Core funds

Why this fund?

The arts and culture community in Montréal reflects the city’s diverse population. With the goal of ensuring that all professional artists, artists’ collectives and arts organizations in Montréal can fully contribute to the city’s development, the Conseil will create a fund to stimulate and support the professional arts practice of people from communities experiencing equity and representativeness challenges: 

• Indigenous Peoples (First Nations, Métis and Inuit)
• visible minorities
• women
• people of diverse abilities
• ethnocultural minorities
• people from 2SLGBTQIA+ communities
• linguistic minorities

The Conseil’s most recent strategic plan included an objective to grant 25% of its budget (5% more than currently) to these priority groups by 2025. The Fund for Equity and Diversity in the Arts will help the Conseil increase financial support for artists and cultural workers from these groups while continuing to support all artisans in the Montréal arts community.

What will the funds be used for?

This fund will finance future programs and current initiatives to support even more cultural workers and artists from these communities.

Some of the programs include:

• démART-Mtl
• Envol Award
• Intersections residency
• Impressions residency
• Je me vois à l’écran screenwriting residency
• Support program for D/deaf and artists with a disability
• Support program for Indigenous artists
• Support programs for Indigenous collectives and organizations

How your gift makes a difference

• Helps the Conseil better meet the needs of artists and cultural workers from priority groups
• Improves accessibility, equity and representativeness within the Montréal cultural community
• Gives people from priority groups improved access to funding sources and resources, increasing the number of applications received from priority groups and individuals
• Diversifies the works that are produced and disseminated so Montrealers can discover and appreciate new artistic works and disciplines
• Helps Montréal continue to stand out as Canada’s cultural metropolis

Why this fund?

With the climate emergency looming, the Conseil will lead the arts community toward eco-responsibility, reducing its carbon footprint and providing greater support for arts communities as they make their own green transitions. As such, the Conseil has included eco-responsibility as one of its priorities in the 2022–2025 strategic plan.

A growing number of Montréal arts organizations want to transition but have been unable to do so because of a lack of financial resources, knowledge, support and shared expertise. 

What will the funds be used for?

The Conseil will create a philanthropic fund to support innovative arts initiatives around environmental responsibility. More specifically, this fund will be used to:

• enhance the Environmentally responsible production, dissemination, promotion and consolidation program, established in partnership with Conseil des arts et des lettres du Québec and Culture Montréal, making it possible to provide financial support to more cultural organizations as they make the green transition, give the cultural sector the tools they need, and develop environmentally responsible projects
• provide green transition training and tools for cultural organizations (e.g., Creative Green platform)
• create an award to foster and recognize environmental responsibility best practices in Montréal’s arts communities
  

How your gift makes a difference

• Transforms the arts into a powerful driver of social and environmental change. Sometimes, arts can reach people in a way science can’t.
• Accelerates the creation of a framework for green transition within Montréal’s arts and culture sectors. 
• Helps cultural organizations take stock of their ecological impact and green transition progress. 
• Helps the Conseil directly contribute to the City of Montréal’s 2020–2030 climate plan to reach carbon neutrality by 2050.

Why this fund?

According to the latest Hill Strategies study published in 2024 (2021 data), the median employment income of artists in Montreal was just $17,400, half that of all workers on the island ($35,600). The median personal income of artists (all sources combined) was $35,600, 21% less than that of all Montreal workers ($44,800). Another noteworthy fact: Montreal is home to 48% of Quebec’s entire professional arts community.

The majority of the Conseil’s current grant programs primarily support arts organizations and artists’ collectives, not individual artists.

The financial support and visibility that come with a grant can have a major impact on an artist’s career, especially for women, ethnocultural and Indigenous artists. In line with its traditional role as catalyst, the Conseil will create a grant fund to support eligible artists and spark the interest of new donors and patrons.

What will the funds be used for?

This fund will support artists from various disciplines whose creativity and innovation set them apart. The purpose of these grants is to financially support these talented artists and increase their visibility among their peers and audiences.

How your gift makes a difference

• Helps keep talented artists in the Montréal arts community
• Increase the visibility of exceptional Montréal artists among their peers, audiences, other funders and donors
• Let artists focus on artistic creation