BCAC: Professional Development Grants

Deadline: April 15, 2026

Program Summary:

Professional Development grants assist professional artists, cultural practitioners, production and technical personnel, and arts administrators with specific, short-term learning activities intended to advance their practice or career. Activities should lead to clearly articulated learning or career outcomes, goals, or objectives.

Grants are not intended to support the creation of new work, research (unless it is directly related to the learning activity), self-directed learning, full-time studies, or travel expenses that are associated with auditions, attending conferences, showcases or events focused on presentations.

Examples of Eligible Activities

Course or Workshop: A course or workshop following a specified curriculum or including specific skills acquisition or learning outcomes. This may include masterclasses or private studies with a specific focus. Online courses are eligible if registration is required, live instruction or mentorship is provided, and classes follow a schedule. Self-directed online learning is not eligible. Activities with multiple courses or workshops must be connected to overarching learning goals.

Mentorship: An individual structured relationship with a qualified professional, or a group of professionals. Activities with multiple mentors must be connected to overarching learning goals.

Learning Residency: A learning-based residency that includes significant opportunities for skill development or knowledge exchange. Projects may offer a mix of learning and creation; however, as learning is the priority of this grant program, creation must not be the sole or primary objective.

Self-directed residencies without significant opportunities for learning and knowledge transfer are not eligible. For creation-based residency projects, consider applying for a discipline-specific Individual Arts Grant.

Cohort or group learning projects are eligible. Each member of the cohort must be eligible and apply to this program individually. Each application will be assessed separately. Shared expenses should be identified.

Grant Amount:

Maximum request amount is $7,500.

You may request a grant amount up to 100% of the eligible expenses.

Submit a realistic budget that shows how much money you need to complete the activities. BC Arts Council intends to support successful applications at 100% of their request. However, in some cases, grants may be awarded for less than requested.

BC Arts Council grant programs are competitive. We are not able to support all eligible applications. We generally fund between 20% to 40% of eligible applications in a program intake.

Eligible Applicants:

Before you begin your application, make sure you are eligible and your proposed activity is eligible. Ineligible applications will not be forwarded for assessment. If you have questions about eligibility, contact a Program Advisor.

Applicant Eligibility:

To be eligible, you must:

• Be a Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident of Canada.
• Be a B.C. resident who ordinarily resides in B.C. and has lived in B.C. for at least 12 continuous months immediately prior to submitting an application. For more information, review our Determining B.C. Residency page. You must be prepared to provide documentation to support your residency status (if requested).
• Be recognized as professional by other practitioners working in a similar discipline.
• Be committed to working full-time at your practice when financially possible.
• Demonstrate professional status by submitting a CV or resume that indicates the following:
  • Details about the appropriate and relevant training you have completed in your discipline that has prepared you to work in your field of practice. Training may be through postsecondary institutions, traditional knowledge transfer, or apprenticeship with a qualified practitioner.
  • Have a minimum two years of being paid to do your work in your field following basic training.
  • Meet discipline-specific criteria outlined below:
    • Performing Artists: A demonstrated body of previous professional work for which you have received professional fees.
    • Visual or Craft Artists: At least two professionally curated shows or exhibitions for which you have received professional fees.
    • Visual Arts Critics or Curators: Have curated two or more exhibitions or published two or more works of critical writing for which you have received professional fees.
    • Media Artists: Have directed/created or held creative control on at least one project subsequent to basic training for which you have been paid professional fees. This may include student works which have been professionally exhibited or screened.
    • Creative Writers: At least one book professionally published.
    • Arts Administration, Publishing, Producer, Artistic Support Staff: Two or more years of full- or part-time paid employment (permanent or contract) in arts or cultural administration or artistic support at an arts organization, or at a professional book or periodical publisher.
    • D/deaf, Disability and Mad Arts: A demonstrated body of work in or across any artistic practice for which you have received professional fees.
    • Community-Engaged Arts Practice: Facilitated two participatory arts projects in a community setting or learning environment.
    • Multi- and Interdisciplinary Practice: A demonstrated body of professional public work that integrates multiple fields of practice, and for which you have received professional fees.
    • Museum or Indigenous Culture Centre Professionals: Two or more years of full- or part-time paid employment (permanent or contract) in a museum or Indigenous Cultural Centre.
    • Production and Technical Personnel: Two or more years of full- or regular part-time paid employment (permanent or contract) in arts and cultural production or as a technician in an arts and culture institution, organization, or venue.

OR

• For Indigenous artists who don’t meet the discipline-specific criteria above: Have received at least one grant through the First Peoples’ Cultural Council Individual Artists Program or Indigenous Arts Program and not have any overdue final reports for that grant.

To be eligible, all applicants must also:

• Not be working under a private or for-profit entity.
• Have final creative control over your artistic work.
• Fairly compensate artists, arts and culture practitioners, technicians, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers. Compensation must align with project and community contexts and industry standards within the field of practice.
• Engage skilled artistic, curatorial, and administrative leadership (volunteer or paid) for project or service delivery.
• Follow international intellectual property rights standards and cultural ownership protocols.
• Follow the Criminal Records Review Act which requires that people who work with or may have unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults must undergo a criminal record check by the Criminal Records Review Program.
• Be applying for either the first or second time with a learning opportunity; if you have applied twice unsuccessfully for the same opportunity, the proposal must be substantively changed.
• Not have any overdue final reports on previous BC Arts Council grants.