Ontario Visual Artists Creation Projects 2026: CA$5,000–$15,000 for electronic-media and installation art
Create new work: the next deadline is 3 November 2026
The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) is accepting its second 2026 round of Visual Artists Creation Projects applications until Tuesday 3 November 2026 at 1:00 pm Eastern Time. The programme supports professional visual artists living in Ontario, Canada, as they develop and create new original work. Of particular relevance to digital-art practitioners, the OAC specifically includes electronic media, installation, photography, sculpture, performance art and other visual-arts practices. The amount awarded is determined by career stage, and eligible collaborative teams can apply through one nominated artist. It is not a general worldwide digital-technology grant or an open international art prize.
An artist creating a room-scale interactive installation, electronic visual sculpture, algorithmically generated image series or digitally informed photographic project may find the scope relevant if the practice is genuinely visual art and meets the OAC's category requirements. This is a programme for the production of new artistic work, not for a commercial app, routine website redesign or an exhibition tour. Artists whose main medium is film or video installation should check with OAC because its Visual Artists Creation Projects and Media Artists Creation Projects can overlap.
Three fixed grant levels: CA$5,000, CA$7,500 and CA$15,000
The emerging-artist category provides a grant of CA$5,000. The mid-career category provides CA$7,500, and the established-artist category provides CA$15,000. These are the stated grant amounts, not minimum-to-maximum ranges that every applicant can choose freely. The Council says partial grants are not awarded, and selection remains competitive. Applicants must identify the proper career category rather than applying for CA$15,000 solely because a digital installation uses expensive technology.
A smaller electronic-media artwork might require studio rental, artist time and production materials; a more extensive installation might involve collaborators, fabrication and controlled electronic components. Budget each cost against the actual creation process and the official spending rules, keeping clear distinctions between eligible work expenses and personal living costs. As with all project funding, the published grant amount should not be treated as unrestricted cash for the artist's household expenses.
Who qualifies: professional visual artists living in Ontario
The geographic test is Ontario residence, not simply a gallery exhibition or one partner based in Toronto. A professional artist living outside the province is not made individually eligible because their digital work will be displayed in an Ontario venue. Applicants must also satisfy the programme's professional practice and public-presentation requirements, and must continue to be eligible during the funded project. The programme does not impose a requirement that the proposed artwork be shown only within Ontario; the application should still explain its artistic purpose and eligible use of the grant.
Emerging, mid-career or established? Count the professional years
For emerging artists, OAC requires at least three years of professional practice, measured through public presentation of their work. Mid-career applicants need at least eight years of professional practice and an established body of work with meaningful public exposure. Established artists must have at least fifteen years of professional practice and significant recognition, including a more substantial exhibition history. These are minimum category indicators rather than guarantees that holding a degree or having created images privately for that long automatically qualifies an applicant.
Applicants whose practice combines software, projection and conventional objects should document how and when their artistic work was publicly presented. An emerging artist may have independent exhibitions and smaller public presentations; established artists are expected to demonstrate a more developed record. Avoid inflating exhibition histories or treating social-media account creation as conclusive proof of a first professional exhibition. The application, résumé and artistic examples need to tell a coherent story about the claimed career stage.
Working with collaborators: everyone must be eligible
OAC also allows artists who create work collaboratively. All members of the collaborative team must meet the programme and career-category eligibility criteria, and one artist applies as the nominated lead. If successful, that person receives the Canadian T4A tax document and must submit the final project report. A participant in a collaborative-team application cannot also apply as an individual to the same Visual Artists Creation Projects deadline, and receiving a collaborative grant also affects eligibility in later years. This makes the lead artist and team composition decisions important before submitting.
An informal studio collaboration is not exempt from the residency test: bringing in an international programmer, visual designer or performer does not automatically qualify a collaboration whose applicants live outside Ontario. Artists should decide who is part of the applicant team versus who may be contracted as a service provider or artistic collaborator, and confirm any borderline case with the programme administrator before filing. The OAC rules for collaborations and for artist fees should guide any planned compensation.
Electronic media and installation are explicitly supported
Visual Artists Creation Projects lists visual-arts practices including electronic media, installation, painting, printmaking, photography, sculpture and performance art. This is useful for artists making physical-digital hybrid works such as projection installations, light-responsive objects, new-media sculpture or original electronic image-making. However, inclusion of electronic media does not mean every film, game, commercial software product or digital service is covered. Film and video installation projects can overlap with the OAC Media Artists Creation Projects route, and applicants should ask which programme is correct.
The official guidance permits small-scale equipment, software and electronics purchases that are needed directly to create the artwork, along with materials, production costs, studio rental and equipment rental. This is a meaningful distinction from grants that ban all hardware purchases. It does not mean that a major capital expenditure, a building purchase or expensive general-purpose equipment is always reimbursable. Link each requested component to an actual artistic production task and the scale of the project.
