Grant opportunities are increasing for local artists this year.
On Feb. 1, the Kingston Arts Council (KAC) announced in a press release that the Kingston City Council unanimously voted in favour of a one-time additional investment of $100,000 toward the City of Kingston Arts Fund (CKAF) on Jan. 20. According to the release, this will increase the amount of 2026 CKAF grants to over $738,000, a 20 per cent increase from 2025.
Additional funds won’t affect residents’ tax rates, per the release. Instead, they’ll be allocated from the Working Fund Reserve. CKAF grant streams will be expanded to four in 2026: the existing Operating and Project Grants, and new Festival Grants and Creation and Development Grants.
The existing Project Grants stream “supports arts projects from individual professional artists, collectives, and incorporated non-profit organizations,” according to the KAC website. Operating Grants support incorporated non-profits organizations on a broader scale with programming and overhead costs. Students may be familiar with the CKAF-funded Making Art Work series, run by Union Gallery, Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, and the Agnes Etherington Art Centre.
KAC Executive Director Nicole Daniels explained in an interview with The Journal that the new Festival stream will address the unique funding needs of new organizations and historically funded Kingston festivals.
“Festivals are important to the cultural identity of our city, employing a lot of artists and supporting our tourism economy,” Daniels said. “The Festival stream really accounts for those groups while acknowledging that festivals hold a unique position in the art world,” Daniels said. The Festivals stream will account for both established and emerging groups hoping to receive funding.
Creation and Development Grants acknowledge the importance of producing artwork, providing “funding for artists to actually create and develop their art. It’s really important [that] artists, like any professionals, are paid for their work,” Daniels said.
Previously, Project Grants “were for the creation and presentation of arts projects in Kingston,” Daniels explained. “The creation part was optional; the presentation part was mandatory.” With only 18 months to produce and showcase art, some creators (like filmmakers and musicians) struggled to secure funding through this stream.
Through the Creative and Development stream, KAC hopes to support artistic disciplines which have struggled to obtain CKAF funding in previous years.
Daniels said the KAC sought additional funding after it became clear the initial CKAF allocation was insufficient to launch new grant streams. “The 2026 city budget was moving forward without any increase to the CKAF allocation, so we were set to proceed with the standard allocation of $612,790,” Daniels said.
“We want to launch these new streams with sufficient funding and do it in a way that’s positively impactful, and exciting, making the funding more accessible, not creating more strain,” Daniels said. “That happens when you spread the funding for two streams across four streams.”
In the new year, KAC hopes to see “newer groups, more emerging groups, and more emerging artists being able access funding,” Daniels said. In general, these changes aim to sustain the arts industry in Kingston as a whole, offering funding to emerging artists and establishing groups that support those individuals.
“Kingston has a really robust granting program, and a really robust arts sector for its size,” Daniels said. “So, we’re really excited to be able to offer this new program.”
Corrections
A previous version of this article stated that the new Festival stream would fund specific festivals. In fact, the program is application-based and welcomes submissions from both new groups and historically funded festivals.
Incorrect information appeared in the Feb. 13 issue of The Queen’s Journal.
The Journal regrets the error
Tags
Art, City of Kingston, City of Kingston Arts Fund, Kingston Arts Council, Kingston City Council, Local Art
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