Artsweek, Peterborough’s biennial festival of the arts, is returning in fall 2025 and the Electric City Culture Council (EC3) has issued an open call for proposals for innovative new projects in any artistic discipline and for any location within the City of Peterborough.
Produced and presented by EC3, Artsweek is an free extravaganza of pretty much every type of artistic endeavour you can imagine — music, literary and spoken word arts, puppetry and kids’ programming, media arts, visual arts, circus arts, dance, theatre, and performance of all kinds — created by local artists and arts organizations, unfolding in public spaces all across the city.
Artsweek 2025, which is set to run from September 29 to October 5, is also the 20th anniversary of the arts festival, whose origins go back to 2005 when the City of Peterborough celebrated its 100th anniversary as an incorporated municipality.
Then-mayor Sylvia Sutherland appointed a committee to organize a year-long series of projects and events on the theme of “Imagine Peterborough,” with most of the activities focused on cultivating an investment in and recognition of Peterborough as a creative city.
Two members of the committee — local arts managers and champions Su Ditta and the late Liz Bierk — were charged with coming up with ideas to create designated legacy projects in the arts, which ultimately led to the annual Artsweek festival.
In 2014, the city transferred responsibility for Artsweek to EC3 (Peterborough’s independent municipal arts, culture, and heritage non-profit organization that was formed as a result of the city’s 2012 Municipal Cultural Plan) and, after 2016’s festival, a decision was made to make Artsweek a biennial festival, allowing for more time to plan the event and — with an annual grant of $25,000 from the city — a bigger budget.
VIDEO: Artsweek 2023 Recap
The first biennial Artsweek was held in 2018 and, after the pandemic hit, EC3 presented a COVID-modified festival in 2020 and early 2021, with a full-scale in-person festival returning in the spring of 2023.
In late 2024, it appeared that Artsweek might not proceed for 2025 after Peterborough city council voted to completely defund EC3 during its budget deliberations — including the $25,000 allocated in 2025 for Artsweek — but council reversed that decision earlier this year.
However, with the city moving forward with a new Municipal Cultural Plan in 2025, the future of both EC3 and Artsweek beyond this year remains unclear.
The ongoing theme of Artsweek is “art in unexpected places,” and this year’s festival will be no different.
Artsweek 2025 can feature work in downtown Peterborough but also in other city wards, in city parks, the zoo, playgrounds, markets and malls, community centre parking lots, and more. Mobile projects, daytime and nighttime projects, projects on streets and in neighbourhoods, are also welcome.
EC3 is welcoming proposals that can include performance (dance, theatre, and multi-disciplinary performance), circus arts, visual art (installations, sculptures interventions, projections, exhibitions), media arts (film, video, new media), literary (writing, poetry, and spoken word), puppetry and children’s programming, and any form of music, concerts, or sound/audio art.
Individual artists, collectives, ad hoc groups, or arts organizations may propose projects that can be conventional presentations or pop-ups. They can be one-time, short-run, or continuous projects. Curated, educational, and community-based projects are eligible, as are partnerships and collaborations between arts groups or with other community-based organizations.
A peer jury will select projects from the open call to receive Artsweek grants. While Artsweek grants will contribute between $1,500 and $5,000 towards selected projects, EC3 encourages artists to seek out other funding sources to help contribute to the full cost of their projects if possible (Artsweek will support artists seeking other funding).
Applications for Artsweek 2025 are open now until 11:59 p.m. on Tuesday, June 10. For complete program guidelines and the application form, visit artsweekpeterborough.ca.
