About
The Alberta Foundation for the Arts (AFA) is the primary arts resource and grant funding body in Alberta, Canada. The foundation exists to encourage and support the arts as a significant contributor to quality of life in Alberta, providing funding opportunities for Alberta arts organizations and individual artists through a variety of granting programs. The AFA also collects, manages and shares the largest collection of visual artwork by Albertan artists anywhere in the world.
Funding Opportunities
Volunteer Based Arts Organizations
This grant provides annual operating funding to arts-based organizations that foster community connections and primarily rely on volunteers to carry out their mission and mandates. The program supports arts organizations that foster a strong sense of community in the arts through the engagement of the voluntary sector. Funding supports a broad range of artistic activities, including the production, presentation, and dissemination of artistic works and/or providing artists with support in alignment with an organization's mission and mandate. This funding is specifically designed for organizations that rely primarily on volunteers to foster a strong sense of community participation and shared purpose with minimal or no paid staff. Organizations must have public programming and participation in the film and video, literary, visual arts, and/or performing arts as their primary purpose and principal mandate.
Summer School Project Funding
This funding supports organizations in delivering residence-based art summer schools that offer an arts intensive training experience in any discipline through technical skills workshops with professional artists and instructors, and opportunities for young people from across the province to engage in the creative process. Eligible summer school projects must consist of residence-based art-intensive camp programs of no less than five consecutive days in length where students are provided with supervision, meals and overnight accommodation. Projects must take place between July 1 and August 31, deliver arts programming to students ages 11-19 years, and provide students access to Alberta's professional artists and instructors. The program provides a daily regime of workshops and hands-on activities for students to learn arts skill techniques and actively engage in creative process learning. Organizations may apply for up to 40% of eligible expenses that are directly related to carrying out the proposed project, including administration, programming, instructor and artist fees, promotional costs, accommodation and classroom arrangements, equipment rental, supervisory staff, course content development, food and lodging, and materials and supplies.
Queen's Platinum Jubilee Scholarship for Visual Arts
One scholarship of $7,000 will be awarded annually by the Government of Alberta to a young Albertan visual artist who shows extraordinary talent and potential and who demonstrates clear educational or training goals. The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Scholarship for the Visual Arts was established by the Government of Alberta in 2002, and updated in 2022, to commemorate the accession of Queen Elizabeth II to the throne and her service to the Commonwealth. The scholarship supports young artists enrolled in eligible visual arts training programs including undergraduate studies with a minor or major in visual arts, or recognized programs such as mentorships, workshops, master classes, or courses with a focus on visual arts. Graduate programs are not eligible for consideration. The scholarship aims to support the artistic development of promising visual artists in Alberta who are 25 years or younger.
Queen's Platinum Jubilee Scholarship for Performing Arts
The Queen's Platinum Jubilee Scholarship for Performing Arts is an annual scholarship established by the Government of Alberta to commemorate Queen Elizabeth II's accession to the throne and her service to the Commonwealth. The scholarship awards $7,000 annually to a young Alberta performing artist who demonstrates extraordinary talent and potential, along with clear educational or training goals. The scholarship rotates annually among three performing arts disciplines: music, theatre, and dance, with the 2027 deadline designated for music applicants. Recipients must be enrolled in eligible performing arts training programs, which can include undergraduate studies with a performing arts focus, technical or conservatory performing arts schools, or recognized workshops, master classes, or mentorship programs. The scholarship aims to support the artistic development of young Alberta artists pursuing excellence in the performing arts.
Public Art Galleries Operating Funding
This grant provides funding in three-year cycles to eligible professional organizations that program and display public exhibitions of visual arts. The funding supports organizations that exhibit visual works of art and provide programs in the visual arts for the general public as their principal mandate. Organizations must operate a gallery and/or exhibition space that is accessible to the public for at least 1,000 hours each year and employ at least one full-time equivalent administrative and/or artistic staff member. Funding is calculated based on Community Derived Revenue (CDR) using a tiered percentage system, where organizations receive between 22-40% of their adjusted CDR depending on their revenue tier. The program requires organizations to demonstrate good governance principles, effective administration practices, and fiscal responsibility while maintaining an artistic mandate.
