NWT artists can now apply for money to travel and tour – or to start an arts-related business – under new funding streams launched by the territorial government.
The Artist Travel and Touring Fund and Arts Business Support Fund are new programs in a broader arts funding update.
Both funds accept applications year-round on a first-come, first-served basis, with budgets refreshed each April 1.
Five existing programs have also been updated. The GNWT said its redesigned model had created “a single umbrella structure with consistent language, clearer guidelines, and harmonized processes.”
The restructuring follows criticism from artists that the previous patchwork of programs was confusing and difficult to navigate.
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The redesign “brings all funding streams under a single structure with consistent language, clearer guidelines, and harmonized processes,” the territorial government said in a news release.
Industry minister Caitlin Cleveland was quoted as saying the GNWT had tried “to move from a place of trying to fit artists and people into our programs, to instead making the programs fit the artists and people.”
Responsibility for arts funding moved from the Department of Education, Culture and Employment to ITI in April 2025.
