New Report: Black Arts Funding for a Black Arts Future
From the Toronto Arts Council: "As the newest wave of protests by Black bodies sets the world ablaze in 2020 once again, loudly demanding the right to live, work, play and in the case of this report, make art, organizations both public and private seem to be taking yet another step towards equity for Black bodies. Toronto Arts Council (TAC) is no exception and is showing leadership as it steps up to acknowledge its own shortcomings in support of Black Artists by designing a new grant program stream specifically for Black artists/arts organizations, which according to 90% of participants in the consultations that inform this report, is very much needed."
"Current granting statistics within TAC show that 10% of individual artist grant applicants identified as Black in 2019 vs 8.9% in the 2016 census; 16% of organization/collective project grants and 3% of operating grant applicants identifying as Black. The success rates for individual and
organization/collective grants is reported as the same overall success rate for other applicants, and Black individual artist grants represented 9% of grant dollars awarded to individuals, Black organization/collective project grants represented 14% of granting dollars and Black organizations/collective operating grants represented only 2% of granting dollars."
"Of the 162 respondents who participated in this consultation, 60.49% of respondents have never received funding from TAC. The community consultations that informed this report provided a valuable opportunity to reveal the specific barriers and unexplored issues that contribute to these lower numbers of support, as well as the possibilities for change."
"While the overwhelming consensus by participants that the $300,000 represented a token gesture, it sparked the exploration of potential new ideas and revealing deeper insight into current obstructions. Great skepticism was balanced by a cautious optimism that perhaps this initiative could be an important first step by TAC to address long standing systemic issues that have shackled the artistic potential of the Black arts community."