Alberta Creative Development Initiative: Grants to Individuals
Deadlines
1 December 2007 and 1 June 2008
Program Description
The Alberta Creative Development Initiative supports creation, production and dissemination of independent work by professional artists, art administrators and collectives. Types of projects include
- grants for research, creation, production, and/or dissemination, and
- grants for professional development, including residencies.
NB: Groups, bands and ensembles are eligible in this component.
Eligibility
The program is open to Alberta-based professional artists, arts administrators and collectives working in all artistic disciplines and artistic practices currently supported by the Canada Council or the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, including collaborative projects and artists and community collaborations.
- A professional artist is someone who
- has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions);
- is recognized as such by his or her peers;
- is committed to devoting more time to artistic activity, if financially feasible; and
- has a history of public presentation.
A professional arts administrator is someone who
- has been working in the arts in a professional administrative or managerial capacity for not less than two years.
Full-time undergraduate students at a school, college or university are not eligible to apply.
Graduate or post-graduate students are eligible to apply only if they meet the above definitions of a professional artist or arts administrator and if the proposed project is not related to their program of study and is not under the direct supervision of a university professor.
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. This program is open to residents of Alberta. Individual applicants need not be living in Alberta; however, they must pay their taxes to the province of Alberta in the year which they apply.
Collectives must be made up of professional artists and must be represented by one individual who will take on the artistic, administrative and financial responsibility for the group. A collective may include artists from outside the province of Alberta; however, the majority of the participants must be residents of Alberta.
The status of the lead applicant determines the eligibility of the project.
Lead applicants can only apply for one project per competition. A lead applicant in one project can apply as a co-applicant in another project in the same competition.
Eligibility criteria by discipline or artistic practice:
The following eligibility criteria are based on those used by the Canada Council in the various artistic disciplines. However, eligibility for the Alberta Creative Development Program does not guarantee eligibility in other programs at the Canada Council or the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Dance (dancers): at least one paid professional public presentation, production in a professional context; (choreographers): a minimum of three works over a period of three years
Integrated Arts (for artistic works, practices, programming and events that combine art forms, or integrate existing art forms into a new form) at least one paid public presentation in a professional context.
Media Arts (film makers/video artists, directors, scriptwriters, new media and audio artists): at least one independent media art work in a professional context.
Music (performers, composers, librettists, opera stage directors, groups, bands, ensembles): at least two years of paid performances in a professional context.
Theatre (playwrights, designers, directors, actors, scriptwriters, composers): at least one work produced or performed in a professional context, or have practiced with professional theatre companies for a minimum of two years.
Visual Arts (painters, sculptors, photographers, fine-craft artists, installation artists, independent critics and curators): at least three public presentations of work in a paid professional context over a three-year period.
Writing and Publishing (writers of fiction [novels, short stories], poetry, children’s literature, graphic novels, literary non-fiction, spoken-word artists, storytellers): for writers, at least one book published by a professional publisher; or for fiction, four texts published on two separate occasions in literary magazines, recognized periodicals (including general interest magazines) or anthologies published by professional publishers; or for poetry, 10 published poems; or for literary non-fiction, 40 pages (10,000 words) published in literary magazines, recognized periodicals or anthologies published by professional publishers; or for writing published online, 10 texts published in an online environment. In all cases, writers must have been paid for the publication of their work and the work must have been selected for publication through an independent editorial process. For spoken-word artists and storytellers, at least one paid public performance in a professional context or recognition, in writing, by two established spoken-word artists or storytellers.
General Eligibility Criteria for all ACDI applicants
The objective of the Alberta Creative Development Initiative is to support the development of professional artists and arts organizations in Alberta and to foster a dynamic, vibrant arts community in the province. Artists, arts administrators and collectives may apply to the program more than once per year as long as the granting period for any previous ACDI grants held is completed.
Individual artists may also apply to other Canada Council programs once per year. For these programs, artists can receive a maximum of two grants, excluding travel grants, within a 48-month period. This maximum does not apply to ACDI grants. Individual artists cannot apply to ACDI and to other Canada Council programs for the same costs or for the same phase of activity.
Applicants to the Alberta Creative Development Initiative may resubmit an unsuccessful project once to a subsequent ACDI competition. Applicants may also submit an application for a new project in a subsequent ACDI or another Canada Council competition.
Applicants are encouraged to contact the Program Officer, Western Canada, before applying in order to confirm their eligibility.
Applicants should be aware that meeting the eligibility criteria allows them to apply for a grant, but it does not guarantee funding.
Grant Amount
Grants are available to a maximum of $20,000. Eligible costs include
- a maximum subsistence allowance of $2,000 per month; and
- expenses directly related to the research, creation/production and/or dissemination of the project.
General
Funding is not available for activities carried out before the application deadline.
Eligible costs include subsistence and project costs such as production and material costs, audience and market development costs, dissemination costs, equipment rental costs, research costs and professional development fees. Travel costs related to research on a specific project are also eligible, as are travel costs related to professional development.
Successful applicants may not necessarily be awarded the full amount requested given the limited funds available in this program.
A multidisciplinary peer assessment committee reviews applications to the program. Comprising assessors from both Alberta and outside the province, the committee is made up of practicing artists and arts professionals selected for their knowledge of a broad range of artistic disciplines and practices as well as their experience in multidisciplinary and diverse cultural practices. Committee members are also selected to ensure fair representation of gender, regional and cultural diversity, Aboriginal peoples and Canada’s two official languages.
The peer assessment committee establishes funding priorities and specific grant amounts based on the overall merit of each application in comparison with all other applications, according to the following weighted assessment criteria for the program:
Assessment Criteria
Artists and Collectives will be assessed on
- the artistic merit of the applicant(s)’s previous work and of the proposed project (60%);
- the merit of the proposed program of research, residency, professional development, creation, production and/or dissemination and its capacity to advance the artistic practice of the applicant(s) (20%); and
- the applicant(s)’s ability to carry out the project within a realistic time frame and budget (20%).
Arts Administrators will be assessed on
- the merit of the applicant’s work and the proposed project (40%);
- the professional development benefits the applicant will receive from the project and potential impact to the organization or their community (40%); and
- the applicant’s ability to carry out the project within a realistic time frame and budget (20%).
Funding priority will be given to artists, arts administrators and collectives who are highly assessed in all of the above criteria and who
- have not previously been supported by the Canada Council or by the Alberta Foundation for the Arts; and/or
- are Aboriginal, culturally diverse, or working in an official-language minority community; and/or
- are working in new or innovative arts practices within or across artistic disciplines.
A successful application to ACDI does not guarantee success in other programs of the Canada Council or the Alberta Foundation for the Arts.
Application Form
ACDI - Individuals (pdf, 706 KB)
This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
Further Information
Stephen Williams
Western Canada Program Officer
Canada Council for the Arts
350, Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
Téléphone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 4005
In Alberta: 780-428-2956
TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired callers: 613-565-5194
Fax: 613-566-4390
October 2007