Assistance to Artist-Run Centres: 2008-2010
Deadline
1 November 2007
Program Description
This program offers financial assistance to artist-run centres that provide visual artists and their audiences with an informed and professional forum for research, production, presentation, promotion and dissemination of new works in contemporary visual arts. The program also contributes to various services offered to visual artists, in addition to activities such as discussions, symposiums or publications on issues arising from visual arts practices.
Centres that will be funded must demonstrate a professional commitment to the practices and concerns of artists in contemporary visual arts.
Please note: A performance art supplement for artist-run centres that receive operating funding is now available as an extension of this program.
Over the last few years, certain of the artist-run centres that receive grants through this program have sought supplementary support – specifically for their work in performance art - by making application to the Canada Council’s Inter-Arts Office.
Following a review of its programs, the Inter-Arts Office has transferred the responsibility for this supplement to the Visual Arts Section. As of November 1, 2007, interested artist-run centres must apply for the performance supplement as an appendix to their application for operating assistance.
Application for the supplement is restricted to artist-run centres currently receiving an operating grant through this program. The application form, entitled Performance Art Supplement for Artist-Run Centres that Receive Operating Grants, is available on the Canada Council’s Artist-Run Centres webpage. Completed applications for the supplement should be submitted alongside the request for operating assistance.
Please note that applicants to the regular program of operating assistance may continue to include their planned performance art series, festival and special projects in their regular application, or they may isolate these plans in an application for the supplement.
The assessment criteria for the supplement remain unchanged from what is used by the Inter-Arts Office’s Integrated Arts Program, focusing on the overall artistic merit and viability of the proposal. Please note, further, that when it assesses application for the supplement, the peer assessment committee will also take the applicant’s previous funding levels and evaluations into account.
Organizations that do not currently hold an operating grant from the Visual Arts Section are invited to apply for funding for their performance art activities through this Section’s program of Project assistance to Visual arts and Fine Crafts Organizations, or through the new Integrated Arts Program of the Inter-Arts Office.
Eligibility
Eligible Applicants
Applicants must be incorporated, non-profit Canadian organizations and must be directed by a board of whom a majority of the members are practicing visual artists.
The principal mandate of centres must be to encourage research, production, presentation, promotion and dissemination of new works in contemporary visual arts. They must maintain a permanent, dedicated space that is accessible to the public.
Centres supported by the Canada Council through the Visual Arts Section must pay professional artists’ fees to artists participating in their programming activities. These fees must meet or exceed the national standards.
New applicants must have maintained an annual program of artistic activities, accessible to the public, for a minimum of three consecutive years.
For this program, the visual arts include drawing, painting, sculpture, photography, printmaking, installation, architecture and craft. Artist-run centres may also include video, film, new media, audio, and interdisciplinary and performance artworks in their programming. However, centres with primary activities in these fields must apply to the Media Arts Section or the Inter-Arts Program.
All Canada Council for the Arts programs are accessible to Aboriginal artists or arts organizations and artists or arts organizations from diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Grant Amount
Multi-year grants range from $20,000 to $100,000 per year. This grant covers the period from 1 April 2008 to 31 March 2010.
Successful applicants must inform the Canada Council of any changes in their mandate, administrative structure, or other corporate features that would affect their eligibility for this program. Such changes may require the Canada Council to withhold or reduce the grant, as may significant changes in the activities that the applicant described in the original application.
The second year’s installment may also be reduced if the Canada Council’s annual parliamentary appropriation is decreased.
Application Form
This application form consists of all documents below. These documents can be printed. The form cannot be filled out on-line.
Further Information
Visual Arts Section
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert Street, P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
To obtain further information about the Artist-Run Centres program, contact the appropriate Visual Arts Section Officer as indicated below.
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, and the appropriate extension number.
Applicants from Ontario (northern part of the province and Toronto), Quebec, New Brunswick, Prince Edward Island, Newfoundland and Labrador, and Vancouver Island, contact: Sue-Ellen Gerritsen at ext. 4122
Applicants from Ontario (Ottawa and western part of the province and Toronto), British Columbia (except Vancouver Island), Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, Nova Scotia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut, contact: Jim Logan at ext. 5266
TTY (TDD) machine for hearing-impaired callers: (613) 565-5194
Fax: (613) 566-4332
June 2007