Arts in the Parks Partners

AITP is a strategic initiative of Toronto Arts Foundation in partnership with Toronto Arts Council, City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation Department, and Park People, a national advocacy organization. The involvement of these four key partners has brought important expertise to the table and helped strengthen the initiative.

Toronto Arts Foundation (TAF)
TAF raises funds from the private sector to support Toronto’s arts and cultural sector. The Foundation is a charitable organization that sparks creative connections, spotlights artistic excellence, and supports vibrant cultural growth throughout our diverse city through private sector investment.

Toronto Arts Council (TAC)
TAC is the City of Toronto’s arm's-length arts funding body. For many years a handful of TAC-funded organizations have been offering excellent arts programs in downtown parks. In 2016, as part of the Arts in the Parks initiative, TAC developed Animating Toronto Parks, a new funding program that enables artists to produce their own projects in parks outside the central part of Toronto. Grants of up to $25,000 are available to artists, collectives and non-profit organizations to produce arts programming in selected Toronto parks in Etobicoke, North York and Scarborough. Recipients are chosen through a peer jury process.

Park People
Park People is a non-profit organization that supports the improvement of city parks country-wide by developing programs and connecting people and groups who share an interest in parks. TAF partnered with Park People from the beginning to better understand the parks that were being animated and to establish connections with community organizers familiar with local parks.

Park People has valuable resources which you can find here.

City of Toronto
The City of Toronto is a critical partner, and leadership from Mayor John Tory has been instrumental to the success of this city-building initiative. The City’s Parks, Forest & Recreation Department (PFR) is responsible for the care of city parks and is a primary collaborator in the park approval process that matches artists and parks and issues park permits to arts groups. Permits cover aspects such as noise concerns, when to be out of the park, and use of fire pits.