Grants to New Media and Audio Artists: Research and Production Grants
Deadlines
1 March or 1 October
If either of these dates 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 Grants to New Media and Audio Artists: Research and Produnciton Grants assist Canadian artists working with new media or audio technologies as means of artistic expression. Grants cover artist’s subsistence costs as well as the direct costs of research, creative development and production of artworks created with new media or audio technologies.
To ensure the vitality and continued excellence of new media and audio art, 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 and maintains complete creative and editorial control over the work. Contracts with other funders must not require the artist to give up such control.
These grants are not intended to support work created for the cultural industries of commercial new media, radio or television broadcasting.
All Canada Council programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists from diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Type of Work Supported
These grants support artists making a creative use of interactive information and communications technologies and/or audio production technologies. Priority is given to projects that involve innovation and artistic expression.
Innovation may be found in the renewal of formal elements in terms of style, technique or process. It can mean a contribution based on the uniqueness of the subject or content of the project, or on the uniqueness of the artist's perspective or process of expression. Only the most innovative proposals are supported.
Priority is given to proposals from artists whose work demonstrates the development of an individual style or expressive approach, as well as a commitment to questioning and expanding the art form.
Recent Examples: New Media
Recent examples of artists’ work in new media include, but are not limited to, the following:
- artworks created with information and communications technologies
- installations and performances integrating information and communications technologies
- immersive environments
- artworks created through a creative application of communications networks
- web art
- artists’ applications of robotics
- software design leading to the production of an original artwork
- creation of a prototype for use in/as an original artwork;
- artworks created using artificial intelligence or artificial life software, and
- “visual music” or VJ performances and/or installations.
Recent Examples: Audio
Recent examples of artists’ work in audio include, but are not limited to, the following:
- sound sculptures
- sound installations and performances
- soundscapes, and
- radiophonic art.
Eligibility
Eligible Applicants
Applicants must be Canadian citizens or have permanent resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They need not be living in Canada when they apply.
Individuals or groups of up to three artists working collaboratively on a project may apply.
Established, mid-career and emerging artists are eligible.
An established artist is one who has been practising for at least seven years and who has created and released a significant body of independent work in a professional context.
A mid-career artist is one who has been practising for at least three years and who has created and released more than one independent work in a professional context.
Also considered as mid-career artists are professional established and /or mid-career artists in other artistic disciplines who meet the Canada Council’s eligibility criteria for their discipline. To be eligible, these artists must have had a recognized practice for at least five years. During this period, artists must have presented their works nationally and/or internationally in a professional context (as defined by the relevant art section or unit of the Canada Council for the Arts). Artists must also demonstrate that they have basic training in media arts or audio, or solid support in independent media arts or audio from experienced individuals, such as recognized programmers or technicians.
Note to Emerging Artists
Please read the guidelines carefully as the definition of an emerging artist has been recently modified.
An emerging artist is one who has less than three years of practice, has completed basic training, and has completed at least one independent new media or audio work that has been presented in a professional context. The basic training in media arts can be formal (university or college studies) or informal (production courses, workshops, hands-on experience in media arts production, etc.). Applicants must include with their application a copy of at least one independent production that they produced or audiovisual documentation of that work.
Applicants must meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, 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 presentation in a professional context.
In the media arts, a professional context means venues and organizations (real or virtual) primarily devoted to presentation. These may be artist-run centres, exhibition centres, museums, galleries, festivals and competitions (other than those reserved for student productions), recognized, professionally curated web events, other recognized presentation venues or organizations where the selection of participants is made by media arts professionals.
Undergraduate students at a school, college or university are not eligible to apply.
Graduate students are eligible to apply only if they meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, and the proposed production 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.
Eligible Activities
Research Grants
Activities eligible for funding under the Research Grants component include the following:
- research and development of ideas and concepts
- research and development of new projects
- experimentation with tools and technologies
- professional development, such as attendance at workshops, residencies, symposiums, or conferences
- working with software programmers, engineers, technicians or other specialized consultants to develop knowledge and skills or other forms of specialized training not leading towards a degree
- travel related to the program of work, and
- research and development of links with potential host organizations for a future residency.
