Community Arts Festivals Program Now Open for Business

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound impact on artists and communities. While necessary public health orders in response to the pandemic have limited our ability to gather and travel, festival organizers across B.C. have over the last year found creative ways to adapt, often embracing the use of new technology and alternate presentation formats, in order to bring artists and communities together.

The Project Assistance: Community Arts Festivals program, which launches today, supports the production of a local community arts festival by community-based arts and cultural organizations or by First Nations Band Councils, Indigenous community organizations, Friendship Centres and Métis Chartered Communities that offer arts programming.

Awards of up to $5000 are intended to subsidize the fees paid to B.C. or Canadian professional artists, technicians, Elders and Traditional Knowledge Keepers engaged for the proposed festival. Festivals must be more than one day in duration and may feature a combination of local and touring artists.

The deadline is March 5.

You can learn more, including guidelines, on the program page.