Book Publishing Support : Art Books
Deadlines
15 April and 15 September
If either date 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.
Program Description
The Art Books component of the Book Publishing Support program encourages the publication of high-quality illustrated books on the contemporary Canadian visual arts.
The Writing and Publishing Section has collaborated with the Visual Arts Section to develop the guidelines below for eligibility, project assessment and funding.
Funding for an art book project is drawn from two Canada Council programs:
- Project Assistance to Visual Arts and Fine Craft Organizations (Visual Arts Section)
- Book Publishing Support (Writing and Publishing Section).
Eligibility
Eligibility is limited to publishers participating in the Book Publishing Support program, through either Block Grants or Emerging Publisher Grants.
In addition to meeting the general eligibility criteria of the Book Publishing Support program, the proposed titles must:
- consist of subject matter related to the contemporary Canadian visual arts
- involve significant expenses (i.e. development (excluding royalties) and production costs totalling more than $20,000)
- contain a significant number of high-quality four-colour or black-and-white illustrations
- exhibit superior quality in both interior and cover design, and exceed the standard trade book format
- include substantial critical content (with a text of at least 10,000 words)
- consist of at least 96 printed pages.
The focus of the project must be on the visual arts and visual artists, and not on other art forms. Photographic art projects are assessed for eligibility on the basis of the photographer’s status as a recognized visual artist and the merit of the critical text accompanying the illustrations.
Projects dealing with historical material will be considered for support only if their relevance to contemporary art practices is clearly demonstrated.
Catalogues serving to document an exhibition are not eligible.
Projects must be completed within 24 months of approval of a grant.
Requests that have been unsuccessful in a competition under this program may be re-submitted to only one further competition.
This Canada Council for the Arts program is accessible to Aboriginal arts organizations and arts organizations of diverse cultural and regional communities of Canada.
Grant Amount
Funding is not automatic; applications are evaluated by an assessment committee, according to the criteria indicated below.
Funds are available from two sources:
- Visual Arts, $5,000 for development costs
- Writing and Publishing, $10,000 for production costs.
It is possible that the committee will recommend funding from the Writing and Publishing Section only.
Collaborative projects with art museums or public art galleries are eligible. If the institution has already received funding from the Visual Arts Section for the same book project, the publisher will be eligible to receive funding from the Writing and Publishing Section only.
The Writing and Publishing Section’s support for a single art book title is a maximum of $10,000. Therefore, titles receiving Art Books grants are not included in the base component calculation of the Block Grants. However, these titles should be submitted to the Block Grants program so that the peer assessment committee can view them. Similarly, publishers should not expect to receive more than $5,000 from the Art Books component if they have received a $5,000 advance under Emerging Publisher Grants for production of the same title.
Application Form
Publishers seeking assistance must currently be participating in the Canada Council’s Block Grants or Emerging Publisher Grants under the Book Publishing Support program.
The application form and guidelines for the Art Books component of the program are available on request from Elizabeth Eve, Writing and Publishing Section Officer.
Further Information
Elizabeth Eve
Program Officer
Writing and Publishing 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. 5576
TTY (TDD) machine, for hearing-impaired callers: 613-565-5194
Fax: 613-566-4410
March 2009