Production Grants
Activities eligible for funding under the Production Grants component include all of the above, as well as the direct costs of production of new media or audio artworks.
Artists may apply under this category to produce work that combines experimentation, exploration and research with the phases of production; or to produce work for which the creative development phase is complete.
Artists applying for a production project involving one or more co-collaborators may hire programmers or assistants to produce intermediate elements, and for certain specialized techniques, but must produce most of the work themselves.
Artists applying to produce a film or video installation or a video on DVD must apply to the Grants to Film and Video Artists program.
Type of work not supported
The following types of projects are not eligible for support and do not count in determining an applicant’s eligibility:
- projects done on contract for, or produced by, a government agency or private company
- commissioned projects (except where the commission gives the artist full creative control – e.g. festival or curatorial commissions)
- electronic music recording projects for which there is an already established production infrastructure
- industrial projects
- instructional projects
- promotional projects
- student projects
- projects using new media or audio simply as a tool to record, document or present existing artworks
- projects using new media or audio as tools to support another artistic discipline (performing arts, musical composition or performance)
- projects that transfer a new media or audio project finished in one format to another, without modification of the original (re-purposing)
- productions involving commercial or journalistic approaches to new media or audio, and
- artists’ personal promotional web pages or other promotional supports.
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.
Development of financing for a project is not an eligible activity.
A project supported partially or entirely by another Canada Council for the Arts program may not be eligible under this program.
Applicants who have any doubts about the eligibility of their project should contact Marie-France Thérien, Media Arts Section Officer, well before the program deadline.
Other Restrictions
Artists may submit the same project (for research or production) only twice to any component of the Grants to New Media and Audio Artists program.
Artists may apply to the Canada Council for only one Grant to Professional Artists (excluding a Travel Grant) per fiscal year (from 1 April to 31 March).
Professional, established artists who work in more than one discipline and meet the eligibility criteria for established artists in both disciplines may apply to two Grants to Professional Artists programs per fiscal year (from 1 April to 31 March). However, they must accept or refuse the first grant offered by the Canada Council within two weeks of notification. If they accept this grant, any other application made during the same fiscal year will be withdrawn.
Artists may co-apply to any component of the Grants to New Media and Audio Artists program however, all co-applicants must be eligible for the type of grant applied for.
Applicants may receive a maximum of two Grants to Professional Artists, excluding Travel Grants and Production Grants, within any 48-month period.
Artists must submit their final reports for any previous Canada Council grants before they can apply for a new grant. They may, however, apply under the Research Grants component before they have completed a project previously supported by a Production Grant.
Grant Amount
Established and mid-career artists may apply for one of the following:
- Research Grants: from $3,000 to $20,000 in increments of $1,000
OR
- New Media Production Grants: up to $60,000
OR
- Audio Production Grants: up to $35,000
Emerging artists may apply for:
- Production Grants: up to $16,000.
Applicants may apply for any amount in the range indicated, but must round their total budget request to the nearest thousand.
Eligible Expenses
Research Grants
Eligible expenses include:
- subsistence costs for the time spent working on the project (up to $2,000 per month per applicant)
- professional and other fees and honoraria (for programmers, technicians or other specialized consultants, etc.)
- rental costs for equipment, studios and other facilities
- costs of materials and supplies used for experimentation and research
- software license costs (specialized software only)
- travel costs, and
- conference and workshop registration fees
Production Grants
Eligible expenses include all of the above, as well as:
- direct costs related to production
- direct presentation-related costs (including rental costs for presentation equipment)
- contingency funds (to a maximum of 10 percent of the grant amount), and
- costs of promoting, launching, reproducing and copying a work, to a maximum of 5 percent of the grant amount.
Applicants are asked to submit reasonable, carefully thought-out proposals based on well-researched budgets.
Ineligible Expenses
Purchase of production or studio equipment is not an eligible expense.
Application Form
Grants to New Media and Audio Artists: Research and Production Grants (pdf, 109 KB)
This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
Further Information
For further details, contact Marie-France Thérien, Media Arts Section Officer.
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 5253
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
January 2007