Cultural Investment Program

• Be active in St. Catharines
• Provide programming or services that are open to the public and publicized city-wide
• Have a diversified revenue base (Culture Days Activity Program excluded)

Some activities are beyond the scope of the SCCIP. No activities will be funded retroactively. Grants are not available for:

• Civic departments, boards, commissions or advisory committees, City programs or projects (i.e. libraries, community centres)
• Social service, religious, or sports organizations
• Educational institutions (schools, colleges etc.)
• Club or community centre programs
• Conferences, conventions or banquets
• Scholarships, prizes and awards
• As donations (including the waiving of fees and charges)
• Groups raising funds for non-cultural causes
• Uniforms or personal equipment
• Deficit reduction
• Projects that are political or religious in nature, or that further related doctrine

• Carousel Players, an award-winning professional theatre for young audiences company, committed to presenting inspiring and creative plays for ages 4 to 18 in theatres, schools and other performance venues. Approved for: $47,000 (core) and $2,000 (special project)
• Chorus Niagara, an auditioned 100-voice mixed choir with singers who come from all walks of life and represent all ages from 18-80. Approved for: $18,000
• Niagara Artists Centre (NAC), a member-focused and community-minded arts organization, recognized in both Niagara Region and the broader contemporary arts community for the high quality, boundary-pushing work they program. Approved for: $46,000
• The Niagara Symphony Orchestra, a fully professional orchestra of over 50 musicians that provides diverse programming as an anchor organization at the FirstOntario Performing Arts Centre. Approved for: $60,000
• Suitcase in Point, a multi-arts organization that produces original satire and innovative multidisciplinary events in St. Catharines. Approved for: $33,000

Sustaining Midsized program

• The Avanti Chamber Singers, an award-winning, 30+ mixed voice choir who have been performing in St. Catharines since their inception in 2006. Approved for: $5,000
• Essential Collective Theatre, a professional theatre company that creates intimate and compelling theatre performances to reflect Niagara’s unique identity. Approved for: $33,000
• The Gallery Players of Niagara, one of Niagara’s most prominent presenters of classical chamber music, with intimate and diverse concerts that range from baroque repertoire on period instruments to commissions and performances of new Canadian works. Approved for: $12,000
• The Willow Arts Community, a multidisciplinary arts and mental health organization that provides free art classes, publication, and exhibition opportunities to adults with lived experience of mental health / addictions. Approved for: $18,000

Sustaining Festival program

• Bravo Niagara! Festival of the Arts, an organization that brings extraordinary Canadian and international musical performances and multidisciplinary artistic experiences to St. Catharines. Approved for: $14,500
• Cicada Music & Arts, an annual festival that showcases a diverse lineup of talented Canadian folk, roots, and world musicians who have garnered local and international recognition. Approved for: $18,000
• The Norm Foster Theatre Festival, a professional theatre company that produces the work of Canadian playwright Norm Foster, internationally renowned for his skill in examining extraordinary moments in the lives of ordinary people. Approved for: $22,000
• The Mighty Niagara Film Fest (Niagara Artists Centre), a festival that presents films made about or in Niagara, by filmmakers with connections to the region, as well as films that are considered of interest to Niagara audiences. Approved for: $5,000
• In the Soil Arts Festival (Suitcase In Point), an event that nurtures the creation of new work, showcases talent, encourages innovation, offers learning opportunities for youth and provides intimate and uncommon platforms for audiences to experience work by contemporary performing and literary artists, musicians and media artists. Approved for: $15,000
• The TD Niagara Jazz Festival, a festival that presents the finest Canadian and internationally-acclaimed jazz musicians in intimate indoor and outdoor venues in the heart of Niagara’s wine country. Approved for: $9,500 

September 2023 Deadline:

• Bart Gazzola / Niagara Curatorial Network – Mahtay Exhibition Series / 5 x 2 Visual Conversations: The Niagara Curatorial Network is a group organized and facilitated by local arts writer and curator Bart Gazzola. This project will showcase and promote Niagara-based artists at Mahtay Café, helping to raise the profile of visual culture in the downtown core. Approved for: $2,000

