Deadline: 16-May-24
Applications are now open for the Arts-Based Community Development and Leon and Thea Koerner Award Program.
Grant Categories
- This program provides support in two categories:
- Arts-Based Community Development (A-BCD)
- The Arts-Based Community Development (A-BCD) program supports eligible organizations to either:
- Engage professional artists in the development and delivery of projects that provide artsbased community development impacts and benefits to a specified community through the creation and presentation of new artworks. or
- Provide training or mentoring for artists or community workers to understand and learn about how to create and safely implement or facilitate arts-based community development projects.
- This program provides support in two categories:
- Category 1: New Work by Participants – Applications for New Work by Participants projects:
- Have professional artist(s) facilitate an artistic creation process with a specified community to create new artistic work.
- Are collaborative, with participants actively involved in development of the ideas and making of the artwork.
- Clearly describe the processes that will be used by the artist(s) and the participants in developing the work.
- Recognize the long-term commitment required of community-engaged practice by allowing projects to be presented in single iterations or in phases over a maximum of three years.
- Publicly presents the collaborative artwork created by participants.
- Category 2: Training for A-BCD Practitioners –Training for A-BCD Practitioners projects:
- Focus on training and skills development for artists to be able to initiate and conduct artsbased community development activities.
- Create opportunities for experienced arts-based community development practitioners to demonstrate new ways of knowledge sharing, including training or mentoring artists and social service practitioners in safe and effective approaches to arts-based community development.
- Enhances the capacity of artists to provide leadership by offering them an opportunity to develop their practice as a means of community transformation or social change.
- May also involve creation of New Works by Participants in a specified community, but a significant focus of the project must describe the training and learning for A-BCD practitioner(s), taking place under supervision and mentorship of experienced A-BCD practitioner(s) as project lead(s).
- Are presented publicly, if applicable
- Category 1: New Work by Participants – Applications for New Work by Participants projects:
- The Arts-Based Community Development (A-BCD) program supports eligible organizations to either:
- Leon and Thea Koerner Award (LTK Award)
- Leon and Thea Koerner Awards (LTK Award) are grants provided by the Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation through a partnership with the BC Arts Council. The LTK Award is given to up to 5 organizations that are recognized for achieving social benefit through excellence and innovation, creating projects that lead to social change or transformation. This aligns with the principles of arts-based community development.
- Arts-Based Community Development (A-BCD)
Funding Information
- BC Arts Council’s Arts-Based Community Development Grant
- There is no maximum request amount, but A-BCD grants typically range from $15,000 to $30,000.
- The Leon and Thea Koerner Foundation’s LTK Award
- Request amount must be a minimum of $25,000.
- Up to five LTK Awards will be available in this intake.
- The LTK Award request is not included in the A-BCD budget form – use the budget table in the LTK Award section of the application form to detail the LTK Award spending.
Priority Groups
- The BC Arts Council has committed to targeted investment in underserved and equity-deserving organizations and the development of equity support initiatives, including a policy to support designated priority groups. These identified groups will be the focus of BC Arts Council strategic measures, through dedicated programs, funding prioritization processes, partnerships, and outreach. The BC Arts Council’s designated priority groups include applicants and arts and cultural practitioners who are:
- Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, or Inuit) Peoples
- Deaf or experience disability
- Black or people of colour
- Located in areas outside greater Vancouver or the capital region
Project Eligibility
- To be eligible the project must:
- Use arts-based community development principles and align with one of the categories above.
- Demonstrate confirmed professional artistic expertise
- For the purposes of this program, a professional artist is considered professional if they:
- Are recognized as professional by other practitioners working in similar artistic practice.
- Are committed to working full-time at their practice when financially possible.
- Have completed appropriate and relevant training in their field of practice. Training may be through post-secondary institutions, apprenticeship or traditional knowledge transfer with a qualified practitioner or Knowledge Keeper.
- Have a minimum two years of professional practice in their field following basic training.
- Have a demonstrated body of previous practice in their field for which they have received professional fees.
- For the purposes of this program, a professional artist is considered professional if they:
- Demonstrate confirmed community development expertise and be working with a specified community
Eligibility Criteria
- Organization Eligibility
- To be eligible to apply to both programs, an organization must be:
- A professional arts organization or a community arts organization working in collaboration with a specified community. The organization must be registered and in good standing as a non-profit society or community service co-op in B.C. for at least one fiscal year prior to application with:
- The majority of key staff (paid or volunteer) and board members based in B.C.
- Creative control and decision making for programming and engagement primarily maintained within the organization and by leadership based in B.C.
- A purpose or mandate dedicated to arts and culture programming and activities.
- A purpose or mandate to provide services to the arts and culture sector in B.C.
- Operations and activities that reflect this dedicated purpose or mandate.
- An Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) community organization registered and in good standing as a non-profit society or community service co-op in B.C. for at least one fiscal year prior to application with:
- The majority of key staff (paid or volunteer) and board members based in B.C.
- A commitment to offering regular arts and culture activities.
- An Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) government in B.C. that offers regular arts and culture activities.
- Be a community organization whose focus is not arts and culture, working with a professional artist, in collaboration with a specified community. The organization must:
- Be registered and in good standing as a non-profit society or community service co-op in B.C. for at least one fiscal year prior to application with: The majority of key staff (paid or volunteer) and board members based in B.C.
- A professional arts organization or a community arts organization working in collaboration with a specified community. The organization must be registered and in good standing as a non-profit society or community service co-op in B.C. for at least one fiscal year prior to application with:
- To be eligible to apply to both programs, an organization must be:
- An eligible organization must also:
- Provide public arts and cultural or community programming in B.C. as a primary activity and have done so for a minimum of one year prior to the application deadline.
- Provide programs that benefit the community at-large and not solely the interests of its nonprofit society members.
- Engage competent artistic, curatorial, and administrative leadership (volunteer or paid) for project delivery.
- Fairly compensate artists, arts and cultural practitioners, technicians, Elders, and Knowledge Keepers. Compensation must align with project and community contexts and industry standards within the field of practice.
- Follow international intellectual property rights standards and cultural ownership protocols.
- Follow the Criminal Records Review Act which requires that people who work with or may have unsupervised access to children or vulnerable adults must undergo a criminal record check by the Criminal Records Review Program.
- Have completed and submitted any overdue final reports on previous BC Arts Council grants by the application deadline for this grant program.
- Organization Eligibility specific to The Leon and Thea Koerner Award
- organizations that wish to be considered for the LTK Award with this application, must also:
- Be a registered charity or other qualified donee as defined by the Income Tax Act (Canada), including First Nations that are registered as such with the Canada Revenue Agency.
- For Social Service Agencies: be working with a professional artist(s).
- For all other organizations: be working in partnership with a confirmed social service agency with one person from the agency identified as the professional social service lead.
- organizations that wish to be considered for the LTK Award with this application, must also:
Ineligibility
- The following organizations are not eligible to apply for this grant:
- Private or for-profit entities (except in the case of for-profit book publishing companies).
- Member-funded societies.
- Educational Institutions.
- Local Governments.
- Industrial, archaeological or heritage sites, historic places, or organizations dedicated to archives.
- Community choirs that are attached to, or affiliated with, educational, religious, or military institutions.
For more information, visit British Columbia Arts Council.