British Columbia Arts Council Scholarships

The Scholarship program supports the development of B.C.’s rich diversity of future artists and arts and cultural practitioners. Awards of up to $6,000 per year are available to B.C. residents to attend full-time post-secondary arts training or to pursue high school half-day dance programs.

The BC Arts Council recognizes the unprecedented impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on the B.C. arts and culture sector. While every effort is made to minimize revisions, program guidelines may be updated to align with current provincial and federal orders and public health directives. 

Who Can Apply

Applicants are welcome to confirm eligibility with program staff. Ineligible applications will not be forwarded for assessment.

To be eligible, you must:

• Be at least 15 years of age as of December 31, 2022.
• Be a Canadian citizen or Permanent Resident and have been a resident of British Columbia for at least 12 months immediately prior to the application deadline, and ordinarily reside in B.C.
• Be enrolled in a program of study that is: a fine arts diploma, degree or certificate program, or professional dance training at a recognized college, university, institution, or academy, in any country in one of the recognized disciplines and practices (listed below), or a pre-professional half-day dance program in combination with high school studies.
• Be a full-time student with an equivalent course load for one or two terms between Summer 2022 and Spring 2023.
• A full-time student is defined by the educational institution or by a combination of half-day dance and half-day high school studies.
• Have submitted any overdue final reports on previous BC Arts Council grants as of the submission deadline for this program.

NOTE:  You do not have to know at the time of application if you are accepted into your program.

What Can Be Funded

Recognized disciplines and practices may include, but are not limited to:

• arts administration and cultural management
• community-based arts practice
• contemporary and traditional craft art (carving, ceramics, furniture, glass, jewellery, beading, metal arts, textiles, visual communication arts)
• applied arts (graphic design, industrial design, illustration)
• Deaf, Disability and Mad (DDM) arts
• dance (performance, choreography)
• independent critical and curatorial practice
• literary (creative writing: children/youth literature, fiction, graphic novel, nonfiction, poetry, playwriting; publishing)
• media arts (animation, audio/sound art, film, new media, interactive digital media, video)
• multi- or interdisciplinary arts practice
• museum studies (collections management, conservation, curatorial practices, museum education)
• music (performance (instruments, voice), composition, conducting, music production)
• socially-engaged arts practice
• spoken word and storytelling
• theatre (acting, directing, technical, design, musical theatre, applied theatre, circus arts, comedy)
• visual arts (drawing, painting, photography, installation, sculpture, mixed media, performance art)

What Will Not Be Funded

Awards are not available to support:

• Apprenticeships, residencies, or mentorships
• Art minors
• Basic workshops, seminars, individual projects
• Business training
• Journalism
• Library sciences
• Music, dance, or art therapy
• Studies of an essentially academic nature (including anthropology, ethnomusicology, literature or language study, art history or general art appreciation)
• Studies related to the commercial art sector (including architecture, interior design, video game design, web design, fashion design, screenwriting, film or TV acting)
• Summer-only programs
• Teacher training (including fine arts education programs or music/dance pedagogy)

Support for residencies and mentorships are available to eligible emerging artists and early career practitioners through the BC Arts Council’s Early Career Development Program as well as through the First Peoples’ Cultural Council Indigenous Arts Scholarship.

Eligible applicants may apply to both this Scholarship Program and the Indigenous Arts Scholarship Program but, if successful in both, funding will not exceed the upper limit on a single program.

How to Apply

All applicants must be registered in the BCAC Online Grant Application System. It is recommended you read the entire How to Apply Online before starting this process.

Registration requests, once completed in the online system, can take up to four business days to be approved by BCAC staff.

Once an applicant has a profile in the system, then an online application form needs to be filled in and submitted.

All applicants, especially those who are new to the program, are urged to discuss their request with program officers.