Provincial Arts Service Organizations Operating Funding
This grant provides funding in three-year cycles to eligible member-based arts organizations that provide educational, resource-based, promotional and advocacy services as the umbrella organization for an artistic discipline or sector in the province. The funding is designed to support organizational operations specific to the organization's mandate, strategic and/or business plan and activities. Operating funding typically supports expenses such as administration, programming, salaries and fees, maintenance of equipment and fixed assets, promotion, and other expenses required to fulfill the organization's mandate. Funding awarded through this opportunity is calculated through two components: a base amount of up to $50,000 for operating expenses, and an additional amount of up to 50 percent of eligible expenses. The additional amounts are determined within the context of total available funds within the allocated Provincial Arts Service Organizations program budget. Funding is established by the AFA Board of Directors based upon the annual AFA Budget allocated by the Government of Alberta. Eligible organizations must have the promotion of an artistic discipline or sector as their principal mandate, engage in ongoing development and advocacy on behalf of that discipline or sector, serve a province-wide membership of both individuals and organizations, and maintain a provincial office with staff accessible to the membership. Organizations must be not-for-profit, registered and in good standing under the appropriate legislation, and have been in operation in Alberta for at least two years. An Expert Panel makes funding recommendations over and above the base amount, comprised of representatives from the arts and/or not-for-profit community. Expert Panel assessment is based on the organization's governance practices, fiscal responsibility and arts mandate, demonstrated successes in providing ongoing development of, support for, and advocacy on behalf of the identified arts discipline or sector, and strategies for the future.
Professional Performing Arts Organizations Operating Funding
This grant provides funding in three-year cycles to eligible professional organizations that self-create and self-produce performing art productions. The funding supports professional performing arts organizations in Alberta that have public performing arts programming as their principal mandate and engage in ongoing development, implementation and promotion of performing arts programming as their core primary activity. Organizations must employ at least two permanent full-time equivalent staff, pay industry standard fees to artists, and comply with Canadian Arts Database (CADAC) financial and statistical data requirements. Funding is calculated based on Community Derived Revenue (CDR), which is defined as an organization's total annual revenue minus all federal, provincial and municipal government grants. The funding is designed to support operations specific to the organization's mandate, strategic and business plan, including fees for artists, production and programming costs, salaries, facilities, and marketing. Organizations receive funding over three-year cycles and must submit interim and final reports demonstrating appropriate use of funds.
Major Arts Presenters Operating Funding
This grant provides funding in three-year cycles to eligible professional organizations that produce large-scale public presentations of arts disciplines. The funding is designed to support organization operations specific to their mandate, strategic and/or business plan and activities. Organizations must have artistic presentation as their principal mandate and engage in ongoing development, implementation and promotion of arts presenting programming as their core primary activity in an annual program of presentation of professional artists open to the public. Funding amounts are calculated based on Community Derived Revenue (CDR), which is defined as an organization's total annual revenue minus all federal, provincial and municipal government grants. The funding typically supports expenses such as administration, programming, salaries and fees, maintenance of equipment and fixed assets, promotion, and other expenses required to fulfill the organization's mandate.
ISCP Residency in New York Funding
This funding supports the development of individual Alberta visual and new media artists and curators by providing up to $18,000 for one three-month residency (April 1 - June 30) per year at the International Studio & Curatorial Program in Brooklyn, New York. The residency supports artistic activities in art production and curatorial production, including development, creation, and production of visual arts work, as well as research activities that support or result in the development of a visual arts or new media project. This funding opportunity is a subsection of the Visual Arts and New Media Individual Project funding opportunity offered by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts. Applicants can only receive this grant once during their career.
Film and Video Arts Scholarship
Established in 2012, this $7,000 scholarship is awarded annually to a young Albertan film and video artist who shows extraordinary talent in a film and video arts form and who demonstrates clear educational or training goals. The scholarship supports students aged 25 years or younger who are residents of Alberta and enrolled in eligible film and video arts training programs. The program is designed to support the artistic development of emerging film and video artists through educational opportunities. Assessment is based on artistic ability, merit of the proposed program, impact on artistic development, and the applicant's achievements and experience in film and video arts to date. Only one scholarship is awarded each year.
Emerging Curator Fellowship
This fellowship is designed to support the growth and development of curatorial talent by contracting an individual or ensemble of individuals to develop content for an exhibition of Albertan visual art. This initiative is intended to bring a new perspective to the artworks and artists featured in the AFA Art Collection while increasing visibility for pieces in mediums and sizes that currently have limited circulation within AFA's TREX exhibition program and art placement initiatives. The fellowship is structured as a two-year initiative where selected fellows will curate an exhibition of up to 20 artworks from the AFA Art Collection for the approximately 3000 square feet art house gallery space in Calgary. The final exhibition produced as a result of this fellowship will be displayed at the AFA art house in Calgary. Selected fellows will work with AFA staff to fully develop the exhibition concept, design and implement an accompanying educational enhancement in support of the exhibition.
