Author: Michelle Urbano

Puppetmongers is accredited as a Recommending Company for the 

Ontario Arts Council’s Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators 2024-25

We have a total of $5,000  to divide between  all worthy projects

All applications are now online! Deadline is Saturday October 26th, 2024 at 11:59 pm ET

 CLICK HERE for the full guidelines and application form

Puppetmongers is seeking applications from artists who wish to develop puppetry projects.  Our priorities and areas of interest are:

• The development of theatrical work with puppetry
• The integration of puppetry into theatre productions
• The creation of new forms of puppetry and new theatrical uses of puppetry
• The nurturing of professional, mid-career, new-generation, and culturally diverse artists

Projects may be at any stage of development prior to production or workshop production.  These small grants are particularly suited to helping artists with the earliest phases of creation, the development of ideas, the building of a creative team etc.

We have a total of $5,000 to assign between all successful applications, thus the grants we can recommend range from a minimum of $1,000 to the unlikely maximum of $3,000. In previous years, our recommendations have tended to be on the lower end, in order to spread the support over a few projects. We are curious and excited to see what the artistic community has percolating, and extremely grateful to the Ontario Arts Council for their increased support of puppetry.

Deadline for applications is 11:59 p.m. ET on Saturday October 26th, 2024.  We strongly recommend that you submit your application at least by the day before this deadline, to avoid technical glitches.

Application Info:

Before you apply, note that we request that submissions include a budget and a short bio for all participants in their support material. NOTE: We do not wish to receive script samples but do want ideas in the form of sketches, influences, photos… which can be included as stills or video in the Audio/Visual link.

These small Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators are to provide time in which to explore, experiment, and develop an idea in its infancy, and the why, what and how of the puppetry of it. This is not a grant to write or finish a script; it is not a grant to build already-designed puppets; or to complete a show for performance bookings.

With puppetry being such a visual artform, we don’t find script samples useful in helping us get a feel for your proposed project: so please attach in your application any images, inspirations and influences; sketches and storyboards; any mock-ups of puppetry and performance ideas – anything that would give us insight into how puppetry is to be incorporated into your plans. We do not want scripts!

All applicants must meet the criteria requirements of the Ontario Arts Council.

For more information on Recommender Grants for Theatre Creators, and to access the full guidelines and the application form:

Click here for the OAC’s website

OAC’s List of Recommenders