City of Kingston Arts Fund
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.
CKAF celebrates Kingston’s arts community.
70% of the available funds are allocated to Operating Grants and 30% are allocated to Project Grants.
Graphic: CKAF IN NUMBERS: Awarded in total in 2020
Read more about the impact of COVID-19 on CKAF 2020 here.
THINKING ABOUT APPLYING TO CKAF? CLICK HERE.
Please note that applications are closed for 2020. Applications will reopen in February 2021.
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.
The KAC is looking for jurors. If you are interested, please click here to fill out the form.
THINKING ABOUT APPLYING TO CKAF? CLICK HERE.
2020 CKAF RECIPIENTS
2020 OPERATING RECIPIENTS
Dollarama, performance by Emily Pelstring, Agnes Etherington Centre, Photo: Tim Forbes.
Agnes Etherington Art Centre $75,000
Cantabile Choirs of Kingston $27,998
Centre culturel Frontenac $16,608
H’art Centre $12,097
Kingston Canadian Film Festival $45,755
Kingston Symphony Association $75,000
Kingston WritersFest $42,589
Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre $50,000
Reelout Queer Film Festival $22,042
Theatre Kingston $42,230
Union Gallery $10,250
2020 PROJECTS RECIPIENTS
Pixel and Plans, Shannon Brown, Electric Circuits Festival 2019, Photo: Liz Cooper.
– Aqua Nova, Aqua Nova Collective, $14,544
– Electric Circuits Festival 2021, Electric Circuits Collective, $19,000
– Emergence, Vox Intima, $9,000
– Festival of Live Digital Art (foldA) 2021, SpiderWebShow, $17,000
– Fun House Concert Series, Kingston Punk Productions, $8,000
– GO/NO GO, GO/NO Collective, $14,000
– HYDRA (Water Parade), Calliope Collective, $16,205
– King Con 2020/2021, King Con Collective, $13,000
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Remesha Drums, Kingston Multicultural Arts Festival 2019, Photo: Kingston Drone Pros.
– Kingston Intercultural Arts Festival, Kingston Community Health Centres,
$12,856
– Live Wire Music Series 2020-2021, Live Wire Music Series, $2,550
– Music You Love Played by People You Know, Orchestra Kingston, $2,040
– Skeleton Park Arts Festival, Skeleton Park Arts Festival, $18,525
– The Juvenis Festival 2021, Blue Canoe Productions, $16,000
– Tone Deaf Festival and Satellite Concerts 2020-2021, Tone Deaf Collective, $14,004
– Voces Feminarum, Melos Choir and Period Instruments, $12,901
CONTACT US
If you have questions about CKAF, please contact the Kingston Arts Council Grants Officer, Felix Lee, at grants@artskingston.ca.
CKAF HISTORY AND IMPACT
In 2007, Kingston City Council established the City of Kingston Arts Fund, comprised of $100,000 from the then Healthy Community Fund Program and an additional $400,000 in new funding. The Kingston Arts Council was contracted to administer CKAF and Kingston City Council has continued to invest in its growth each year as part of its commitment to supporting the arts and culture in Kingston. In 2020, $610,267 in funding is available. Since its inception in 2007, CKAF close to $6.4 million to organizations and collectives.
Read more about the impact of CKAF in the KAC’s 2017-2018 Annual Report, 2018-2019 Annual Report and 2019-2020 Annual Report.
PAST YEARS RECIPIENTS
PLAN FOR ADMINISTRATION
Information on all policies and procedures related to the administration of CKAF can be found in the Kingston Arts Council Plan for Administration of Arts Funding for the Corporation of the City of Kingston in 2020.