Canada Arts Training Fund (CATF) | Canadian Heritage

To be eligible for funding, your arts organization must:

• be incorporated in Canada as a non-profit organization;
• exist primarily to provide professional arts training, or have established professional arts training as an integral component of your overall activities;
• offer training activities in Canada that clearly align with program objectives;
• demonstrate that the training for which funding is requested is not funded as a provincial post-secondary education activity. For example, arts organizations who operate independently from a provincial / territorial educational program, are governed by their own Board of directors and administer their own budget;
• receive support for at least 30% of costs related to the training work, from sources other than the Canada Arts Training Fund, such as tuition, other levels of government, fundraising (20% for Indigenous and ethnocultural organizations);
• be directed by recognized professionals in the discipline in which training is provided. While you may operate other concurrent activities for different purposes, the training program should be staffed with professionals from that artistic discipline;
• have sufficient administrative capacity to support organizational objectives and to comply with funding conditions;
• have delivered for a minimum of three consecutive years the professional training program and have maintained full time administrative operations in support of the training program;
• have a track record of significant artistic achievement at the national level, with graduates having a national impact and achieving wide recognition in their discipline; often in a leadership capacity within their artistic field, for example a principal dancer, choreographer, artistic director, lead actor, musician, circus artists, playwright, composer, visual artists;
• be accessible to Canadians through a national, competitive admission process available in both of Canada’s official languages, including a bilingual website and information material, and a bilingual audition process. An exception will be made for training programs in a language-specific art form such as theatre. Exceptions may also be made for training programs involving students aged 10 to 19 years, where the accompanying academic education is offered in only one language; and
• have a national student body with at least 20% of its student body from regions outside the training area.

Indigenous and ethnocultural organizations can be exempted of having:

• a national, competitive admission process in both official languages;
• a bilingual website;
• a bilingual audition process; and
• a national student body with at least 20% of its student body from outside the training area.