Visual Artists Creation Projects
The program supports professional Ontario-based visual artists to create new work. The program aims to reflect the range of artistic practices in the visual arts, and to support excellence, regional activity, diverse artists and communities.
Offered by Ontario Arts Council (OAC)
Amount
Emerging: $5,000; Mid-Career: $7,500; Established: $15,000 (partial grants are not awarded)
Quick eligibility check
Who can apply
- professional emerging, mid-career and established visual artists who are Ontario residents
- Established: artists with an extensive body of work and with history of national and international exhibitions and/or those who have achieved a wide degree of recognition. You must have been practicing professionally for at least 15 years (meaning public presentation of your work) to apply to this category
- Mid-career: artists whose professional careers have passed the early stages, who have produced a reasonable body of work and have attained a fair degree of public exposure. You must have been practicing professionally for at least 8 years (meaning public presentation of your work) to apply to this category
- Emerging: artists in the early years of their professional careers who have a small exhibition record. You must have been practicing professionally for at least three years (meaning public presentation of your work) to apply to this category
- artists working in collaboration
- If you create work in collaboration with one or more artist(s), all of the collaborative team members must meet program and category eligibility criteria. Select one artist to apply on behalf of the group. If a grant is awarded, this lead applicant will receive a T4A and will take responsibility for the final report. Describe the collaboration in your artist’s statement and submit artistic examples showing past collaborative work. If you are part of a collaborative team application, you may not apply as an individual artist to the Visual Artists Creation Projects program at the same deadline. If awarded a collaborative team grant, members must skip a year before reapplying to the program.
Note:
- Applicants must have creative control over the project and hold copyright to the proposed work.
Read the Guide to OAC Project Programs for more eligibility information.
Important: Applicants must meet program and OAC eligibility criteria at the time of application and for the duration of your project.
Not eligible:
Ineligible applicants
Undergraduate or graduate students enrolled full-time at an educational institution
Artists who have been awarded a grant in the Media Artists Creation Projects program in the same year
Artists who have applied to Media Artists Creation Projects or to Craft Projects in the same year and are still waiting for their results
If you receive a Visual Artists Creation Project grant you must skip a year before you can apply again. For example, if you received a grant at the April 2026 deadline, you may not apply again until 2028
Artists, curators and collectives may only receive a grant from one of the following programs per year (based on the year of application deadline
Craft Projects
Curatorial Projects: Indigenous and Culturally Diverse
Media Artists Creation Projects
visual-artists-creation-projects
Visual Arts Projects
If you have already applied to one of these programs this year, you must wait to receive notification of not being awarded a grant before applying to another one
About the funding
- Emerging: $5,000
- Mid-Career: $7,500
- Established: $15,000
Important
Show all funding details
: Partial grants are not awarded.
- the time and materials needed to create new work for the project(s) described in your application. Eligible expenses include:
- material and supplies, production costs
- studio space or equipment rental
- purchase of small-scale equipment, software, electronics and similar materials required to carry out the project
- artist fees – payment to yourself or other artists engaged in creating the work.
- Artist fees should be calculated based on time or contribution to the project and/or relevant industry standards. The program does not fund living and personal expenses – do not include these as the rationale for the calculation of artist fees.
- travel, only if it is required to create the work (for example, photographer’s travel to the location of the subject of their work)
- childcare and other dependant care fees enabling you to take part in the project (this does not include regular, ongoing expenses)
- visual arts practices including painting, drawing, printmaking, installation, sculpture, performance art, photography and electronic media
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