Now in its fifth year, TO Live’s explorations initiative has supported 32 artists with funding totalling $200,000
explorations is a TO Live initiative to support Toronto-based artists who want to push the boundaries of their practice.
TO Live today announced that the annual application process for explorations is now open. $7,000 will be awarded to each of six Toronto-based artists, artist collectives, or project-based organizations to research an idea or technique that will push the boundaries of their practice.
Consideration will be given to the motivation driving the submission, the potential for innovation in the artist’s practice, and how it feeds into future professional and artistic aspirations. explorations will not provide support for existing projects as its focus is on the opportunity for artists to experiment and to stretch their creative ambitions without the pressures of a finished outcome.
“explorations was founded on the belief that artists need the freedom to breathe—time and space free from rigid expectations—to truly stretch the boundaries of their craft,” explains Clyde Wagner, President and CEO of TO Live. “Creative research is the heartbeat of artistic innovation, yet it is often overlooked in traditional funding models. This initiative exists to champion that essential, often invisible, process.”
TO Live’s explorations initiative is made possible by supporters of the TO Live Foundation.
explorations is generously supported by Power Corporation of Canada.
Past recipients of explorations grants come from across the arts spectrum and their projects represent an incredible variety of areas of thematic, technical, and academic interest.
The 2024 explorations cohort included:
- Natasha “Courage” Bacchus – A multidisciplinary artist and three-time gold medal-winning sprinter continued her exploration in signed music, blending performance and Deaf culture through innovative expression.
- Radhika Baskar – A renowned veena artist launched Jazz on the Veena, a groundbreaking project that integrates the traditional Indian string instrument with jazz, pioneering a new musical fusion.
- Chloe Begg – An emerging artist working primarily in ceramics, exploring the expressive and narrative possibilities of clay in contemporary practice. Begg researched the application of wood joinery techniques to ceramic sculptures.
- April Leung 梁筱彤 – An award-winning playwright, performance creator, and actor. Her project involved incorporating motion capture into a theatrical piece modelled after crime dramas, investigating the themes of memory—how it keeps someone alive and how it can be manipulated or preserved.
- Johnathan Morin – A 33-year-old Indigenous (Nehiyaw) tap dancer researching the intersection between tap dance and Indigenous dance/music. His work explores potential historical crossovers and fosters cross-cultural dialogue and collaboration.
- Bryce Taylor – A Tkaronto-based breaker exploring the possibilities at the intersection of breaking and partnered dance. Drawing on their experience in pas de deux and contact improvisation, Bryce investigated how partnering can be integrated with breaking to deepen the dance form’s expressive potential.
Read more about the 2024 artists here.
The application deadline for explorations 2025 is 5 pm on Monday, June 16, 2025.
Application details and background can be found here.
Applications are encouraged from Indigenous artists, racialized artists/artists of colour, persons with disabilities, women, 2SLGBTQIA+ artists, and any individual who identifies with a marginalized or equity-deserving group.
The successful applicants will be revealed in September 2025, and the artists will have until December 31, 2025, to work with their idea, at which time, in consultation with TO Live’s programming team, the most appropriate method of sharing their progress will be agreed.
