Travel Grants to Media Arts Professionals
Deadline
Anytime
There are no deadlines for these grants, but requests have to be received before the departure date. Applicants who wish to have the results before their departure should apply at least 10 weeks in advance.
Program Description
This program has two components: Travel Grants to Media Artists and Travel Grants to Independent Media Arts Critics and Curators.
The Canada Council for the Arts defines the media arts as works in film, video, audio and new media.
Travel Grants to Media Artists
These Travel Grants assist Canadian, professional independent media artists to travel outside their home region on occasions important to the development of their artistic practice or career. This component provides:
- presentation travel, which allows independent media artists to travel with their work and to respond to invitations to present their independent work at recognized Canadian or international festivals or exhibition venues
- professional development travel, which allows independent media artists to attend workshops, residencies, symposia and conferences, and/or to participate in other professional development opportunities.
Travel related to the research, development or production of an independent media arts project is not supported under this program (unless it is in the context of a workshop or residency). Applicants may incorporate these costs into a request to the Grants to Film and Video Artists or the Grants to New Media and Audio Artists program, administered by the Media Arts Section. Contact information is provided at the end of these guidelines.
Travel Grants to Independent Media Arts Critics and Curators
This component of the program assists professional independent media arts critics and curators to travel outside their home region. This component offers three categories of assistance:
- research travel, which allows independent media arts critics and curators to undertake a research program, to visit a studio or visit a presentation centre
- professional development travel, which allows independent media arts critics and curators to participate in workshops, residencies, symposia, conferences or other professional development activities in Canada or abroad
- presentation travel, which allows independent media arts curators to attend the presentation of an exhibition or a program of independent works by Canadian media arts professionals that they have curated.
Note: Critics, curators and programmers working with organizations (such as festivals, artists' centres, etc.) may apply to the Audience and Market Development Travel Assistance program of the Canada Council for the presentation of their work or to develop new audiences. Contact information of the program coordinator is provided at the end of this document.
Eligibility
Applicant Eligibility
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada. They need not be living in Canada when they apply.
Applicants must also meet the Canada Council for the Arts’ definition of a professional, defined as someone who:
- has specialized training in the field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
- is recognized as such by her or his peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition)
- is committed to devoting more time to the artistic activity, if financially feasible, and
- has a history of public presentation.
Applicants may apply to the Canada Council for only one Grant to Professional Artists program (or to one deadline of that program) per fiscal year (from 1 April to 31 March). They may also apply for only one Canada Council Travel Grant per fiscal year.
All Canada Council for the Arts programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Travel Grants to Media Artists
Only directors may apply; producers are not eligible.
Scriptwriters are eligible to apply if they have already worked with established or mid-career film or video artists and at least one of their scripts has been used in an independent production by an established or mid-career film or video artist.
Applicants must be practising independent media artists. A practising artist is someone who has completed at least one professional independent media arts production.
To ensure the vitality and continued excellence of the media arts, Canada Council for the Arts grants help support individual artists committed to the creation of independent artist-controlled artworks. Independent means that the artist initiates and is the driving force behind the proposed project. He or she must maintain complete creative and editorial control over the work; contracts with other funders must not require the artist to give up such control.
Undergraduate students at a school, college or university are not eligibile to apply.
Graduate students are eligible to apply only if they meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, and the work presented is not related to their program of study. (A letter from the applicant’s program director is required to verify this information, and it must be included with the application.)
For presentation travel, applicants must have a confirmed invitation to present an independent media arts production at a recognized festival or exhibition venue outside their home region.
Travel Grants to Independent Media Arts Critics and Curators
Applicants must be established, practising independent media arts critics or curators. An established curator is someone who has completed at least three programs of independent Canadian media artwork that have been presented. An established critic is someone who has published a minimum of three articles, papers or exhibition texts on independent Canadian media artists and artworks.
Project Eligibility
Important: Travel to attend an activity of a department of the federal government (including Canadian embassies abroad) is not eligible for support under this program.
The following types of projects are not eligible for support and do not count in determining an applicant’s eligibility:
- development of financing for a project
- projects done on contract for, or produced by, a government agency or private company
- prospecting projects
- projects linked to market or audience development
- industrial or corporate projects
- instructional or educational projects
- calling card films
- student projects
- pilots for television
- commercial television projects
- music videos
- public service announcements, and
- projects using film, video, new media or audio simply as a tool to record or document existing artworks;
- productions involving commercial or journalistic approaches to film, video, new media or audio;
- conventional forms of theatrical and television entertainment, such as police dramas, movies-of-the-week and news reports.
Artists are encouraged to seek payment for the presentation, exhibition and dissemination of their completed works. However, proposals for productions that are made only for profit or financial gain are not supported.
Applicants who have any doubts about the eligibility of their project should contact the Travel Grants Officer well before submitting an application.
Grant Amount
Travel Grants are available in fixed amounts of $500, $750, $1,000, $1,500, $2,000 and $2,500. Applicants should apply for the fixed amount that will cover their travel costs, based on excursion rates, and their subsistence. Travel Grants do not cover the transportation costs of artworks.
In the case of artists’ residencies, Travel Grants may be used to cover only the travel and accommodation between applicants’ home and the location of the residency. They are not intended to cover the per diem, accommodation and registration costs of the residency itself.
Note: The fixed amounts of $2,000 and $2,500 are available only to applicants who are travelling to or from northern Canada or to international destinations other than the United States and Europe.
The costs of airplane, train or bus tickets and accommodation are covered by the grant. Travel allowances are based on the cheapest available fares from applicants’ place of residence to the location where their project is taking place.
Applications may include more than one destination and applicants must justify the amount requested.
The Canada Council for the Arts accepts projects that receive other private or public funding, but does not provide grants for projects whose complete funding is already ensured.
Application Form
Or
Further Information
This program summary is an overview of the Travel Grants to Media Arts Professionals program. For further details or to obtain an application form, contact Guy Charbonneau in the Media Arts Section.
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 4263
TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired callers: 613-565-5194
Fax : 613-566-4409
Media Arts Section
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
December 2005