To help ensure that Saskatchewan’s Black and People of Colour (BPOC) communities had access to arts funding that met their needs, a partnership of funding agencies collaborated with community members to discuss, design and deliver the new Building Equity in the Arts funding program. The new funding program, launched October 24, was created by the community and breaks down barriers to new and important arts opportunities.
Funding partners, SK Arts, SaskCulture and the Multicultural Council of Saskatchewan (MCoS) collaborated with members of the BPOC community to develop this new funding program. The new program aims to attract artists, collective groups and art leaders of African, Black, Asian, Latin American, Caribbean and Middle Eastern descent. The new program has two deadlines annually — February 1 and July 1 — and provides funding of up to $5,000 in funding to individual applicants.
Specifically designed to reach new members of the BPOC community, the program requires applicants to have previously accessed no more than $10,000 of SK Arts funding eligible under this stream. Organizations are also ineligible.
The Building Arts Equity program, funded by SK Arts and Sask Lotteries, is the second participatory grant-making program to be launched by SK Arts this year.