New funding available through Canadian Heritage program

September 17, 2007 -- The Honourable Josée Verner, Minister of Canadian Heritage, Status of Women and Official Languages, announced on September 12, 2007 the implementation of the $30-million funding per year set aside in the 2007 Budget to support local arts and heritage activities that engage Canadians in their communities through the expression, celebration and preservation of local culture.

The $30 million in new funding will be ongoing, and includes the creation of a new program, entitled Building Communities Through Arts and Heritage (BCAH), as well as enhanced resources for Arts Presentation Canada, and funding for community historical anniversaries infrastructure.

The new BCAH program will provide support for both local arts and heritage festivals that feature the presentation of local artists or local heritage, and major historical anniversaries of local importance. The BCAH program has two main components:

Component I – Local Arts and Heritage Festivals

The Local Arts and Heritage Festivals component supports local community events and activities that feature the public presentation of local artists and/or of local heritage.

Component II: Community Historical Anniversaries Programming:

The Community Historical Anniversaries Programming Component supports local community events and activities that commemorate the 100th or greater (in multiples of 25 years) anniversary of a local historically significant event or person. It is important to note that only the first project proposal received from a community will be considered for any one historical commemoration.

Under both components of the new BCAH program, all applicants will be asked to demonstrate local support for their projects. Specifically, they must provide written confirmation of support (financial or in-kind) from their municipal government or equivalent authority and must include the value of that support in the project budget.

Applications are now available for local arts and heritage festivals and community historical anniversaries occurring in winter 2008. Information on how to access the Guide and Application Form is available at www.pch.gc.ca.

Additional funding for the existing Arts Presentation Canada program has also been made available to better support community engagement aspects of professional performing arts festivals. Details for funding of community historical anniversaries infrastructure costs will be available at a later date.

If you require further information please contact the Prairies and Northern Region’s toll free line at 1 800 661-0585.

Louis Chagnon
Regional Executive Director
Prairies and Northern Region
275 Portage Ave., Winnipeg, MB R3C3R5
204.983.0261

(September 13, 2007)