Peterborough’s Electric City Culture Council (EC3) has announced 28 local artists have been awarded a total of $57,143 through the grants for individual artists program, which is jointly funded by the not-for-profit organization and the City of Peterborough and is designed and administered by EC3.
The program has two components: mini development grants of up to $1,500 and project creation, production, and presentation grants of up to $3,500.
The mini development grants support the research, development, and workshopping of original new works, as well as professional training and mentorship opportunities. The project creation, production, and presentation grants support specific projects for individual professional artists, including costs such as artist fees, production materials, venue rentals, technical equipment, costumes, printing, and more.
Professional artists working in every discipline, genre, and medium were eligible, including those who work in multi-disciplinary or community-based arts practice, in both traditional or contemporary forms.
The program’s open call for applications in late June resulted in 66 eligible applications from artists by the August 20 deadline. A five-member peer assessment jury evaluated the applications and awarded grants to 28 artists, including $28,493 in grants for 19 artists in the first component and $28,650 in grants for nine artists in the second component.
“We are particularly grateful to the City of Peterborough for their $50,000 support of this vital program, and all of our funders for their ground-breaking contributions to the development of local talent and works of art,” said EC3 executive director Su Ditta in a media release.
“These investments in the efforts of our very talented and hardworking artists means more artists can realize their visions, contribute to our cultural, economic, community and social well-being, and make Peterborough a more vital and exciting place to live for all of us. New books, poetry, concerts, plays, exhibitions, albums, and performances of all kinds will touch our hearts, minds, and imaginations. The projects supported by these grants explore identity, the environment, grief, community connection, disability, forgotten histories, and more.”
VIDEO: Nicole Malbeuf – 2024 Hair Suspension Act – “Returning Home”
Two of the artists who received grants are aerial dance artist Nicole Malbeuf and painter and mixed media installation artist JoEllen Brydon.
Malbeuf received a mini development grant to research and develop original movement techniques with an aerial prop — in tandem with hair suspension — to create a new, short environmentally focused performance.
“I am grateful for the opportunities, both past and present, that the individual arts grants offer me as an aerial dancer,” Malbeuf said. “Because some other councils don’t recognize circus arts as an art form, EC3’s funding has not only supported my growth but validated my artistic work. These grants have given me the privilege of honing my skills in the direction I feel is most useful in my current practice and stage of career.”
Brydon received a creation, production, and presentation grant in support of “Elizabeth Thompson Advises,” a large-scale, immersive, multimedia installation for exhibition at the Art Gallery of Peterborough and the Grimsby Public Gallery. The installation is based on a compilation of work by her late mother Jean Armstrong Brydon when she wrote an advice column under the pen name Elizabeth Thompson for Toronto’s Globe and Mail from 1966 to 1978.
“I’m honoured to have been chosen as a recipient of funding from the EC3 Grants for Individual Artists program,” Brydon said. “Having the faith of my own community is of utmost importance to my career, as well as to my personal well-being. Warm thanks to the EC3 board of directors, to Su Ditta, and to all of my jury member/colleagues for trusting in me and my work.”
Below is a list of all the artists who received grants in each component of the program, along with a brief description of their projects.
Mini Development Grants for Individual Professional Artists
Kelly Albin: Artist Residency Visual Arts. Contribution to artist residency in Portugal (studio space, exhibition), to develop and hone new artistic skills, and the creation of a new body of large-scale paintings reflecting the relationship between people and nature.
Samantha Chiusolo: Professional Development: Children’s Book Publication Mentorship. Two-month mentorship with award-winning children’s book illustrator Catia Chen to develop production and publication skills for a children’s picture book.
Naomi Duvall: Circus/Movement Training. Physical training in circus arts to support the artist’s role as emcee for the show “Cirquelesque” in February 2025. This project brings the artist’s theatre, puppetry, and other skills together in a unique performance project.
Jennifer Elchuk: Aerial Duo Professional Development. Along with Tegan Moss, enriching and enhancing their duo trapeze and contact improvisation dance practices through training with circus and dance professionals. This project expands their work from “Weathering and Waiting.”
Nick Ferrio: Writing for New Album. Artist fee (buying time and space) for the writing/crafting/nurturing of a series of new songs for an upcoming album. This work expresses an evolution in the artist’s creative voice exploring themes such as loss, grief, aging and parental relationships.
Charlie Glasspool: Safe Harbour. A quintet of musical collaborators from diverse backgrounds will co-compose original musical motifs and themes, loosely based on the Canterbury Tales, to be developed into a song-cycle about pilgrimage, human migration, and movement.
