About the Canadian Stage Microgranting Program
The Canadian Stage Microgranting Program seeks to invest financial resources in the live performance artistic community to help shape the future of the performing arts.
What are we looking for?
The microgranting program will fund projects that have a performative outcome or just pure research. We have conceived it to be flexible and open to the individual needs and curiosities of live performance creators. However, Canadian Stage is particularly interested in proposals that are investigating four areas: 1) Anti-oppressive/Decolonized artistic practices; 2) Intersections with communities; 3) New forms of collaborations, and 4) New technologies. You can find more details about this below.
Microgrant Streams
Applicants can choose to apply for either a project-based microgrant or a research-based microgrant.
Projects
Project-based grants are for live performance creators, artists, choreographers or makers to investigate a specific creation project. These grants can include work on a specific script, choreographic proposal or performance work.
Research
Research-based grants are designed for live performance artists to engage in pure research. This can include cross disciplinary experimentation, exploring new modalities of liveness in a socially distant society, public art, or performance archiving. This research does not need to be attached to a specific project with a performance outcome.
Canadian Stage is particularly interested in:
ANTI-OPPRESSIVE / DECOLONIZED ARTISTIC PRACTICE
These grants are for artists who wish to explicitly address and explore anti-racist and decolonized approaches to live art creation, performance, and content. These grants can explore Indigenous, Black and People of Colour-led/centred approaches, intercultural exchanges and practices, Indigenous sovereignty in performance practice, intersectional narrative creation and collaboration, exploring accessibility in arts, art as a tool of fighting white supremacy, and more.
INTERSECTIONS WITH COMMUNITIES
These grants are for artists interested in learning about how to reach out to communities and how to work within communities in ways that are engaged, respectful, and centre a community’s holistic health and well-being.
NEW FORMS OF COLLABORATION
These grants are designed for artists who are seeking to build community with their practice in times of isolation. These grants can be used to build new creative collaborations between artists, including short mentorships between emerging and established artists. These grants can also be used to build stronger collaborative relationships between colleagues: choreographers and dancers, directors and designers, playwrights and dramaturges, and more.
NEW TECHNOLOGIES
These grants are for artists with a creation and performance practice who are interested in emerging technologies and performance and how liveness could intersect with digital performance. These can include multimedia performance, live streaming, digital media, augmented reality or virtual reality performance, and more.
Eligibility
- Artist is based in Canada
- Artist self-defines as a Professional Artist* from the Ontario Arts Council. The OAC defines a professional artist/arts professional as someone who has developed skills through training or practice, is recognized by artists working in the same artistic tradition, has a history of public presentation or publication, seeks payment for their work, and actively practices their art. Short breaks in artistic work history are acceptable.
Please contact Mel Hague (Associate AD, Canadian Stage) if you have any questions about the program including artistic questions or access needs.
Accessibility
Canadian Stage encourages submissions from all individuals. We are committed to the practice of inclusion and diversification. We will make every effort to identify and remove any barriers to inclusion within all aspects of the selection process by making decisions and communicating without regard to ethnicity, age, gender identity or expression, colour, disability, national origin, family or marital status, language, physical and mental ability, political affiliation, race, religion, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, veteran status, or any other characteristics that make our communities and individuals unique.