Deadline alert! Canada Council’s Sector Innovation and Development component of Supporting Artistic Practice has an upcoming deadline of March 26 for project grants. This funding program is an exciting opportunity for projects that strengthen and enhance the Canadian arts sector.
In this Q&A, we spoke with the Supporting Artistic Practice program staff to gain insights into the application process, the program’s goals, and how organizations can make the most this program.
Who should apply for this Sector Innovation and Development grant?
Sector Innovation and Development is a project grant for applicants who wish to help support and strengthen the arts sector. This can take many forms, but projects should aim to share knowledge through gatherings and collaboration, propose initiatives that offer learning opportunities, or explore structures or systems that can improve how the arts sector works, collaborates, and communicates.
What types of projects will the grant fund? What are some examples?
In the guidelines we break it down to three activity groupings which can help applicants decide if their project responds to the objectives of Sector Innovation and Development.
Advancing or developing practices in the arts sector is about exploring how the sector can work better. Here we often see applications exploring collaborative business models, or the creation of platforms for things like online resource sharing.
Nurturing learning and continuous improvement is about creating opportunities for professional development, mentorships, and networking. These can be aimed at artists, arts professionals, and even organizations. Applicants should consider how they can help the arts sector improve their skills: for instance, what learning opportunities do artists need to keep up with today’s quickly evolving technology?
And finally, Gathering, collaborating, and exchanging projects create opportunities for knowledge exchange, like conferences, symposiums or research and publications. This can take many forms, but the end goal should be to share the outcomes of the project. If you’re doing sectoral research, who will you share it with and why? If you’re having a conference, what are the objectives and how will this serve the sector? Publications such as magazines can also be funded and are included in this activity group. Since the purpose is to share knowledge with the arts sector, they should focus on critical or interpretive writing.
What types of projects are not best suited for this fund?
Sector Innovation and Development is not meant to support artistic creation or presentation. Council has other programs and grants that can support those types of activities. For instance, you can propose a residency where artists are learning new skills, such as learning new technologies. On the other hand, you can’t submit a project for an artistic residency, where the purpose of the project is to provide artists with space and time to create work.
What advice or tips do you have for organizations preparing projects? What makes a good application?
There are a few things you can do to make your application stronger. Using plain language, reading the questions clearly and ensuring you’re responding in a succinct way can be helpful. Additionally, having all the required documents, such as support letters and a clear and detailed timeline is a must.
Budgets should also be clear and detailed. Be transparent and precise in your budget. The committee will want to understand your role and the role of your collaborators. Double and triple check your documents before uploading them and use the most recent version of the budget template on our website: we unfortunately sometimes receive blank or incomplete budgets.
It is also important to pay attention to the assessment criteria. All applicants are assessed based on the same criteria in a competitive context and we use a scoring process. How well the project, your answers, and the application respond to those criteria will determine the ranking of an application. Have someone else read your application before submitting it and get some feedback.
Is there anything else you’d like to add?
Reading the guidelines can be an obvious tip, but they exist to ensure applicants understand the objectives of the component and how they will be assessed. After reading the guidelines, if applicants are unsure of something, they should reach out to the program well ahead of the deadline at [email protected]. For a faster response time, provide a summary of your project and of your questions when reaching out to any program at Council.
You can also register to attend a webinar on Sector Innovation and Development taking place on February 19th.
The Arts Firm thanks Canada Council for participating in this Q&A. Visit the program page for more information and details ahead of the deadline. You can also email The Arts Firm to discuss projects and application support.
