,000 per item purchased, total combined costs up to 15% of the requested grant amount)
• Venue and studio rental for creation, rehearsal, or presentation
• Travel costs related to the project (research, creation, touring, residency)
• Accommodation and per diem for project-related travel
• Child or dependent care costs required to complete project activities (not ongoing regular care)
• Documentation and archival costs
• Marketing and promotion of the artistic work
• Technical production costs (lighting, sound, fabrication)
• Post-production costs (editing, mastering, printing)
• Translation and accessibility costs
• Living expenses during dedicated creation periods (subsistence)

Ineligible Expenses 11

• Projects mainly focused on public sharing, dissemination or touring of artistic work, without an element of creation
• Translation projects
• Fundraising activities and costs
• Capital expenditures (building purchase, major renovation)
• Activities funded through other Canada Council programs for the same project
• Ongoing studies or academic research funded through SSHRC (exception: Creating, Knowing and Sharing)
• Self-publishing costs
• Illegal activities
• Regular ongoing dependent care expenses (only project-specific care is eligible)
• Building-related equipment not specific to the artistic project
• Administrative overhead not directly tied to project delivery

Intake Periods

Artistic Creation: rolling intake — submit any time before the start date of your project or activity, with results usually within 5 months of submitting. Artist-driven Organizations: no upcoming deadline is currently posted; check the Canada Council deadlines page. A maximum of 3 applications and $150,000 in funding apply per calendar year.

Deadline Notes

Artistic Creation has no fixed deadline: apply any time before the start date of your project or activity, with results usually within 5 months of submitting your application. No Artist-driven Organizations deadline is currently posted. The discipline-specific deadlines that once applied to Research and Creation and Concept to Realization no longer exist — both components were merged into Artistic Creation. Check https://canadacouncil.ca/funding/grants/deadlines for current dates.

Open Application Portal →

Ineligible Organizations

• Organizations currently receiving core (operating) grants from the Canada Council
• For-profit corporations or commercial enterprises
• Government departments or agencies
• Educational institutions applying as the lead (faculty may apply as individual artists)
• Organizations incorporated for less than 2 years (for Artist-Driven Organizations component)
• Organizations without demonstrated public artistic activity

Compatible Programs

Clawback Risk

Low Risk