Dance Individual Project Funding
This funding provides up to $18,000 to support the development of individual Alberta artists, arts administrators, or an ensemble of artists by providing funding for a specific dance project. The program supports artistic activities in art production, marketing, research, and training and career development. Art production includes the development, creation and production of any dance work. Marketing includes programs that promote or advertise work created by Alberta dance artists. Research includes programs that support or result in the development of a dance project. Training and career development includes enrollment in courses or programs designed to develop an artist's training in dance, including related performing arts disciplines and performing arts administration. Eligible projects include workshops, master classes, retreats, mentorship programs, professional development, and pre-professional and professional courses of study in dance. The program is administered by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts and is assessed by expert panels on a project-by-project basis.
Community Support Organizations Operating Funding
This grant provides annual funding to eligible not-for-profit community organizations that provide arts programs and services to communities, including those with limited arts opportunities. The funding is designed to support organizations' operations specific to their mandate, strategic and/or business plan and activities. AFA operating funding typically supports expenses such as administration, programming, salaries and fees, maintenance of equipment and fixed assets, promotion, and other expenses required to fulfill the organization's mandate. Funding is calculated through two components: the organization's eligible expenses and equitable distribution of available funds to all eligible applicants. Organizations must have programming in artist support and development, artist training or public participation in the arts as their principal mandate.
Community Focused Arts Organizations
This grant provides annual operating funding to arts-based organizations that foster artistic engagement and community participation through regular and recurring programming while maintaining some level of staffing to carry out their mission and mandates. The program supports organizations with at least one full-time equivalent staff member in an administrative and/or programming capacity, and that have been legally registered and operating in Alberta for a minimum of two full fiscal years. Funding supports a broad range of artistic activities, including the production, presentation, and dissemination of artistic works and/or providing artist supports specific to an organization's mission and mandate. Eligible organizations must demonstrate good governance principles, effective administration practices, and a commitment to fiscal responsibility while operating as a stand-alone arts organization at arms-length from municipalities, commercial enterprises, or other government-funded institutions.
Arts Presenting Project Funding
This funding supports the public presentation of professional artists by reimbursing a portion of professional artists' fees for the preceding year. The program provides grants to eligible organizations that present touring professional artists to the public in Alberta. Grants are calculated based on a formula that reimburses up to 65% of fees paid to Alberta artists, up to 50% of fees paid to Canadian artists from the rest of Canada, and up to 50% of fees paid to international artists (with certain restrictions). Organizations must present at least three different touring professional artists during the eligible twelve-month period and maintain good standing with the AFA. The funding covers presentation fees, performance fees, public reading fees, artist and curator fees for exhibitions, screening fees, and related transportation and accommodation costs. Events must present professional artists in performing arts, visual and new media arts, film and video arts, or literary arts disciplines.
Artists and Education Funding
This funding supports Alberta schools by subsidizing fees of professional Alberta artists of any artistic discipline that provide interactive arts residency projects for grades K-12. The program engages Alberta-based individual artists or groups of artists with school residency experience to deliver programs that provide students access to professional artists and their work, offering opportunities for students to observe and actively participate in the creative process. Eligible residency projects must take place on school property during school hours, be five hours to thirty days in duration, and be completed within three months of commencement. Schools in urban jurisdictions can apply for up to 50% of the artist's fee, while schools in other jurisdictions can apply for up to 75% of the artist's fee. The maximum grant will not exceed $15,000 per residency project.
Dr. MacEwan Literary Arts Scholarship
This $7,000 scholarship is awarded annually to a young Albertan writer who shows extraordinary talent in an eligible literary genre and who demonstrates clear educational or training goals. The scholarship was created by the Government of Alberta to provide a legacy for noted author and former Lieutenant Governor of Alberta, Dr. Grant MacEwan, who wrote more than fifty books on subjects including nature, folklore, agriculture, politics, environment, literature, history and the people of Alberta. The scholarship supports young writers aged 25 or younger who are enrolled in eligible writing training programs including undergraduate studies with a minor or major in literary arts or creative writing, or recognized programs, mentorships, workshops, master classes, or courses focused on literary arts/creative writing. Graduate programs are ineligible. Eligible creative writing submissions include short or long fiction, poetry, stage/screen/radio plays, literary non-fiction (history, narrative journalism, memoir, personal essays, travel writing), and comic book/graphic novel scripts. Applications are assessed based on the applicant's artistic ability, the merit and appropriateness of the proposed program, its impact on artistic development, and the applicant's achievements and experience in literary arts to date. Only one scholarship is awarded each year. Recipients must provide confirmation of enrollment in an eligible training program within 60 days of the award date. The scholarship is administered by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts through an expert panel review process, with final decisions made by the AFA board.
At a Glance
- Total Funding Opportunities
- 24
- Active Now
- 17
- Source Domain
- affta.ab.ca
Catalog Data
This funder profile was automatically extracted from grant listings. Information may be incomplete.
Visit official website