SPECIAL ANNOUNCEMENT

2025 City of Kingston Arts Fund Project Grant Recipients Announced

The Kingston Arts Council (KAC) is pleased to announce the recipients of the 2025 City of Kingston Arts Fund (CKAF). At the City Council meeting last night on 4 November 2025, Council unanimously approved the grant recommendations in alignment with the recently completed City-led CKAF Review and the 2025 CKAF Transition Plan, both approved by Council at its meeting on 6 May 2025. Council additionally approved the new CKAF Framework, which provides guidance and structure to the City’s investment of funding for arts organizations, collectives, and individual artists through the CKAF, which has been in place since 2007. 

Click here to view City Staff Report Number 25-261 (pages 56-91), which includes the CKAF Framework (Exhibit A, pages 63-72) and grant recommendations (Exhibit B, pages 73-87).

2025 Transition Plan

The 2025 Transition Plan detailed the distribution and administration of CKAF funding in 2025 in preparation for the implementation of broader changes to the CKAF in 2026 and beyond under the new CKAF Framework. In June 2025, as per the Transition Plan, operating grant funding was distributed to 11 arts organizations and project grants were distributed to four organizations delivering recurring festivals. The Transition Plan also required that there would be a low barrier, open call for applications for arts projects, prioritizing funding for organizations, collectives, and artists who have not received a CKAF grant in the last two years. 

2025 Project Grant Recipients

This streamlined application process sought to eliminate administrative burdens, improve clarity, reduce barriers for potential applicants, and convey essential information in a succinct and accessible manner. To this end, application forms were condensed to 6 key questions focused on essential project details. By contrast, 2024 CKAF Project Grant applications consisted of 16 questions for new applicants and 20 questions for applicants with recurring projects. 

Applicants were invited to apply for up to $10,000 in funding for projects occurring between October 2025 and 31 December 2026. The CKAF 2025 Project Grants Jury reviewed a total of 35 eligible applications, and awarded 17 Project Grants, for a total funding allocation of $118,045. CKAF 2025 Project Grant recipients include:

• A New Beginning
  Deaf Spirit Theatre, $8,000

• A Rift in the Valley
  GHY Cheung, $5,245

• Airwave YGK Musicians-in-Residence Program
  CFRC 101.9FM, $7,500

• Bilingual Capoeira Batizado e Troca de Cordas
  Afro-Brazilian Arts Festival Association, $7,000

• Both Sides Now
  PeerLess Productions, $7,500

• Get Sketchy: An Urban Sketch Carousel
  Sumera Khan, $5,300

• Joy!
  Sistema Kingston, $7,000

• K is for Kingston, K is for Katarokwi
  Jane Kirby, $8,500

• Kingston Pop Choir
  Steph Drouin, $6,900

• Kingston Printmakers Collective
  Kingston School of Art, $7,500

• Old Wine New Bottles – Early Music Inspiring Young Musicians
  Melos Choir & Period Instruments, $7,000

• Paper Pulse — Regeneration
  Emily Wu, $7,500

• “PASS it on” – Project for Accessible Sewing Skills
  Breanne Johnson, $7,000

• Slow Dance 2026
  Slow Dance, $4,600

• The Art of Visiting – National Indigenous Presenters Gathering
  Lodgepole Arts Alliance, $7,000

• The Colours of Us: A Community Art Project on Connection
  Kingston Hidden Artist Collective, $7,000

• Wordlabs
  Kingston Literacy and Skills, $7,500

For more details about CKAF 2025 Project Grant recipients, please visit artskingston.ca/ckaf-project.

Operating Grant Recipients

11 Operating Grant recipients were identified and approved for funding via the CKAF 2025 Transition Plan, for a total funding allocation of $434,745:

• Agnes Etherington Art Centre, $75,000

• Cantabile Choirs of Kingston, $31,620

• Centre culturel Frontenac, $14,229

• Kingston Canadian Film Festival, $51,000

• Kingston Symphony Association, $75,000

• Kingston WritersFest, $45,710

• Modern Fuel Artist-Run Centre, $54,060

• ReelOut Queer Film Festival, $24,480

• Single Thread Theatre Company, $10,200

• Theatre Kingston, $38,767

• Union Gallery, $14,679

For more details about CKAF 2025 Operating Grant recipients, please visit artskingston.ca/ckaf-operating.

Project Grant Recipients: Recurring Festivals

The CKAF 2025 Transition Plan additionally identified 4 organizations who receive CKAF Project Grants annually to support the delivery of recurring festivals.

A total of $60,000 was allocated to the following festivals, approved via the CKAF 2025 Transition Plan: 

• Festival of Live Digital Art (FOLDA) 
  SpiderWebShow Performance, $15,000

• Ground UP Dance Festival
  Ground UP Dance Festival, $15,000

• Juvenis Festival
  Blue Canoe Theatrical Productions, $15,000

• Skeleton Park Arts Festival
  Skeleton Park Arts Festival, $15,000

For more details about CKAF Project Grant recipients (recurring festivals), please visit artskingston.ca/ckaf-project.

About the City of Kingston Arts Fund

The City of Kingston Arts Fund (CKAF) was established by Kingston City Council in 2007, and has been administered by the Kingston Arts Council since its inception. CKAF enables the City of Kingston to continue to invest in and support the arts, heritage, and culture in Kingston. Through this program, the City has invested over $10.3 million in the local arts industry since 2007. 

Between 2007-2024, the KAC submitted annual plans for administration of the CKAF to be approved by City Council. In 2025, the CKAF was administered according to the CKAF 2025 Transition Plan approved in May 2025. The new CKAF Framework, created in alignment with the recommendations outlined in the CKAF Review Report, was approved at Kingston City Council on 4 November 2025 and supersedes previous CKAF administrative and reporting structures.

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