BCAC: Museums and Indigenous Cultural Centres (Operating Assistance)

Deadline: October 8, 2026 (11:59 p.m. PT)

Program Summary:

Operating Assistance: Museums and Indigenous Cultural Centres provides funding to assist the general operations of established museums and Indigenous cultural centres that sustain an annual artistic or cultural history program encompassing exhibitions, creation, presentation, collections, dissemination, and public program activities.

This intake of the Operating Assistance program provides support on a one-year cycle, with the option to renew for a second year depending on BC Arts Council’s available budget.

Eligible organizations may submit only one application to the Operating Assistance grant program, per intake.

New this year: Operating Assistance recipients are no longer eligible for the Accelerate program. Determination of the grant amount, including any increases, will take into consideration the previous combined total of the Operating Assistance and Accelerate grants. Applicants that are not successful in Operating Assistance and that are eligible for the Accelerate program may be recommended to receive an Accelerate grant based on this application. Do not submit a separate Accelerate application.

Organizations that are placed on Concerned Status under Council’s Fair Notice Policy may be subject to grant reductions of up to 20%.

Grant Amount:

The minimum grant amount is $20,000 for new entrants into the Operating Assistance program. There is no maximum grant amount.

Increases to previous Operating Assistance grant amounts will be based on the outcome of the assessment process. Organizations ranking high may receive small increases while organizations ranking poorly may see decreases.

Eligible Applicants:

Organizations not currently receiving Operating Assistance must talk with a Program Advisor to discuss your eligibility and intention to apply. Applications from organizations that do not meet the eligibility criteria will not be forwarded for assessment.

Important considerations before you apply to Operating Assistance

In addition to the eligibility criteria outlined below, organizations should have stability in current operations, both administratively and financially before they consider applying. Stability would be demonstrated through:

• Having at least one staff person (part-time or full-time) that maintains consistency in operations and programming.
• Ongoing and diverse sources of revenues outside of BC Arts Council funding.
• Ability to plan programming and activities up to two years into the future. For example, in the application, you will be expected to report out on this current fiscal year’s activities as well as your next two projected fiscal years.
  and
• The capacity to compile annual financial information and enter and update this information in the CADAC system as outlined below.

BC Arts Council Operating Assistance recipients are not eligible to apply to any of the discipline-specific Project Assistance grant programs or the Accelerate program.

To be eligible, a Museum or Indigenous Cultural Centre must:

• Have received at least three grants from the BC Arts Council since April 1, 2022, one of which was an Operating Assistance or a Project Assistance: Museums and Indigenous Cultural Centres grant. (Project Assistance: Community Arts Festivals is excluded from the list of grants that meet the three-grant requirement).
• Provide arts and culture programming in B.C. as a primary activity and have done so for a minimum of one year before the application closing date.
• Provide programs that benefit or are of interest to the community at-large and not solely the interests of its non-profit society or community service co-op members.
• Engage skilled artistic, curatorial, editorial and administrative leadership for program or service delivery.
• Fairly compensate artists, arts and culture practitioners, technicians, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers. Compensation must align with community contexts or relevant industry standards within the field of practice.
• 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.
• Not have any overdue final reports on previous BC Arts Council grants.

A Museum or Indigenous Cultural Centre must also:

• Hold a permanent collection and have a definable physical space designated for public exhibition of collection material.

AND

• Be registered and in good standing as a non-profit society or community service co-op for at least one fiscal year prior to application with:
  • The majority of key staff and board members based in B.C.
  • Creative control and decision making for programming and engagement primarily maintained within the organization and by leadership based in B.C.
  • A purpose or mandate dedicated to arts and culture programming and activities
    or
  • A purpose or mandate to provide services to the arts and culture sector in B.C.
  • Operations and activities that reflect this dedicated purpose or mandate.

OR

• Operated by a local government in B.C. for at least one fiscal year prior to application, that:
  • Maintains an ongoing arm’s length, community-based board of management or advisory structure that sets policy for the organization’s programs and services.
  • Holds a dedicated programming space and has at least one dedicated staff person in an artistic, curatorial, or administrative leadership position who is responsible for programming and engagement.
  • Offers ongoing public programming by experienced arts and culture practitioners.
  • Primarily operates with autonomy, holding creative control and decision making for programming and engagement within the organization, with separate financial records for operations. See Financial Statement Requirements section below for more detail.

OR

• Operated by a public post-secondary institution in B.C. for at least one fiscal year prior to application, that:
  • Holds a dedicated programming and has at least one dedicated staff person in an artistic, curatorial, editorial or administrative leadership position who is responsible for programming and engagement.
  • Offers ongoing public programming by experienced arts and culture practitioners, the majority of which is not programming of faculty or student works.
  • Primarily operates with autonomy, outside of curriculum, holding creative control and decision making for programming and engagement within the organization, with separate financial records for operations. See Financial Statement Requirements section below for more detail.