Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF)
The Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF) provided by the Department of Canadian Heritage aims to give Canadians access to a variety of professional artistic experiences in their communities. The CAPF recognizes that arts presenters are key partners in achieving this objective by providing financial assistance to organizations that professionally present arts festivals or performing arts series and organizations that offer support to arts presenters. The fund is available to presenters and organizations across Canada, including those in underserved communities and populations.
Through the CAPF, Canadians have access to a variety of professional artistic experiences in their communities. Each year, the CAPF supports approximately 600 professional arts festivals and performing arts series, as well as other activities related to arts presentation, in more than 250 cities and communities across Canada.
The Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF) has two main components – Programming and Development. The CAPF Programming component has two streams: Professional Arts Festivals and Performing Arts Series Presenters, and Presenter Support Organizations.
The CAPF Programming component provides financial assistance to Canadian not-for-profit organizations that professionally present arts festivals or performing arts series, as well as their support organizations. In 2014-15, the program funded recipients in 250 communities across the country through 242 festivals, 262 performing arts series, 82 organizations that presented both a festival and a series, and 29 presenter support organizations.
The CAPF program also has a Development component to support the emergence of arts presenters and support organizations for underserved communities and populations such as aboriginal, ethnocultural, official language minority communities, youth, remote and rural communities, and contemporary artistic disciplines and genres.
Examples of recipients funded under the CAPF include the imagineNATIVE Film + Media Arts Festival in Toronto, Ontario, the Manitoba Theatre for Young People based in Winnipeg, the Festival international Nuits d'Afrique in Montréal, Quebec, and the Calgary International Reggae Festival (ReggaeFest) in Alberta.
The Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF) is expected to achieve two goals:
1. To ensure Canadian not-for-profit arts organizations offer a variety of arts festivals and series through funding provided by the CAPF.
2. To give Canadians, including those in underserved communities, access to a variety of professional artistic experiences in their communities.
In 2014-15, the CAPF achieved both goals by providing funding support to encourage recipients in providing program variety and interaction between artists and citizens, as well as the presentation of challenging and innovative artistic experiences in Canada. These results, which are consistent with the past two years, reflect the CAPF's goals to fund recipients to present a wide range of artistic performances reflecting Canadian cultural and regional diversity, to reach underserved communities, and to encourage Canadians to engage and participate in artistic experiences. Ultimately, the long-term results of the CAPF will allow Canadians to experience and value professional artistic experiences.
In 2014-15, the budgetary financial resourced dedicated to the program were $34,711,933 CAD.
For detailed figures, please see: http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1452882573072
An evaluation focused on the period from 2007-08 to 2012-13 was conducted for three Canadian Heritage Programs included in the Arts Policy Branch: the Canada Arts Presentation Fund (CAPF), Canada Cultural Spaces Fund (CCSF), and Canada Cultural Investment Fund (CCIF). As specified by Treasury Board Secretariat of Canada’s Directive on the Evaluation Policy (2009), the core issues addressed in this evaluation were: relevance, including continued need for the programs, alignment with government priorities, alignment with federal roles and responsibilities, and performance, including effectiveness, efficiency and economy.
The main conclusions and findings are that there is a continuing need for ongoing federal government support to the arts and heritage sector through programs such as the CAPF, which helps ensure that all Canadians have access to and benefit from arts and heritage experiences. Factors such as the digital revolution, the economic downturn and changing demographics contribute to the need for federal government support to ensure that arts and culture remain accessible, relevant, and sustainable.
The evaluation also found that the CAPF enabled a large number of arts presenters to reach a wide range of communities and audiences, expose communities to various professional artistic experiences, strengthen their linkages in the community, and further develop their professional skills. On average, nearly 600 projects were funded annually across a wide range of disciplines, communities and groups, including underserved populations. About 65% of communities reached with the CAPF programming component and 28% of communities reached with the development component were rural and remote.