Media Arts Project Grants: Development Project Grants and Artists and Community Collaboration Program (ACCP)
Deadlines
1 May or 1 November
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.
GENERAL GUIDELINES FOR ALL APPLICANTS
Program Description
This program supports time-limited projects initiated by Canadian non-profit, artist-run organizations, groups or collectives. The projects must be intended to provide Canadian artists with enhanced opportunities for the production of independent media artworks.
Projects must also address specific production needs in the communities that applicants serve or intend to serve. Applicants are encouraged to work with other organizations, groups, collectives, public institutions and for-profit companies to address these needs.
The Canada Council for the Arts defines the media arts as works in film, video, audio and new media. Productions are considered independent when the artist or artists maintain complete creative and editorial control over them.
This Canada Council program is accessible to Aboriginal artists or arts organizations and artists or arts organizations of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Eligibility
Eligible Applicants
Applicants must be Canadian non-profit, artist-run organizations, groups or collectives supporting the production of media artworks by Canadian artists.
A group or collective must include four or more people. A group usually forms to undertake one project, while a collective may undertake a series of projects or activities. Groups or collectives are not required have an established administrative structure, but they must be represented by one individual who will take on the administrative responsibility for the project.
Organizations, groups or collectives that receive operating or other ongoing assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts may apply to this program, but not to fund activities already supported by such operating or other assistance.
Applicants must report on all previous grants received from this program and have their reports approved by the Media Arts Section before they are eligible to apply again.
Artists must retain complete creative and editorial control over the independent work they produce while working on a project supported by funding from this program.
Ineligible Applicants
Public institutions and for-profit companies may participate in projects, but may not apply.
This program is not intended to support a group of artists collaborating on a media arts production. They are advised to apply instead to the appropriate production grants program in the Media Arts Section.
Grant Amount
Applicants may request up to $20,000.
Grant funds may be used:
- to pay salaries, fees and travel costs for technicians, artists, project administrators and other project personnel
- to rent equipment and facilities
- to pay for technical services and materials, and
- to provide direct financial support to artists served by the applicant.
In exceptional cases, applicants that do not receive assistance from the Canada Council for the purchase of equipment may use up to 15 percent of the grant to purchase production equipment that is necessary to carry out the project.
Retroactive funding is not available. Grant funds may be used only for expenses that occur after the competition deadline.
Assessment of Applications
Assessment Process
Funding decisions are made by a peer assessment committee, which is composed of independent media artists¾or other experts in the field¾who are recognized for their expertise, artistic accomplishments and knowledge of different media arts practices. Members are also selected to ensure fair representation of gender, regional and cultural diversity, genres, Aboriginal peoples and Canada’s two official languages.
The peer assessment committee bases its decisions on the merit of each application, compared with all others in a national competition, and on the funds available. For this program, the committee’s decisions are final recommendations that are reviewed and approved by the Canada Council.
Assessment Criteria
In making their funding decisions, committee members assess:
the merit of the project and its relevance to the objectives and priorities of the funding program
- the quality of the research and planning supporting the project
- the relevance and accessibility of the project to the artists it is intended to serve, including the breadth of the community served by the project, and
- the applicant’s ability to undertake the project, as demonstrated by its resources and expertise.
If the project initiates activities that will be sustained after project funding ends, the feasibility of the plans for ongoing support of the activities will also be considered.
The Canada Council gives priority to the production of works that are innovative in the themes and subjects they address, the point of view they express and the aesthetic strategies they employ.
While all eligible projects meeting the program objectives will be considered, priority will be given to projects that assist:
- Aboriginal artists
- artists from diverse cultural communities
- artists working in specific regional contexts
- artists expanding the use of new media technologies
- young artists, defined as those aged 14 to 24.
SPECIFIC GUIDELINES FOR ACCP APPLICANTS
Purpose
The Artists and Community Collaboration Program (ACCP) supports diverse artistic activities that bring together professional artists and the broader community.
Definition of Artists and Community Collaboration
Artists and community collaboration is an arts process that actively involves the work of professional artists and non-arts community members in creative and collaborative relationships.
Assessment Criteria
Applications to the ACCP will be evaluated against the assessment criteria for the Assistance to Media Arts Production Organizations: Development Project Grants, which are listed on pages 3 and 4 of these guidelines, and the following criteria:
- the merit of the proposed collaboration process (where clear and appropriate strategies and processes must be outlined to ensure a successful collaborative relationship)
- the relevance of the project for participating community members and for the artists involved, in particular the relevance for youth, Aboriginal communities and culturally diverse communities
- the artistic merit of the artists involved, and their proven ability to carry out such a project, as demonstrated by their resources, expertise and past performance, and
- the public impact of the project.
Application Form
Development Project Grants and Artists and Community Collaboration Program (pdf, 154 KB)
This form can only be printed and cannot be filled out on-line.
Further Information
Michèle Stanley, Program Officer
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
Fax: 613-566-4409
March 2009