Program Overview
On June 2, 2021, Calgary Arts Development made a statement announcing that we designated up to $75,000 of our ArtShare Program funds to support artistic projects in memory of the 215 children found at Kamloops Indian Residential School. That announcement can be found at calgaryartsdevelopment.com. Since that time, there have been many more recoveries of unmarked graves at residential school sites across Canada, and as efforts increase to search these sites, there will be many more to come. With the support of our Indigenous Advisory, we named the $75,000 funding pool the Honouring the Children Grant which we offered again in 2022 and 2023, and will be available for 2024 as well.
Our commitment at Calgary Arts Development is to build good relations with First Nations, Métis, and Inuit (FNMI) based on mutual respect, to listen deeply, and to dedicate intentional funding for FNMI art and artists. It is all of our responsibility to respond to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s calls to action and to work to reverse systemic racism against Indigenous people amidst the ongoing devastation and trauma of these discoveries.
Though this program was created in response to the children found in Kamloops, we recognize the impact of residential schools on all Indigenous peoples across Turtle Island.
How to Apply?
This program is specifically for Indigenous artists or Indigenous arts organizations who live and work on Treaty 7 territory, to support artistic projects responding to, honouring or in memory of the loss of life, culture, ceremony and language amongst the original peoples of this land because of the residential school system.