WHAT IS CKAF?

 

The City of Kingston Arts Fund (CKAF) provides grants to local arts organizations and projects to foster creativity at all levels and enrich how Kingston residents experience and engage with the arts. CKAF’s objectives are to nurture the capacity of the arts, artists, and arts sector in Kingston while fostering creativity, encouraging social cohesion, enhancing the quality of life, and stimulating economic development through direct investment. 

CKAF is comprised of two funding categories, Operating Grants and Project Grants. 

70% of the available funds are allocated to Operating Grants and 30% are allocated to Project Grants.

CKAF celebrates Kingston’s arts community. 

PROGRAM OBJECTIVES

 

– Foster creativity within the Kingston Community at all levels;
– Enrich how all Kingston residents experience and engage with the arts to encourage awareness, understanding, appreciation, participation, inclusion, diversity, and access;
– Leverage arts and culture to assert Kingston’s distinctiveness and to stimulate economic development and tourism;
– Ensure that arts funding aligns with that of comparable municipalities;
– Bring provincial, national and international recognition to Kingston as a centre for the arts and culture.
– Leverage municipal investments in the arts sector to increase their profile, capacity, quality, professionalism, impact, relevance, and sustainability;
– Foster innovation, collaboration, and excellence among emerging and established professional practices across a spectrum of artistic disciplines and modes of expression;
– Seek professional development opportunities that benefit the arts sector and that impact the community at different levels;
– Pursue projects, programming and operations that are both creative and well managed, and that align with the City of Kingston’s strategic objectives;
– Ensure that projects, programming, and operations foster inclusion, diversity and access within the arts; and
– Emphasize partnership building with other sectors and orders of government to encourage diversity in terms of access and funding. 

 

Learn more about the objectives here (PDF).

EVALUATION PROCESS

 

CKAF is administered by the Kingston Arts Council (KAC). The applications are reviewed using a peer assessment process that engages stakeholders from across Kingston as jury members. Jury members are themselves representative of the arts, arts professionals, and practitioners in the City of Kingston and are selected for their knowledge of the arts, high standing within the arts community, awareness of the City of Kingston context and the broader arts environment and, where possible, are reflective of the gender, demographic and cultural diversity of Kingston itself.

All CKAF applicants must strive to offer services that respect the independence, dignity, integration and equal opportunity for individuals of all backgrounds and abilities. 

 

ADJUDICATION CRITERIA 

 Applications to CKAF are evaluated in three areas: artistic contribution, community benefit, and administration and financial responsibility. The assessment criteria for Operating grants can be found in detail in the Operating Guidelines and the criteria for Project grants can be found in the Project Guidelines. 

When assessing artistic contribution, the jury considers the support of Kingston artists through financial compensation, professional development, and new work creation; and the potential for innovation, collaboration, and excellence in the arts. The jury also considers the alignment of activities with the organization/collective’s mandate, mission, or vision.

When assessing the community benefit, the jury considers the level of engagement with Kingston residents, the ability to sustain and develop audiences, and the support from the wider community.

When assessing administration and financial responsibility, the jury considers the potential to successfully execute and fund activities and the potential to generate revenue outside of CKAF.

 

Additionally, the jury will consider the way in which the application demonstrates access, diversity, and inclusion:

– Access encompasses the physical, financial, intellectual, and socio-economic accessibility of programming, events, and venues.
– Diversity addresses the non-material culture of the project, specifically the way in which it welcomes people of varying ability, income, language, incarceration history, cultural background, race, ethnicity, faith, gender, orientation, or education level.
– Inclusion refers to the removal of material or non-material barriers to participation, through policies in human resources, strategic planning, physical environment, programming, audience, community development, and budget management.

2019 CKAF RECIPIENTS

 

2019 OPERATING RECIPIENTS

 

Agnes Etherington Art Centre $75,000 

Cantabile Choirs of Kingston $27,183

Centre culturel Frontenac $16,000 

H’art Centre $11,655 

Kingston Canadian Film Festival $43,911 

Kingston Symphony Association $75,000 

Kingston WritersFest $41,551

Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre $48,200 

Reelout Queer Film Festival $21,400 

Theatre Kingston $41,000 

Union Gallery $10,000

 

2019 PROJECTS RECIPIENTS

 

2020 Juvenis Festival, Blue Canoe Productions, $17,000

Electric Circuits Festival 2020, Electric Circuits Collective, $15,000

Festival of Live Digital Art (foldA), SpiderWebShow, $13,000

Fun House Concert Series, Kingston Punk Productions, $5,100

In Dulci Jubilo – Freeing the Voice, Melos Choir and Period Instruments, $7,528

Ka’tarohkwi Languages Nest, Kingston Filmmakers Collective, $13,762

King Con 2019/2020, King Con Collective, $11,000

Kingston Multicultural Arts Festival, Kingston Community Health Centres, $11,160                          

Kingston Women’s History Project, The Circus Kingston Collective, $17,000

Live Wire Music Series 2019-2020, Live Wire Music Series, $2,250

Midwinter Solstice Celebration, Calliope Collective, $13,800

Shortwave Theatre Festival, CFRC 101.9FM, $15,000

Skeleton Park Arts Festival, Skeleton Park Arts Festival, $18,500 

Tone Deaf Festival and Satellite Concerts 2019-2020, Tone Deaf Collective, $16,000

 

 

 

 

 

                    Dollarama, performance by Emily Pelstring, Agnes Etherington Centre, Photo: Tim Forbes.

 

 

 

 

                                   Pixel and Plans, Shannon Brown, Electric Circuits Festival 2019, Photo: Liz Cooper.

 

                         Remesha Drums, Kingston Multicultural Arts Festival 2019, Photo: Kingston Drone Pros.

CONTACT US

 

If you have questions about CKAF, please contact the Kingston Arts Council Grants Officer, Felix Lee, at grants@artskingston.ca.