The City of Toronto has announced the recipients of the new Cultural Festivals Funding Program (CFFP) and enhanced funding for cultural organizations outside of the city core.
Mayor John Tory announced the cultural funding at the annual Mayor’s Arts Lunch, hosted by the Toronto Arts Foundation, which returned for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The new CFFP will provide $2 million amongst 37 cultural festivals, 32 of which have never received regular funding from the City. CFFP, which aims to increase the accessibility, accountability and transparency of City funding to cultural festivals, is one way the City is supporting economic recovery for the arts and culture sector along with communities, businesses and marginalized community event organizations that have been impacted by COVID-19. This is the first round of funding for this new program.
The City also announced a one-time increase of $400,000 in funding to arts organizations outside the city core that provide accessible public programming. Recipients for this funding include the Nia Centre for the Arts, RISE Edutainment, the Museum of Contemporary Art Toronto and the network of critical Local Arts Service Organizations.
Base funding of $1.78 million for the CFFP is included in the 2022 Operating Budget Submission for Economic Development and Culture (EDC). The funding for this program is comprised of annual operating commitments of $1.28 million that were made to organizations previously funded under the festivals component of the Major Cultural Organizations program plus an enhancement of $700,000 that was approved in the 2020 and 2021 EDC Operating Budgets. In 2020, this enhanced funding was disbursed under the one-time CFFP. In 2021, it was allocated to arts organizations creating cultural animation in the public realm during the pandemic under the City’s ShowLoveTO initiative.
The City’s investment in these organizations and festivals reflect the importance the City places on its arts sector and its recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic.
More information about arts and culture grants is available on the City’s website: https://www.toronto.ca/service
#CityOfTO announces recipients of Cultural Festivals Funding Program and enhanced funding for cultural organizations outside of the city core
News release: https://t.co/fbKSkOTJIy
More information about arts and culture grants is available: https://t.co/vc8qRbX3ir.
— City of Toronto (@cityoftoronto) April 25, 2022
Quotes:
“We know that cultural festivals and the programs they offer play an important role in not only representing the many diverse communities that call Toronto home but help create a more liveable and vibrant Toronto. As we move ahead in our reopening, this funding will help drive the local economy as we welcome the return of in-person events and programming this spring and summer.”
– Mayor John Tory
“Cultural festivals and programming are essential fuel for the spirit of our multicultural city. We have listened closely to Toronto’s artists and arts organizations. Their input is enabling us to deliver initiatives that speed the sector’s recovery, and support its efforts to re-energize the city.”
– Deputy Mayor Michael Thompson (Scarborough Centre), Chair of the Economic and Community Development Committee
Source City of Toronto
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