Career Development Program: Project Grants to Artists
Deadline
1 October
If this date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day. Your completed application and all support material must be postmarked on or before the deadline date.
The Canada Council will not accept applications postmarked after the deadline, incomplete applications, or those submitted by fax or email.
Program Description
The Career Development Program assists Canadian professional musicians, managers and agents in the development of artists’ live performance and touring careers.
These grants support activities that enhance public performances by artists in classical and popular traditions (non-classical) music of all world cultures. Eligible genres of music include classical, electro-acoustic, Aboriginal peoples’, folk, jazz, musique actuelle, contemporary and new, world, and other non-commercial forms of popular music. Artists performing genres that include pop/rock, urban (rap, hip hop and related “dance” genres), country, alternative and other forms of music for which an industrial infrastructure exists should contact their provincial or territorial music industry association for information on services available to them.
This program has two components:
- Project Grants to Artists, and
- Annual Grants to Managers and Agents (you can obtain information on this component from the Music Section).
The Project Grants to Artists component provides three categories of grants (you may apply for more than one category):
a) Management Grants
To allow professional musicians to obtain the services of a qualified professional manager/agent to accomplish projects, with defined goals, that will enhance public performance and touring opportunities and increase audience access to works of excellence at the national and international levels.
b) Promotional Tool Grants
To allow professional musicians to contract with arts professionals for the development and design of promotional tools such as media kits, photographs, posters, flyers and website design.
c) Audition Grants
To allow professional classical musicians (singers and instrumentalists) to audition for live performance engagements. The schedule of proposed auditions must be planned by a manager or an agent. Eligible expenses include coaching prior to the audition, as well as travel, accommodation and per diem costs.
Audition Grants are intended primarily for emerging artists who demonstrate potential for a professional international career. More established artists may sometimes be considered.
Eligibility
Artists (individual musicians, groups/ensembles) must:
- be Canadian citizens or have Permanent Resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada; Canadian citizens need not be residents of Canada when they apply
- be professional musicians (see definition below)
- have demonstrated the commitment and ability to undertake a live performance career at the national or international level, and
- be recognized professional practitioners of classical or popular traditions (non-classical) music, with a history of at least three years of public performance.
In addition, non-classical applicants to this program must have recorded at least one commercially available CD, released under their name or the name of an ensemble that they lead.
The Canada Council for the Arts defines a professional artist as someone who has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in an academic institution), who is recognized as such by his or her peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition), who is committed to devoting more time to the artistic activity if financially feasible, and who has a history of public presentation.
Please note that orchestras and choirs that wish to apply to this program must first meet the professional definitions and eligibility criteria of the Canada Council’s core orchestral and choral programs. For further information, consult a Music Section Officer.
Important
- Artists already on the roster of managers or agents currently receiving annual support from this program cannot apply for a Management Grant. However, they are eligible to apply for Promotional Tool Grants and Audition Grants.
- Artists requesting funds to develop or promote their career on the international scene must demonstrate that they have had an active performance career in Canada, and that they have the ability to undertake an international performing career.
- Artists who receive a Promotional Tool Grant must wait three years before applying for this category of grant again.
- The applicant artist or ensemble members may not use these funds to pay themselves to complete the project (i.e. self-management and design of one’s own promotional tools are not eligible activities).
- Professional musicians applying to this component cannot apply to the Grants to Individual Musicians program for the same project.
- Priority will be given to applicants who are not receiving operating support from the Canada Council.
All Canada Council for the Arts programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Grant Amount
Artists may apply for a grant of up to $5,000 for each eligible category within a single request. Therefore, the maximum grant available is $15,000 for classical music applicants and $10,000 for non-classical music applicants.
Eligible costs include the salary or fees of the manager, agent or arts professional hired by artists to undertake the project; related administrative costs; and the costs of producing promotional tools. The costs of coaching prior to an audition, as well as travel, accommodation and per diem costs, are also eligible.
Capital purchases of instruments, sound equipment or computers, or the costs of operating a website, are not eligible.
Assessment of applications
Applications are assessed by a peer assessment committee set up for each competition. Committees are composed of experienced professionals from the field, selected for their expertise. Members are also selected to ensure fair representation of gender, the two official languages, Aboriginal peoples, the various parts of the country, and Canada’s cultural diverse communities.
In extraordinary circumstances, the Canada Council for the Arts may provide the peer assessment committee with additional evaluations from independent assessors.
Peer assessment committee decisions for this program are final recommendations for approval by the Canada Council.
Application Form
Career Development Program: Project Grants to Artists (pdf, 432 KB)
This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
Further Information
This information sheet provides a summary of the Career Development Program: Project Grants to Artists. For further details or to obtain an application form, contact the appropriate program officer named below.
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or (613) 566-4414, and enter the appropriate extension number
TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired callers: (613) 565-5194
Music Program Officers:
Richard Davis, Non-Classical Music, ext. 4294
Karen Barber-Ing, Classical Music, ext. 4243
Fax: (613) 566-4409
Music Section
Canada Council for the Arts
P.O. Box 1047, 350 Albert Street
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
July 2005