Annual Assistance to Media Arts Festivals
NEW THIS YEAR: CADAC Financial Reporting
Deadline
1 November 2009
If this date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
If your festival occurs on the deadline date or within four weeks of the deadline, you may be able to request an extension for submitting additional materials. However, you must contact the program officer named below well in advance of the deadline date to receive approval of an extension for submitting additional materials.
Incomplete applications, applications postmarked after the deadline date and applications sent by fax or email will not be accepted.
Program Description
The Canada Council for the Arts views media arts festivals as key events for raising the profile of Canadian, independent media artists and their works. The Council views them as central in linking artworks to audiences, distributors, curators, exhibitors and broadcasters and to stimulating dialogue and exchange between artists and the public at large.
The Canada Council defines media arts as works in film, video, audio and new media.
Support is given to festivals that:
- raise the profile of independent Canadian artworks
- display vision, innovation and risk-taking in their programming
- present works by Canadian artists from various regions and cultural communities, and highlight a diversity of voices and visions
- make independent Canadian media artwork accessible to distributors, curators, exhibitors and broadcasters
- reach diverse audience groups, including young audiences, and
- are recognized nationally and internationally.
The Canada Council’s support is directed to the Canadian independent component of a festival’s programming. Specifically, this program encourages the presentation of independent works that are innovative in the themes and subjects they address, the point of view they express and the aesthetic strategies they employ. The Council encourages festival programmers to contextualize and incorporate a diversity of culturally specific practices, voices and visions.
The Canada Council considers independent productions to be those over which the director/artist maintains complete creative and editorial control.
Media arts festivals are considered to be annual or biennial (held every two years) events that bring audiences, distributors, curators, programmers, broadcasters, mass media and artists together over a concentrated period of time (a minimum of three days).
The presentation of media artworks must be the primary purpose of the festival. (Multidisciplinary festivals that include media arts programming may be eligible to apply to the Canada Council through the grant programs of the Inter-Arts Office.)
Eligibility
Applicants must demonstrate a serious, ongoing commitment to presenting independent film, video, audio and/or new media artworks produced by Canadian media artists. Applicants must pay artists' fees and/or distributor rental fees for the Canadian, independent media artworks presented. At the time of application, organizations are required to submit a list including the name of the artist and/or distributor, the date and the amount of payment for each Canadian, independent media artwork presented in the most recent festival. We also reserve the right to demand cancelled cheques or other proof of the payment of artists' and/or distributor rental fees.
Festivals must have been in operation for at least three years and have produced at least three full festivals. They must also have received support previously from this program or the Dissemination Project Grants program.
Applicants must have an established administrative structure and be legally constituted as a Canadian, non-profit organization. They must be directed by a board of practising media artists, programmers and/or curators, or have an advisory or programming committee with strong representation from these groups.
Internet-based festivals must also feature a series of scheduled events that offer a platform to bring artists, distributors, curators, exhibitors and audiences together to optimize the impact of festival.
Organizations that also receive Canada Council funding for annual, ongoing media arts programming are not eligible to apply to this program.
All Canada Council programs are accessible to Aboriginal arts organizations and arts organizations from diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Grant Amount
There are no minimum or maximum grants that may be requested or received.
Applicants may receive less than the full amount they request. Grants contribute only to the direct costs associated with presenting independent, Canadian media artworks at festivals occurring in the calendar year following the application deadline.
Retroactive funding is not available.
CADAC Financial Reporting
NEW THIS YEAR: CADAC
The Canada Council for the Arts is collecting financial information through a new national online database called CADAC (Canadian Arts Data/Données sur les arts au Canada). This system will enable arts organizations applying for operating funding from public funders who are members of CADAC to submit their financial information in the same format.
The following are member partners: the Alberta Foundation for the Arts, the British Columbia Arts Council, the Canada Council for the Arts, the City of Vancouver, the New Brunswick Department of Wellness, Culture and Sport, the Manitoba Arts Council, the Ontario Arts Council, the Saskatchewan Arts Board and the Toronto Arts Council.
Application Form
Further Information
Michèle Stanley
Media Arts Section
Canada Council for the Arts
350 Albert St., P.O. Box 1047
Ottawa ON K1P 5V8
Telephone: 1-800-263-5588 (toll-free) or 613-566-4414, ext. 5251
TTY : 1-866-585-5559
Fax: 613-566-4409
September 2009