Arts
Arts
Kingston is home to a vibrant arts community and is alive with creativity through music, film, theatre, dance, visual arts, literature, festivals, exhibitions, galleries, museums, and special events. The arts play an integral role in Kingston’s livability and the City has significantly invested in the sector over the last decade through its Kingston Culture Plan.
The City’s arts portfolio is supported, in part, through the Kingston Arts Council, an arts service organization that provides strategic leadership and services for the arts, and the Kingston Theatre Alliance (KTA), a collective dedicated to supporting the local theatre sector, Kingston theatre makers and organizations that includes the presentation of the annual Kick & Push Festival.
Learn more about the City's arts strategic priorities, programs, services and initiatives including:
- Arts Walk
- Arts Fund
- Grand OnStage
- Local Arts Residency
- Mayor's Arts Awards
- Poet Laureate
- Public Art
- YGK Music
The City also manages and supports civic assets that engage in and support the arts including:
Kingston Grand Theatre
The Kingston Grand Theatre is community-based, performing arts venue that builds and fosters cultural vitality in Kingston, facilitates and supports presentation and production, community development, artist support, and community partnerships and collaborations.
Market Wing Cultural Space, City Hall
Currently closed, the Market Wing Cultural Space is the newest addition for cultural programming and exhibitions located within Kingston City Hall, which combines heritage and the arts to highlight Kingston and to explore a diversity of histories, stories, and ideas relevant to residents and visitors alike. The space will also include dedicated space to showcase Indigenous history and culture and the people who have lived in this area since time immemorial.
The Tett Centre for Creativity and Learning
The Tett Centre is an arts hub that operates out of a heritage, city-renovated-and-owned building on Kingston’s waterfront. The Tett is home to eight tenant organizations, eight artist studios, four multi-use spaces for rent, and a café. The Tett is owned by the City, but operates arms-length as a non-profit, charitable organization that supports its tenant organizations and resident artists and provides high-quality, accessible, arts-focused programming for all levels of artistic abilities and experience. The Tett is neighbour to Queen’s University’s state-of-the-art Isabel Bader Centre for the Performing Arts.
