Arts Fund invests $125,300 to make art happen in Waterloo Region

August 01, 2025

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Region of Waterloo Arts Fund announces that it has awarded grants totaling $125,300 to artists and arts organizations in response to proposals submitted from throughout the Region of Waterloo.

A total of 24 grants are being made in the Arts Fund’s Spring 2011 grants cycle. The Arts Fund has invested more than $1,373,000 since its inception in 2002. The funds are generously made available through Regional Council’s allocation of 40 cents per capita.

Grants approved in this round were:

  • $1695 to the University of Waterloo Art Gallery for promoting wish you were here, an outdoor art project by Laurel Woodcock in conjunction with the opening of CAFKA 2011 and UW Homecoming.
  • $500 to Rock the Mill 2011, a youth-led Cambridge music festival now in its 14th year.
  • $8175 to YMCA Cambridge for its Newcomer Youth Theatre program.
  • $2500 to musician Nick Iden to produce a debut album for his band Factory Boy.
  • $5000 to Standard Deviation Theatre to present Picasso at the Lapin Agile (July 27-30) and La Persistencia (Oct 12-15) at The Registry Theatre as part of their 2nd season.
  • $12,000 to Inter Arts Matrix to workshop and produce three pieces for Euphonopen, an instrument for the performance of drawing that generates its own sound developed in Waterloo Region.
  • $10,000 to The Grand River Jazz Society to launch The Jazz Room, a new shared-space performing and gathering venue at the historic Heuther Hotel in Waterloo.
  • $6000 to the Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony for producing a recording of 4 pieces composed for the Symphony's Intersections Series and recorded live at Centre In The Square, the River Run Centre in Guelph and Koerner Hall in Toronto.
  • $7500 to Flush Ink Productions for organizing and editing an archive of over 100 “plays on video” that have been filmed at Asphalt Jungle Shorts and other Flush Ink presentations over the years.
  • $6672 to Post-Life Productions for The Post-Lifers, a short live action “comedy/mockumentary” film that “depicts a zombie infestation from the zombies' perspective.”
  • $800 to the Waterloo Chamber Players for hiring a guest conductor for a Fall 2011 concert.
  • $3500 to screenwriter Matt Mistell for completing Bayru, a feature-length comedic screenplay.
  • $4000 to SlanT, an interdisciplinary performance group, for a 3-day workshop of a newly commissioned work by local composer Peter Skoggard at the Cambridge Centre for the Arts.
  • $2500 to MetaMedia Productions for producing Boom-de-ata (Maple Syrup Version), a music video featuring musician Sean McCammon.
  • $3000 to Qatalyst Media for Steel Rails Sessions 2011, a collaborative art event aboard the Waterloo Central Railway.
  • $5000 to musician Tim Louis for Sessions, a two-part performance and discussion forum focusing on music, songwriting and storytelling organized to coincide with the Uptown Waterloo Jazz Festival and the Kitchener Blues Festival.
  • $7000 to visual and media artist Isabella Stefanescu for producing Turncoat, a short animated film.
  • $1500 to Stephen Lavigne for Municipal Recollection Dept., a solo exhibition of new artwork to be presented at the Rotunda Gallery at Kitchener City Hall October 2011.
  • $2330 to orchestra@waterloo for performing a concert, with the University of Waterloo Chamber Choir, in the new Knox Presbyterian Church in Waterloo.
  • $4000 to The Clay and Glass for an indoor fused glass public art project made by high school students guided by artist mentor Laurie Spieker.
  • $10,000 to Gareth Lichty for developing Mobile Weaving Units for community art projects in neighbourhoods throughout the region in conjunction with the Waterloo Region Crime Prevention Council.
  • $10,000 to Neruda Productions for Show the World! (A Series of Fortunate Events), including 2 visual art shows, a theatre piece and 6 concerts presented as part of Neruda's 10th anniversary celebration.
  • $5000 to the Waterloo Community Arts Centre for the Waterloo Print Project, a printmaking resource centre modeled on the “open studio” concept.
  • $5000 to Craig Musselman for a 2nd edition of Talent Next Door – Waterloo and Area, a full colour catalogue showcasing regional visual artists and their work.Created in 2002, the Region of Waterloo Arts Fund is a not-for-profit corporation which provides arms-length funding for the performing, visual and literary arts in the Region of Waterloo. The Arts Fund invites applications in the spring and fall of each year. Applicants are first asked to submit a brief letter of intent (maximum two pages) outlining their project. On the basis of a review of those letters, a short list of applicants is then asked to submit more detailed proposals.

The objective of the Arts Fund is to “make art happen” – stimulate arts activity – both in the next 12 months through immediate projects and over the longer term through projects that will enhance the ability of an individual artist or arts organization to make more art happen in the future.

Applicants are encouraged to create new work, to bring art to the public, to benefit the Region of Waterloo and to create projects that might not happen without Arts Fund support. Applications in all arts disciplines are welcomed from individual artists and arts organizations in the Region of Waterloo (comprising the cities of Cambridge, Kitchener and Waterloo and the townships of Wilmot, Woolwich, Wellesley and North Dumfries). Adjudication of applications is done by the Arts Fund’s broadly based 14-member board.

The next deadline for applications to the Arts Fund is 4:00 pm on Friday, September 9, 2011; information is available on the website: www.artsfund.ca

For further information about this release, please contact:
Stevie Natolochny at 519-575-4450.

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For a brochure or application information, please contact Stevie Natolochny, Council/Committee Support Specialist, Council and Administrative Services, Regional Municipality of Waterloo at 519-575-4450 or via email at: snatolochny@regionofwaterloo.ca