Casandra Lee: Zodiac. Professional development (ceramics), and artist fee to research, develop, and create clay animals representing the Chinese zodiac, to be used in a series of new paintings.
Nicole Malbeuf: Research in Hair Suspension Performance Techniques with Aerial Prop. Artist fees to research and develop original movement techniques with an aerial prop, in tandem with hair suspension, to create a new, short, environmentally focused performance.
Joshua Morley: Nitaawigi. Research and development in new materials and techniques to develop fresh approaches to creating artworks for solo and/or group exhibition. Experimentation with large-scale painting and sculptural shaping using aluminum panels.
Jeremy Pastic: Research in Vertical Dance. Artist’s fees, consultation/private training/coaching fees, and rehearsal space costs to expand proficiency and develop a short ‘vertical dance’ piece to be presented in a theatre space.
Adelle Purdham: Celestial Bodies of Water. Artist fee for the drafting and revision of a literary short story collection about female desire.
Erica Richmond: Yelling at Dead People. Artist fee for the writing of a creative non-fiction manuscript about the artist’s experience with grief.
Elisha May Rubacha: Caprock Poems. Funding to allow the artist to complete a poetry manuscript (in progress), about the poet’s successful end-to-end hike of the Bruce Trail with her mother.
David Seymour: Iffy Alibis. Completion of a 50-page first draft collection of free verse and formally constrained poems addressing issues of identity and ideas of the “self,” as sometimes constructed through memory, nostalgia, forgetfulness, and recall.
Caylie Staples: Solo Voice and Electronics Live Set. Artist fee (time and space) for research, experimentation and the development of arrangements that combine electronic music with original acoustic songs, culminating in a live set for solo performance.
Kate Story: Strangeness on Earth. Artist fee (time and space) to write a genderqueer, young adult, historical fantasy novel set in 1817 Newfoundland and Orkney.
Rob Viscardis: Relative Documentary (working title). Artist fee for the writing and development of a documentary film about Peterborough photographer Wayne Eardley and his ongoing passion project “Relative.”
Ziysah von Bieberstein: Page to Publication. A six-month final refining, editing and manuscript submission preparation process with mentor Alessandra Naccarato, support in readiness to find a publisher for the artist’s current poetry manuscript.
Victoria Yeh: Winter in Canada. Composition and arrangement for full symphony orchestra of a chamber orchestra piece, to be premiered by the Parkdale Orchestra (Ottawa) and the Georgian Bay Symphony (Owen Sound). Funding will assist with research, consultation, and workshopping, allowing the artist to develop, advance and vary their skills.
Project Production and Presentation Grants for Individual Artists
Calvin Bakelaar: Untitled VanCamp 5-Song EP and Performance. Artist, professional, and production fees to produce and release a folk-rock album in mid-2026, focusing on mental health and growth in a small city.
JoEllen Brydon: Elizabeth Thompson Advises. A large-scale, immersive, multimedia installation for exhibition at the Art Gallery of Peterborough and the Grimsby Public Gallery, based on the artist’s mother’s Globe and Mail newspaper advice column in the socially revolutionary times between 1966 to 1978.
Timothy Laurin: Steamroller Printmaking Collective. Artist fees, materials, venue costs, and promotional materials to support a community-based printmaking event using a steamroller.
Maxwell Matchim: Understanding Myself as an Amphibian. Production of a short documentary film about the relationship between the diversity of gender and sexuality in nature, and the artist’s own queer/trans identity.
Justin Million: Picture It. Artist fees and venue costs to exhibit text-based work in a manner traditionally reserved for visual art, to experiment with non-traditional ways of presenting poetry.
Leanne Simpson: No Line Could Make Sense of It. To mix and master the artist’s fifth album of music, to be released by You’ve Changed Records, in early 2025. Ten songs exploring Michi Saagiig Nishnaabe relationship to land and water. Indy rock/goth/punk/new wave vibe.
Irèni Stamou: Miroloi (lament). Artist fees and staging costs for a new interdisciplinary solo dance based on identity, grief, and a diaspora immigrant experience, as part of a performance residency at Theatre on King.
Thomas Vaccaro: Pride After Dark Circus Story. Animating Peterborough Pride (and beyond) with new original work that features a myriad of circus disciplines exploring the themes of being in love across genders and sexual orientations.
Sarah van den Berg: Babe Chorus Presents … Sarah van den Berg – Way Back Home EP. Artist fees and mentorship honorarium to record and share an EP of four original folk-pop songs exploring place and personal and collective experiences of grief.
