Artsweek 2025
Program Guidelines and Application Form

Festival Dates: September 29 to October 5, 2025

Download the application form HERE. Applications are accepted via email only to infoartsweek@gmail.com before the deadline, June 10, 2025 at 11:59pm.

Artsweek Background

Artsweek is produced and presented by the Electric City Culture Council (EC3). It is Peterborough’s biennial “festival of the arts” – an exhilarating extravaganza of music, literary and spoken word arts, puppetry and kid’s programming, media arts (film, video, new media), visual arts, circus arts, dance, theatre and performance of all kinds, created by local artists and arts organizations, unfolding in public spaces all across the city. All Artsweek events are FREE.

Since its beginning as part of the City of Peterborough’s Centennial Celebrations in 2005, this legacy project has brought new work to new audiences in unexpected ways, supported original creation by local artists, and celebrated Peterborough as an innovative, creative community with a vibrant arts scene. Artsweek events build public engagement with, and awareness of, the arts. Projects can take place anywhere in the city, and proposals for “unexpected arts venues” are especially welcome. The Festival also accepts reprises of previous work. All artists are paid.

Artsweek 2025 once again employs a three-part programming model including projects selected and funded by a peer jury from this Open Call for applications, commissioned work initiated by EC3 that may include new work or reprised projects, and projects initiated by invited curators. Applications to the Open Call are welcome from individual artists, arts organizations, arts collectives or ad hoc groups.

Call for Proposals: Artsweek 2025 Grant Application Instructions

If you would like to apply to be part of Artsweek 2025 and receive funding to support your project, please read all the information below before completing the application form at the end of this package.

Please use the checklist on the final page to ensure you have included all the required information. Applications are welcome from individual artists in any discipline, from all kinds and sizes of arts organizations, collectives, and associations, and from partnerships and collaborations between arts and non-arts applicants.

Grant Application Deadlines

  • April 30: Open call for applications/proposals
  • June 10: Deadline for completed applications (at 11:59pm)
  • July 1: Announcement of successful Artsweek Grants/Projects
  • September 29 to October 5: Artsweek Festival

Artsweek 2025 Grant Applications

Programming Overview
This is an Open Call for innovative new projects in any artistic discipline, for any location within the City of Peterborough. Artsweek 2025 features work in the downtown, but also in other city wards, in parks, the zoo, playgrounds, markets and malls, community centre parking lots, etc. Mobile projects, day and nighttime projects, projects on streets and in neighbourhoods are very welcome.

This Open Call for Proposals includes, but is not limited to, performance (dance, theatre, multi-disciplinary performance), visual art (installations, sculptures interventions, projections, exhibitions), media arts, writing/spoken word, and any form of music, concerts or sound/audio art. Individual artists, collectives, ad hoc groups, or arts organizations may propose projects.

Conventional presentations, pop-ups, one time, continuous or short-run project proposals are all eligible. Curated, educational and community-based projects are eligible. Partnerships and collaborations between arts groups or with other community-based organizations are welcome. Artists are encouraged to explore ideas taking place anywhere in the City of Peterborough.

  • Artsweek encourages artists working in a variety of disciplines to submit their original ideas for funding to create new work. The overarching programming theme for Artsweek 2025 is “art in unexpected places,” day and nighttime projects too.
  • Artsweek welcomes submissions from individual artists, curators, and collectives.
  • The festival strives to present projects that reflect and promote the cultural, racial and social diversity of Peterborough and Canada today. We celebrate diversity, equity and inclusion.
  • While we expect the 2025 Festival will include events in the downtown core, Artsweek looks to include some projects located outside of the downtown in a variety of wards and neighbourhoods as well. Previous locations have included Jackson Park, Millenium Park, other neighbourhood parks, the London Street Footbridge, Riverview Park and Zoo and the Peterborough Lift Locks, among others. Artists are encouraged to submit site-specific ideas for these locations or suggest other potential sites/venues for their projects. Artsweek 2025 will feature fewer projects, of a larger scale than in previous years.
  • Artists are invited to submit ideas for art interventions that transform and activate city spaces including flash mobs, pop-ups, etc. Project proposals may include the work(s) of one artist or several and may happen one or multiple times. Durational projects are also welcome. Think outside the box.

Financial Support
Artsweek grants will contribute between $1,500 and $5,000 towards projects; however, artists are encouraged to seek out other funding sources to help contribute to the full cost of their projects if possible. Artsweek will support artists in their applications/requests to other funding sources. Artsweek will collect donations at all events. That revenue goes to the overall costs of the Festival.

All Artsweek events are free to the public.

Eligible Applicants
Applicants may include individual artists (emerging to established), collectives, ad hoc groups, or arts and culture organizations from the City and County of Peterborough, including Hiawatha and Curve Lake First Nations.

The lead applicant must be a Canadian citizen, permanent resident, or person upon whom refugee protection has been conferred.

Projects must be presented within City of Peterborough limits between Sunday, September 29 and Sunday October 5, 2025.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
EC3 and Artsweek are committed to establishing fair and equitable practices for all of our programs and services in accordance with the Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) and the Human Rights Code.

Persons with disabilities or any barriers, are encouraged to come forward at any stage of the application process to request accommodations, if needed. Members of our team will consult and can adapt processes wherever possible to provide individuals with disabilities, different approaches, or culturally specific or marginalized creative interests with equal opportunity to apply.

EC3 encourages applications for Artsweek 2025 from all those artists who live in our diverse community and advocates for equal opportunity for all applicants in the application and selection process. EC3 is committed to supporting and promoting diverse artists, artistic practices, and arts communities that represent a wide cross-section of Peterborough and the surrounding area, including artists who are Indigenous, Black, or people of colour, as well as artists with disabilities, Deaf artists and those who are members of marginalized religious, sexual orientation, and gender identity groups. EC3 strives to make our juries, selection, and assessment committees equitable and inclusive by ensuring broad representation from the communities outlined above.

If you are a first-time applicant and need assistance with the process, please contact the Artsweek team at: infoartsweek@gmail.com.

EC3 will be holding public information workshops about applying to Artsweek 2025, dates TBA. Watch our social media and website for announcements.

Vulnerable Communities
If your project involves working with a vulnerable community (e.g. minors, those living with mental illness, economic disadvantage, etc.), EC3 may require the completion and review of a Police Vulnerable Sector Check (PVSC) from any project participants who will be interacting directly with members of that community, before Artsweek funds can be released. Proof that the participant has recently passed a PVSC (within the last year) will also be acceptable. EC3 can cover the cost of the PVSC upon request.

Assessment of Applications
A Peer Selection Committee will review applications/proposals. Projects will be selected and support provided based on the following criteria:

  • Overall artistic merit of the project
  • Quality and clarity of the applicant’s creative statement and project description
  • Project feasibility (budget and demonstrated ability to carry out the project)
  • Fit with the Festival’s vision and purpose
  • Potential arts awareness/public engagement impact is an important assessment criteria
  • Available funds

Notification
Artsweek will email you a notice acknowledging receipt of your submission shortly after the final application deadline. Acknowledgement indicates that your application has been received, not that it is eligible or approved. You will be informed of the results by July 1, 2025.

Successful Applicants
If your application is successful, EC3/Artsweek will send you a Letter of Agreement.

How to Apply

Download the application form HERE.

Applications are accepted via email only to infoartsweek@gmail.com before the deadline, June 10, 2025 at 11:59pm.

Contact

Gabe Pollock, EC3 Director of Granting
infoartsweek@gmail.com
www.artsweekpeterborough.ca

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