The Impact of Canada Council Individual Artist Grants on Artist Careers
Appendix III: Discussion Group Guide
Facilitator Introduction and Round Table Participant Introductions
(5 -- 10 minutes)
I) Grant Purpose (10 minutes)
1) Why did you apply for a Canada Council for The Arts individual artist grant(s)? In your mind, what was (were) the grant(s) for?
2) Do you clearly understand the reasons for which the Canada Council for The Arts awards grants to individual artists? What do you know about the different kinds of grants available from the Canada Council for The Arts?
3) Were you clear about what you actually intended to do with the individual artist grant(s) you received?
II) Activity During Grant Tenure (10 minutes)
4) Please tell us about what you did with your grant(s). What activity(ies) did it allow you to engage in? What did you spend the grant money on?
5) Was this what you had expected to do? (if not, what was different and why)
III) Accomplishments During Grant Tenure (15 minutes)
6) Please describe, in artistic terms, what you were able to accomplish during the tenure of your grant? (Did you grow artistically? Did you learn new techniques, ways of expressing yourself, other?)
7) Did you produce any specific new work(s) of art during the tenure of your grant? If so, please describe. Did you complete any new work (s) of art during the period immediately (six to eight months; one year) following the expiration of the grant? Please describe.
8) If you did produce new work, has it been, produced, published, shown etc (depending on discipline)? Please describe? Did this take place during the period of grant tenure? Afterwards? How long afterwards?
IV) Importance of the Grant; Attributing Accomplishments to the Grant(s); Other Grants (20 minutes)
9) In general terms, how important was this grant(s) to you? What was its impact on your career? Did you have other grants or sources of funding, aside from earned income, during the period of the grant tenure?. If so, please tell me about them.
10) Can you tell me to what extent you think that there is a direct link between the grant you received and what you were able to accomplish during the tenure of the grant? Would you have accomplished what you did without the grant? As quickly?
V) Other Questions
(approximately 1 hr to here; 1 hr from here to end; 15 minutes kept for questions 15 and 16)
11) Was the grant amount enough for its purpose? Do the grant amounts offered, and the grant timeframes (tenure periods) suit your particular artistic purpose in your discipline and your goals? Can you suggest improvements?
12) In general, for any grants from any source, how would you feel about a requirement to report on "outputs" e.g. a painting, a book, a new production, other, at the end of the grant tenure? (10 min)
13) Would it make a difference to you if the same grant(s) that you have received from the Canada Council for The Arts came directly to you from an "intermediary" organization e.g. an artistic association, or is there a benefit to you to have it come directly from the Canada Council for the Arts? (10 min)
14) Have you received individual artist grants from other sources (provincial, municipal, foundations)? How would you compare the way these other granting organizations approach these grants to the approach of the Canada Council for The Arts? (purpose, amounts, selection, other)
15) Do you have any suggestions on how the Canada Council for The Arts can improve its individual artist grant programs?
16) Before we end, is there anything else you would like to add on the subject of Canada Council for The Arts individual artist grants and your career?