What the grant can fund
Eligible costs can include the time and materials to make the described new work, studio space, production services, equipment rental and artist fees for the lead artist or other involved artists. Artist fees should reflect time or contribution and relevant professional standards; the programme specifically warns not to use personal rent, groceries or general living expenses as the rationale for those fees. Travel is eligible only if required for the creation itself, such as visiting a subject location to produce new photographs or gather material.
The Council also lists childcare and other dependent-care costs necessary to participate in a project, excluding ongoing normal expenses. Applicants who are Deaf or have disabilities may be able to request additional support for project-related access expenses through OAC's accessibility programme. These budget categories should be properly documented and must not be confused with unconditional personal benefits. A credible budget shows how the proposed project would change with the grant and what deliverables the funds will make possible.
What it does not fund
Excluded expenditure includes major capital purchases, buying or renovating buildings, exhibition presentation expenses such as shipping and framing, marketing websites or brochures, publications and books, professional development courses, student projects, exhibition-related travel, commissioned artworks and fundraising. A professional visual artist seeking training with a specialist should look at a professional-development scheme rather than attempt to treat a course as new artwork production. Similarly, the grant is not intended as a presentation budget for a previously completed exhibition.
The list also excludes daily living costs such as subsistence, notwithstanding the allowance for fairly calculated artist fees. For digital practices, this means a request framed mainly around buying an expensive workstation or paying for an unrelated subscription would need careful scrutiny; a small artistic electronic component used to create a described installation is a different proposition. The reviewer will look for artistic justification, not simply whether the invoice contains 'digital' or 'AI' in its description.
Cross-programme restrictions and student ineligibility
Full-time undergraduate or graduate students cannot apply. OAC also excludes artists who have already received Media Artists Creation Projects funding in the same year, or who have current unresolved applications to certain overlapping programmes. Across Craft Projects, Curatorial Projects: Indigenous and Culturally Diverse, Media Artists Creation Projects, Visual Artists Creation Projects and Visual Arts Projects, an applicant may receive only one award per year. Check which awards or applications you have already submitted in 2026 before preparing another one.
Receiving a Visual Artists Creation Projects grant triggers a waiting period before reapplying: the OAC example notes that someone awarded funding at a 2026 deadline generally must skip a year and return no earlier than 2028. Collaborative teams have specific waiting-period restrictions as well. The programme is therefore not a source of automatic repeat annual grants for a standing studio practice; it is a competitive mechanism to support a defined artistic project.
Timing: work cannot start before the deadline
The supported activity must not begin before the 3 November 2026 deadline, must not end before the grant results are issued, and must finish within two years of receiving those results. The OAC estimates applicants will receive decisions approximately four and a half months after the deadline. This makes the programme unsuitable as retroactive funding for an installation that has already been finished or a show that will close before results. Artists can outline preparatory thinking, but should avoid treating already completed production as new grant-funded activity.
Portfolio rules for images, video and interactive work
The application requires artistic examples totalling a maximum of eight still images or eight minutes of video. For performance art, kinetic sculpture and electronic media, video documentation may be accepted in place of stills: each minute of video reduces the allowable still-image count by one. The Council does not permit montage videos that splice many artworks together. For an interactive installation, show the relationship between image, object, audience and interaction clearly, within the stated limit, rather than submitting long unreviewable demonstration footage.
Applicants must also supply a résumé of no more than three pages and the narrative application answers in OAC's Nova system. A concise project description should identify what new work will be created, why it matters to the artist's practice and how the materials and schedule connect to the process. This is useful preparation advice; the binding questions and format limits are those shown in the live application form. Additional unsolicited brochures, press clippings and reviews will not be accepted as substitute support material.
Submission by Nova: Tuesday 3 November at 1 pm Eastern
Applications are submitted through Nova, the Ontario Arts Council's online grants portal, with a closing time of 1:00 pm Eastern Time on 3 November 2026. Artists should create or update their Nova profile, verify category eligibility, complete the budget and upload work samples before the deadline. The official page notes that information is subject to change before the relevant Nova form opens, so applicants must rely on the live rules and portal as their final source. A saved draft in the application platform is not equivalent to a submitted and received application.
What happens if you receive an award?
Grant recipients complete the project and file a final report in Nova. According to the programme page, the report includes a summary of the completed work, a record of any approved changes and eight images or eight minutes of video documenting the new artwork, along with a numbered description list and evidence of acknowledging OAC support. Recipients should preserve their progress documentation and agreed deliverables during production. In addition, project spending remains bound to the grant's terms and any tax-reporting obligations.