What makes a community vibrant and connected? For Squamish, it's the ever-growing passion for arts and culture.
The Squamish Arts & Culture Grant (ACG) program is seeing more interest than ever. This year, 29 local artists and groups applied for funding, up from 17 last year.
More money for more ideas
Since 2010, Squamish Arts has managed this grant, funded by the District of Squamish through the Community Enhancement Grant Program. The grant funds local projects that focus on community engagement, environmental initiatives, diversity, health etc.
This year, the grant funding increased to $64,000 from $54,000.
The extra funds allow for more projects get off the ground.
Explaining how funds were allocated, Squamish Arts executive director Clea Young said in an email to The Squamish Chief, “The volunteer members of the jury had two weeks to read through and score the applications according to a matrix.”
She added, “Once the scores were combined, the jury met in person to review multiple funding scenarios and decide how the funds would make the biggest impact.”
“For example, the jury considered awarding the top-scoring projects their full asks, but this funded too few due to higher funding requests across all applications this year,” Young said in the email.
“The jury felt there were many worthy projects that would be left out in this scenario.”
“They worked hard to distribute the funds across as many projects as possible while ensuring each was still viable with the amount awarded,” she said.
Projects bringing the community together
For Young, among this year's standout projects is the one by Vanessa Williams, the Indigenous regalia creations and connections initiative, celebrated for fostering knowledge sharing through art and cultural expression.
“The Indigenous regalia creations and connections project excited all jurors as an opportunity for knowledge sharing through art and culture,” Young said in the email.
Another project is Pride Squamish, which will debut the Squamish Pride Parade.
“Pride Squamish is set to make a welcome splash in town with its inaugural Squamish Pride Parade, which aims to become an annual celebration," Young said.
The 2025 grant recipients are:
- Brackendale Art Gallery: Artist Mentorship, Collaboration & Networking Project
- Cheakamus Foundation for Environmental Learning: Art Outdoors Event
- Vanessa Williams: Indigenous Ribbon Skirt & Shirt Making Workshops
- Create Makerspace Society: EDIA and Reconciliation Program
- Jessica Lee: The Long and the Short Storytelling Series
- Drea Moothu: Soul House Culture and Community Revival
- Act Alive Academy: 2025 Musical Theatre Season
- Emma Clarke: Skills Shift Collective for injured athletes
- Squamish Farmers Market Association: Music at The Market
- Squamish Community Music Festival: Public adjudicated music festival
- Valleycraft Makers Market: Local artist showcases in Valleycliffe
- The Sound Mill Art Society: The World Drumming Sessions
- Thomasina Pidgeon: The Secret Lives of Vehicle Residents Sessions
According to Young, "Receiving an Arts & Culture Grant can make the difference between a project being realized or not, and, consequently, between the community having access to vibrant cultural events or not."
The next intake for these grants is in the fall of 2025.
For projects that align with community enhancement goals beyond arts and culture, folks are encouraged to look into the Community Enhancement Grant offered by the Squamish Community Foundation.
Note that applicants may only receive funding from either the Arts & Culture Grant or the Community Enhancement Grant.
For more information on the Arts & Culture Grant, contact [email protected].
Bhagyashree Chatterjee is The Squamish Chief's Indigenous and civic affairs reporter. This reporting beat is made possible by the Local Journalism Initiative.
