Assistance to Visual Artists: Project Grants
Deadline
The deadline for Project Grants is 1 December 2007.
Program Description
Project Grants provide support for research/creation, professional development, production, networking and career development activities for professional artists making an important contribution to contemporary visual arts. The project must be significant and advance the long-term artistic and/or career development of the applicant at a key moment of their career. There are three types of project grants, as follows:
- Research/Creation: This type of grant allows for a period of independent research at a key moment in the artistic practice of the applicant. The project must demonstrate the capacity to advance the artistic practice of the artist.
- Production: This grant supports production costs of one or more works where there is at least one confirmed public presentation of the work(s) in a professional context. The project must demonstrate the capacity to advance the career of the artist.
- Career Development: This grant supports the development of an artist’s career through development activities and/or the growth of a professional network with partners such as critics, curators or art dealers. This can be done in conjunction with the development of tools such as websites, portfolios and small monographs. The applicant must demonstrate that the project occurs in a key period with regard to its impact on the progression of his or her career.
Applicants may apply to only ONE of the three project grant types per deadline.
Eligibility
General Eligibility Criteria
To apply to the Canada Council for the Arts, you must be a Canadian citizen or have Pemanent Resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. You must also meet the Canada Council’s definition of a professional artist, which is an artist 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.
To meet the above definition of a professional visual artist, you must have:
- produced an independent body of work
- made at least three public presentations of work in a professional context over a three year period
- maintained an independent professional practice for at least three years.
Students are not eligible.
All Canada Council programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists and artists of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Professional Context
Artists’ public presentations and exhibitions, both in Canada and abroad, must be in a professional organization or context where the artists’ work is recognized by a professional curator, gallery owner/art dealer, or collective of professional artists.
In Canada, to be considered professional, an organization must be a public art gallery, a museum or an artist-run centre that pays a professional fee to participating artists. The condition of paying fees does not apply to commercial galleries or professional venues outside Canada.
The Canada Council for the Arts recognizes that, for contemporary visual artists from Aboriginal as well as culturally diverse communities and, in rare cases, artists living in remote areas, the networks for peer recognition and exhibition venues may exist in alternative professional contexts. The acceptance of alternative professional contexts will be determined with the expertise of Aboriginal and culturally diverse communities in the Visual Arts Section and, if necessary, in collaboration with peers in the milieu.
Specific Eligibility Criteria
Production
In addition to the general eligibility criteria described above, you must have one confirmed public presentation in a professional context.
Career Development
In addition to the general eligibility criteria described above, you must provide a detailed work plan and confirmed activities, such as a professional meeting, an exhibiton, public presentation or a publication.
Other Restricitons
Educational projects, and capital and large equipment costs, are not eligible.
You may apply for only one Canada Council Grant to Professional Artists program (or to one deadline of that program) in any fiscal year (1 April to 31 March). The Canada Council will also accept from you one request for a Travel Grant per fiscal year.
You can receive a maximum of two Grants to Professional Artists from the Canada Council in any 48-month period.
Project Grants cannot be used for projects that have already been completed or for expenses already committed before the program deadline.
You must send all required support material in one package along with your completed application form. An application that does not include all required support material, including digital material that does not meet the guidelines, will be considered incomplete and, therefore, withdrawn from the competition.
Note: If you are an established professional artist who works in more than one discipline, such as Visual Arts and Music for example, and meet the eligibility criteria as an established artist in both disciplines, you may apply to two different Grants to Professional Artists programs per fiscal year. You must, however, accept or refuse the first grant offered by the Canada Council within two weeks of the date of the grant notification. If you accept the first grant offered, your other application will be withdrawn from any subsequent competition in that fiscal year.
Each disciplinary section defines its own criteria for determining who is considered to be an established artist. For the Visual Arts Section, established artists are those at a mature stage in their careers who have created an extensive independent body of work and have made a nationally and/or internationally recognized contribution to their discipline through public presentation of their work. Established artists must have at least 15 years of exhibitions history, in a professional context.
This program has a two-stage peer assessment process. If your application has not advanced to the peer assessment committee's second deliberation stage for three consecutive competitions, you must wait two years before reapplying.
Note that meeting the eligibility criteria allows you to apply to the program. It does not, however, guarantee that you will receive a grant.
Grant Amount
The maximum grant amount that you can receive from this component of the program is $20,000.
You are expected to determine the amount of your grant request based on your needs, the period of time required for the project and the budget guidelines provided under each project grant type described below. You may not be awarded the full grant amount requested.
Research/Creation
This grant can be used for studio time and travel costs, for a period of independent research and creation. This may also include participation in residencies and specialized professional development activities (such as workshops or specialized training).
Eligible costs include:
- subsistence, to a maximum of $2,000 per month
- research-related costs
- studio, material and small equipment costs
- travel costs related to activities in the project.
The majority of costs must be allocated to subsistence and research.
Production
This grant is for the production of work for a confirmed public presentation or exhibition. It is not for costs normally assumed by the exhibiting organization.
Eligible costs include:
- production, studio rental and technical costs
- material and small equipment costs
- shipping costs for exhibitions outside Canada or to Canadian venues that do not receive operating support from the Canada Council for the Arts
- travel costs related to production of works
- applicant's honorarium.
The majority of costs must be allocated to the production of work.
Career Development
This grant is for activities that advance an artist’s career, such as travel to expand a professional network with partners such as critics, curators, art dealers or publishers. This can be done in conjunction with the development of promotional tools such as websites, portfolios, documentation or small monographs.
Eligible costs include:
- subsistence, to a maximum of $2,000 per month
- small equipment costs
- technician and career development services
- shipping of works or materials related to the project
- travel costs related to the project
- salaries and fees to professionals.
Assessment of Applications
Assessment Process
Applications will be evaluated by a peer assessment committee, composed of experienced professional artists recognized as such by their peers. Committee members will also be selected to ensure fair representation of artistic specialization, gender, Canada’s two official languages, Aboriginal peoples, and the various regions and cultures of Canada. New committees of five members are formed for each competition.
Assessment takes place in two stages. During the fist stage and before they meet in Ottawa, peer assessment committee members receive and review photocopies of all eligible applications. They also assess each application's visual support material on-line on a secure website of Council, according to the assessment criteria of the project grant type (detailed immediately below).
The peer assessors then meet in Ottawa to carry out the second stage. During this meeting, they discuss each application’s relative merit and choose those that will receive grants.
Following the competition, the names of peer assessment committee members and successful candidates are made available, upon written request.
Assessment Criteria
The principal assessment criterion is the artistic merit of an applicant’s previous work, taking into consideration the specific and national context. The grant’s potential impact on the applicant’s artistic and career development is also evaluated.
The specific weighted criteria for each project grant type are as follows.
Research/Creation
60% – Artistic merit of the applicant’s previous work.
40% – Merit of the proposed program of research/creation and its capacity to advance the artistic practice of the applicant.
Production
60% – Artistic merit of the applicant’s previous work.
20% – Artistic merit of the proposed project.
20% – Capacity of the presentation to advance the dissemination of the artist’s work.
Career Development
60% – Artistic merit of the applicant’s previous work.
40% – Merit of the proposed project and its capacity to advance the career of the artist.
Application Form
Project Grants (pdf, 706 KB)
This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
To apply for a grant online go to GO! Grants Online
Further Information
Michel Gaboury or Pao Quang Yeh
Visual Arts Section 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. 5265 or 5094
TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired callers: 613-565-5194
Fax: 613-566-4332
July 2007