• Matter of Black Community Services – Emancipation Day STC 2024: Matter of Black’s mission is to amplify Black voices, Black history and Black businesses in the Niagara region. Emancipation Day STC 2024 – taking place from July 20 to August 1 – will celebrate Black history within Niagara region and engage with the whole community to showcase Black artists and experiences. Approved for: $8,715

May 2023 Deadline:

• Cicada Music & Arts – Festival 2023: Cicada Music & Arts is producing the 2023 edition of their festival, which will showcase a diverse lineup of talented Canadian folk, roots, and world musicians who have garnered local and international recognition. Approved for: $3,500
• Garden City Productions – Equipment Purchase: Garden City Productions is a long-running community theatre organization that will obtain and offer a professional sound and lighting system for their rehearsal space for use by their members, interested renters and community events. Approved for: $2,000
• Matter of Black Community Services – Emancipation Day STC 2023: Matter of Black’s mission is to amplify Black voices, Black history and Black businesses in the Niagara region. Taking place at Lakeside Park and throughout downtown St. Catharines, Emancipation Day STC will celebrate Black history within Niagara region and engage with the whole community to showcase Black artists and experiences. Approved for: $9,200

September 2023 Deadline:

• Willow Arts Community – Photo & Prose: Bringing Stories into the Light: Willow Arts Community will offer sessions in which participants create artwork that draws from their personal narratives through experimental photography and poetic prose. The project will culminate in the creation of a book that weaves together the images and text. Approved for: $7,500

May 2023 Deadline:

• Kristen French Child Advocacy Centre Niagara – Get Creative Youth Program: The Kristen French Child Advocacy Centre Niagara provides a safe place to help, heal, end child abuse for Niagara’s children and youth. Their project is an eight-week trauma-informed program for female-identifying youth aged 12-15, engaging local artists and the Centre’s program team to explore the personal circumstances of the kids’ lives and express their feelings through art. Approved for: $2,500

• Skye Rogers – Dance & Movement Days: Skye Rogers is a local interdisciplinary performing artist and dance teacher who will coordinate a series of two-hour workshops in different disciplines (e.g., dance, yoga, physical theatre and conscious movement), taking place once a month in different spaces around downtown St. Catharines. Approved for: $1,500

Culture Days Activity program

• Rhiannon Barry – Splatter Monsters Art: Participants use watercolours to create a messy base and then find a silly or scary monster image in the mess! Approved for: $665
• Carousel Players – The Drama Garden: An original promenade style theatre experience throughout Jaycee Gardens Park. Approved for: $1,000
• Chris Liszak – Beginner Wet Felted Pod: Participants will learn how loose wool fiber can be layered and worked with soap and water to produce a felt vessel Pod. Approved for: $520
• Janice Low – Woven Paper Paintings: Woven Paper Paintings is a visual arts, hands on painting experience followed by the cutting and weaving together of their two paintings. Approved for: $610
• Jelica Mijanovic – Classical Guitar: A History of Diversity in Music: An interactive lecture-recital that follows the guitar's evolution from the Islamic Caliphate of Cordoba, Jewish migration from Andalusia to the Balkans, and Roma's settlement in Spain, to the role of the Americas' native and enslaved peoples in guitar music. Approved for: $744
• Luis Molina – The Piano Music Master Composers: A didactic piano concert with repertoire including some of the most famous piano works by immortal composers; their music, anecdotes, comments and more will be shared performing, lecturing, and talking with the audience. Approved for: $500
• Michele Nicholls – Print it!: Learn how you can use everyday items and modern printmaking equipment and techniques to make beautiful art. At the end of this workshop, you will have created multiple printed masterpieces that you can take home! Approved for: $1,100
• Sid Segalowitz – Classical Chamber Music Program: Join this classical music ensemble – which features violin, clarinet, cello and piano – for a concert of music played in novel arrangements specifically suited for this combination of instruments. Approved for: $540
• Waterwood Theatre – Waterwood Theatre Puppet Workshop: Children aged 8 - 12 will make rod puppets based on the folk tale "The Shoemaker and the Elves". They will learn how to use their puppets and take them home for future enjoyment. Approved for: $956