Media Arts Commissioning Program
Deadline
1 December
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
This program supports organizations in commissioning Canadian artists to produce media artworks for presentation to local, national or international audiences. Grants contribute to costs for the production and presentation of commissioned works.
Commissions must be directed at Canadian artists using the media technologies of film, video, new media and audio as means of artistic expression.
Commissioning organizations must assume responsibility for the production and presentation of commissioned works. Applicants must identify a person within their organization (for example, a curator, commissioning editor or executive producer) to act as the “producer” responsible for the commission.
To ensure the vitality and continued excellence of Canadian media arts, this program supports commissions leading to the creation and presentation of independent, artist-controlled media artworks. Independent means that artists must maintain significant creative control over the commissioned work. Guidelines established by commissioning organizations or by other funding sources may not compromise artists’ creative control.
All Canada Council for the Arts programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists or arts organizations and artists or arts organizations of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Type of Work Supported
Types of commissions supported include, but are not restricted to, the following:
- thematic programs of works by various artists
- works created to raise the profile of media arts venues and events
- media artworks created for integration into performing arts productions that can also be presented as stand-alone works, and
- new works that celebrate an artist’s past achievements.
The Canada Council supports organizations that have proven their ability to raise the profile of Canadian artists in Canada and abroad. Organizations must display vision and innovation in their selection and presentation of commissioned work.
Applications from organizations working in the cultural industries and wishing to commission work by artists are welcome.
Type of Work Not Supported
Commissions to support regular programming created for the cultural industries of commercial media are not supported. Similarly, commissions of standard industry television, radio or web media works are not supported.
Commissions that are only for profit or financial gain are not supported.
Commissions solicited through an open call for submissions are not supported, unless the artists have already been selected by the time of application.
Eligibility
Commissioning Organizations
Only organizations may apply to this program. Individual artists, festival programmers, commissioning editors and curators may not apply directly, but must instead be designated by an eligible organization.
Commissioning organizations must be recognized presenting bodies, such as festivals, museums, galleries, performing arts companies, broadcasters or webcasters. Groups without regular presentation programming (such as production organizations, distributors, artist-run centres or curatorial collectives) must have secured the partnership of a presenting organization that will present the commissioned work to the public. Each application must have a recognized presenting organization involved in the project, as either the principal applicant or co-applicant.
Commissioning organizations must have been in operation for at least two years and must have an established administrative structure.
Presenting organizations must pay artists’ fees for the presentation of commissioned works. The Canada Council reserves the right to ask for cancelled cheques or other proof of the payment of artists’ fees.
The commissioning organization must act as the producer of the commissioned work and is responsible for ensuring that:
- artists maintain significant creative and editorial control over their work
- a contract between the commissioning organization and the artists¾addressing ownership (copyright) and rights and royalties payments to the artists¾is in place before production begins
- the obligations of each party to the commission, as agreed upon in the contract, are respected
- financing, as specified in the application, is in place for both the production and presentation phases before production of the commissioned works begins, and
- the commission is produced and presented within the time frame specified in the application.
Applicants who have a final report and/or financial accounting overdue from a previous Canada Council grant are not eligible.
Applicants should contact the Media Arts Section Officer, well before the program deadline, if they have any doubts about the eligibility of their project.
Commissioned Artists
Artists must be Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. They need not be living in Canada when the application is submitted.
Works may be commissioned from individuals or from groups of artists (maximum of three artists) working collaboratively.
Established and mid-career artists are eligible for commissions through this program. Organizations wishing to commission work by emerging artists should refer instead to the Media Arts Section’s Development Project Grants program. Information is provided at the end of this document.
Established artists are those who have been practising for at least seven years and who have created and exhibited a significant, professionally recognized body of work.
Mid-career artists have been practising for at least three years and have created and exhibited at least one independent work in a professional context.
Professional established and/or mid-career artists in other disciplines who meet the Canada Council’s eligibility criteria for their discipline are also considered to be mid-career artists for this program. These applicants must demonstrate that they have basic training in media arts, or solid support from experienced individuals working in independent media arts (such as recognized consultants or technicians).
Established and mid-career artists must also 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 public 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 festivals, museums, galleries, cinematheques, artist-run centres and/or competitions (other than those reserved for student productions); recognized, professionally curated web events; or other recognized presentation venues (such as television, radio or webcasts) where the selection of participants is made by media arts professionals.
The commissioning organization must demonstrate that all proposed artists have sufficient technical expertise to undertake the proposed commission, or that they are collaborating with artists or technicians with such expertise. This must be evident in the artists’ audiovisual support material, letters of agreement and resumés of collaborators submitted with the application.
Graduate students are eligible only if they meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist and the proposed commission is not related to their program of study. (A letter from the graduate student’s program director must be included with the application to verify this information.)
Full-time undergraduate students at a school, college or university are not eligible for commissions.
Commissioned Work
Commissioning grants are intended to support the creation of independent, artist-controlled media artworks. Examples of media artworks include but are not limited to independent animations, documentaries, dramas, experimental films and videotapes, art and essay works, artworks created with information and communications technologies, web art, artists' applications of robotics, sound sculptures, sound installations and performances, soundscapes and radiophonic art.
The following types of projects are not eligible for support and do not count in determining a commissioning organization’s or commissioned artists’ eligibility:
projects done on contract for, or produced by, a government agency or private company
- industrial, instructional, promotional or student projects
- projects using media technology simply as a tool to record or document existing artworks
- projects that transfer a media artwork finished in one format to another, without modification of the original
- productions involving commercial or journalistic approaches to media arts, and
- projects in which artists relinquish significant creative and editorial control.
Grant Amount
Commissioning organizations may request a maximum of $100,000, but cannot use funds from this program to cover 100 percent of the expenses. Applicants must have other revenue sources for the project, which may include sources of in-kind revenues.
Application Form
Media Arts Commissioning Program (pdf, 170 KB)
This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
Further Information
Michèle Stanley
Media Arts Section
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 5251
TTY (TDD) machine for hearing-impaired callers: 613-565-5194
October 2007