Two giants in the Cambridge arts and culture scene will be getting a boost from the Region of Waterloo through a revised grant program they had previously been ineligible for.
The Fashion History Museum and Drayton Entertainment are among six organizations now able to tap into the region's new Major Arts and Culture Organizations Pilot Grant Program to get $32,000 and $158,000 respectively, pending ratification at regional council later this month.
Other organizations getting funding through the pilot include MT Space, Inter Arts Matrix, Neruda Arts and the Button Factory.
Earlier this year, staff at the region was asked to model the new program for major arts and cultural organizations on the Key Cultural Institutions grant program with a goal to make it more inclusive and equitable for organizations across all municipalities.
Eligibility for the Key Cultural Institutions program, which was established in 2015, had been limited to organizations like The Museum and Kitchener-Waterloo Symphony Orchestra because they had $1 million operating budgets.
It left some smaller organizations out of consideration.
The new grant program allows organizations with operating expenditures of more than $250,000 to apply for a budgeted amount of $340,000. Eligible organizations must also operate within a public facility.
Grant allocations were decided based on 10 per cent of most recent revenues.
The Fashion History Museum operates out of the city-owned Hespeler post office and Drayton Entertainment operates out of the Hamilton Family Theatre.
The Fashion History Museum struggled earlier this year with its application for funding from the City of Cambridge's grants to groups program when it received only half the amount it requested. The museum earned a reprieve, however, when council asked staff to review its leasing agreement with the museum.
Neither Cambridge organization has received grant funding from the region until now.
Staff will be bringing recommendations to council on a new funding program in September that will consider information gathered through this grant application process, the Cultural Drivers of Tourism grant program, and its arts and culture survey.
