Assistance to Visual Artists: Project Grants
The Canada Council for the Arts is committed to equity and inclusion, and welcomes applications from diverse Aboriginal, cultural and regional communities, including people with disabilities.
Deadline
1 December
If this date falls on a weekend or statutory holiday, the deadline moves to the next business day.
Please refer to the Program Guidelines for detailed information.
Program Description
Project Grants support professional individual visual artists and collaborations who contribute to contemporary visual arts for research/creation, production, and career development. The project must advance the artistic practice, dissemination of the artist’s work, or career development of the artist at a key moment in their career. There are three types of project grants:
- Research/Creation: This type of grant can be used 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), studio rental and material costs.
- Production: This grant supports production costs of work where there is at least one confirmed public presentation of the work in a professional visual arts context.
- 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.
Applicants may apply to only ONE of the above project grant types per deadline.
Eligibility of Applicant
To apply to the Canada Council for the Arts, you must be a Canadian citizen or have permanent resident status, as defined by Citizenship and Immigration Canada. You do not need to be living in Canada when you apply.
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 a professional by his or her peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition), and
- is committed to devoting more time to artistic activity, if financially possible.
To meet the definition of a professional visual artist, you must also have:
- produced an independent body of work
- had at least three public presentations of your work in a professional context over a three-year period, and
- maintained an independent professional practice for at least three years.
The Visual Arts Section recognizes a collaboration as two or three professional visual artists working together on a long-term basis to develop a collaborative artistic practice. To meet the definition of a collaboration:
- each member of the collaboration must meet the definition of a professional visual artist;
- it must have had at least three public presentations of its collaborative work in a professional context over a three year-period.
A collaboration may submit one application where one member is the lead applicant and the other member(s) are the co-applicant(s) OR each member of the collaboration may submit an application and all of the applications are assessed together.
Grant Amount
The maximum grant amount that you can receive from this program is $20,000.
Further Information
Michel Gaboury or Pao Quang Yeh, Program Officers
Visual Arts Section
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: 1-866-585-5559
Fax: 613-566-4332
September 2011