The Jackman Humanities Institute Program for the Arts supports a range of events designed to enhance, improve and raise the profile of the Arts at the University. Activities may include visitors, lecture series, symposia, exhibitions, performances, or other imaginative and arts initiatives, which will serve to foster the work of the Jackman Humanities Institute and to represent the leading scholarship of the humanities at the University of Toronto.
Each year there will be a priority for at least one event that engages the wider public. The Program gives priority to activities that range across multiple units and across more than one campus. It does not support activities that are routine matters of the sort that individual academic units would normally fund (e.g. departmental colloquia, learned society meetings, etc.).
The Program also prefers activities that are related to the 2025-26 theme—Dystopia and Trust—but will consider proposals with other foci. Applications will be evaluated for conceptual fit, methodology, and research outputs.
Eligibility
Applications are invited from appointed members of the tenured, continuing and teaching faculty at the of the University of Toronto’s three campus locations.
Funding
From $3000 for small events up to $10,000 for larger events.
Application Components
All applicants are to complete the online application with the following documents in a single PDF:
- Description and rationale including fit with 2025-26 annual theme of Dystopia and Trust (500 words—FIRM limit on length)
- Proposed budget outline showing all known sources of support
Selection Criteria
To clarify some of the preferences of the Program the following guidelines will normally apply:
- Funding will be awarded from $1,000-$3,000 (small), $3,000-$5,000 (medium) or up to $10,000 (large). Projects with a total budget (including all sources) over $30,000 will not be supported; for larger events we recommend a proposal to support one component.
- Interdisciplinary activities that reach across units, and across campuses are given priority.
- Subventions for academic publishing will not be considered; exhibition catalogues that are part of a larger academic event are the only publication that will be considered for funding.
- Costs of over $3,000 for performers and over $500 for student assistance will not be funded.
- Events of an annual or continual nature that have previously been funded through the Jackman Humanities Institute Program for the Arts are normally eligible for one repeat year of funding; this need not be sequential.
- Funding for the 2025-26 Program for the Arts must be spent to support expenses relating to events held between July 1, 2025 and June 30, 2026. Remaining funds will be returned to the Jackman Humanities Institute and may not be carried forward.
- The JHI provides basic publicity package (in-house colour flyer on request, website event posting, JHI social media and newsletter, email announcement to departments and relevant EDUs), and will make available the first-floor multipurpose room (seats 100) to all funded events.
- Costs for publicity and space rental will not normally be accepted as fundable budget items. A/V recordings of events funded by the Program for the Arts should be included as a regularly budgeted item in the budget proposal with an explanation of the research or pedagogical need for the recording included in the Description and Rationale document. The responsibility for arranging recordings will lie with the event organizer.
Application Timeline
- Application Open: February 6, 2025
- Application Deadline: Thursday, March 20, 2025, at 4:00pm EDT
- Selection Notification: End of April, 2025
- Award Period: July 1, 2025 to June 30, 2026
Contact and Additional Resources
- Check out our extensive FAQs about the JHI Program for the Arts (below)
- Questions about this opportunity? Contact JHI Associate Director, Dr. Kimberley Yates
- Technical questions about the application form or process? Contact JHI Communications Officer Sonja Johnston
2025-26: Dystopia and Trust
A new millennium, rapid advances in science and technology, and a new determination to fight social injustice could have encouraged dreams of utopia. Instead, as though from the predictable plot of some pulp sci-fi or true crime story, they seem to have delivered a nightmarish dystopia. Easy information has given way to facile misinformation, the promise of solidarity to faction and polarization, democracy to authoritarianism, supremacism, and the kleptocracy of the 1%. People all over the world have lost trust, not only in many major institutions of societies, but also in each other. Are these trends reversible? Can widespread political and social trust be achieved, within and across societies? If not, with what consequence? If so, how should the subjective, social scientific, and philosophical dimensions of our dystopia be analyzed and re-imagined? What possible utopia has our dystopia, if it is one, betrayed?
Frequently Asked Questions
Members of the continuing, teaching, and tenured streams of the University of Toronto’s appointed faculty at any of the University of Toronto’s three campus locations may apply for Program for the Arts funding. Proposals from graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and sessional instructors will be considered if the applicant collaborates with a member of the appointed faculty.
The Program for the Arts funds events designed to enhance, improve, and raise the profile of the Arts at the University of Toronto. These may include performances, exhibitions, concerts, and other imaginative initiatives; they may also include conventional academic activities like visitors, lecture series, symposia, and conferences, provided that the focus of the event is arts based.
Events that are free and open to the public, events that are multi-disciplinary, and events that are held at more than one campus location are preferred. Events that respond to the annual theme are preferred.
The Program for the Arts does not fund activities that are routine single-unit matters, such as departmental colloquia. It does not cover annual learned society meetings.
No. Although proposals that respond to the theme are preferred, we will consider those that do not have relevance to the theme on the basis of methodology and research outputs.
Program for the Arts applications are selected after a single annual competition by the JHI Advisory Board. They are evaluated for conceptual fit with the annual theme, methodology, and research outputs.
JHI can provide up to $10,000 CAD.
- Publications, other than catalogues for JHI-funded exhibitions
- Costs of over $3,000 for performers
- Costs of over $500 for student administrative assistance
Applications will be accepted from early February until the third week in March for events planned in the following academic year. The deadline in 2025 will be March 20 at 4:00pm ET.
A very small subvention may be available upon request to the Director. Please provide a description and budget for your event.
JHI does not provide recording as an in-house service. The cost of recording should be included as a budget item and the responsibility for arranging recordings and permissions lies with the event organizer.
The event organizer holds the rights to the future use of any recording created. JHI is happy to post event recordings to the JHI YouTube channel, but this is not a requirement.
Your funding is available for the duration of the next academic year (from July 1 until June 30). You are free to postpone the date of your event within this period. Postponements beyond 1 July are not normally available and unspent budget funds will be returned to the JHI after July 1.
You are welcome to change the title of your event to something different from your proposal. Please let JHI know so that we can advertise it appropriately. If you need to make major changes to the structure or focus of the event, especially if budget changes are required, you will be asked to provide a new proposal and budget to the JHI Director for approval.
- JHI can provide bookings in JHB100, depending on availability.
- JHI will provide advertising via its newsletter, website, social media, and mailings within the University of Toronto. JHI can provide flyer design on request. Please provide at least a week’s notice when you need this support.
- JHI can provide advice on request (for example, about other suitable spaces, catering, accommodations, U of T policies, recordings, accessibility, etc.).
JHI prefers to support events that are free and open to the public, but some kinds of events (such as theatre and concerts) may be impossible to offer in this format. If you need to charge admission for your event, please include this in your proposed budget.
Yes. These are all allowable expenses. Alcohol must be served in compliance with policies set by the University of Toronto’s Campus Beverage Services.
You will need to apply for each year, and you may receive funding for closely related events for up to two years, not necessarily consecutive.
You may apply every year if you want to hold the grant for a different project.
- Provide the details before your event so that we can advertise it.
- Record the attendance at each part of your event. If it is not possible to take a head count, provide an estimate.
- In March, JHI will contact you to request a narrative report and a budget report before the fiscal year end on April 30. If your event has happened, please submit this report as requested. If it will not have happened by April 30, please provide an update, and then submit your report as soon as possible after it takes place.