Deadline: 23-May-23
The British Columbia Arts Council is providing Project Assistance to support eligible professional literary arts organizations or collectives to develop, enrich, and promote Canadian literature and writers through publishing, presentation, and dissemination of literary works and the development of new or unique public programming and community engagement initiatives.
Priorities
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; or
- Located in areas outside greater Vancouver or the capital region.
Funding Information
- There is no maximum request amount but project assistance grants typically range from $5,000 to $15,000.
Eligible Projects
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BC Arts Council project assistance programs provide one-time grants for specific projects. Project assistance grants are not meant to cover operating or ongoing expenses.
- Literary Organizations: An eligible project from a professional literary organization or collective must be a single literary arts activity or event or a single stream of artistic programming. Some examples are a reading series, a writer in residence program, or a writing workshop.
- Arts Periodicals: Publishers of arts periodicals that publish and promote artistic expression and/or social, cultural, or intellectual commentary or inquiry may apply for direct costs for up to one year of publishing activity
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An eligible arts periodical must:
- Feature the first publication of original content.
- Prioritize work by writers and artists based in British Columbia or Canada.
- Include content created by more than one person.
- Provide clear submission guidelines and editorial selection processes.
- Have and honour a clear policy on the use of contributors’ work and intellectual property.
- Clearly identify, on the masthead or equivalent, who is responsible for editorial processes and decisions.
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Print periodicals must:
- Be printed on paper.
- Have a minimum average of 24 pages per issue over a one-year period.
- Have paid circulation of a minimum of 20% of the copies printed.
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Electronic periodicals must:
- Have paid subscription access to content, maintaining an average of 100 subscribers over a period of 6 months.
- Have scheduled email delivery of content, maintaining a minimum average of 300 registered email recipients over a period of 6 months.
- Book Publishers
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An eligible book must:
- Be an original title and/or first edition (i.e., no reprints) in cloth, paper, or digital format.
- Be a work of literary, artistic, or cultural importance in the genres of fiction; poetry; drama; literary and arts criticism; autobiography, biography, memoir, and essays; comics and graphic novels; works for children and young adults; and creative and literary works of history, politics, social issues, science, travel, etc.
- Be written and/or illustrated by Canadian citizens or permanent residents of Canada.
- Contain at least 50% Canadian-authored or -illustrated content.
- Be published for a trade market readership and be accessible to a general reading audience and not exclusively intended for a specialized audience, including academic or professional.
- Have a contract with the author and/or illustrator for an industry-standard royalty agreement or fee in lieu of royalties.
- Include primarily original material or make a significant contribution to arts and culture with previously sourced material.
- Have content that is entirely within the publisher’s editorial control and not under the control of another financial stakeholder
Eligibility Criteria
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To be eligible, an organization must:
- Be a professional literary organization, book publisher, or periodical publisher that provides public arts and culture programming and engagement, or service to the arts and culture sector in B.C. and have done so for a minimum of one year.
- Engage professionals in artistic, curatorial, administrative, or project leadership.
- 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, including adhering to international intellectual property rights standards and cultural ownership protocols.
- Not currently receive Operating Assistance from the BC Arts Council.
- Have completed and submitted any overdue final reports on previous BC Arts Council grants by the submission deadline for this program.
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An eligible applicant must also be:
- A professional literary organization, book publisher, or periodical publisher based and registered and in good standing in B.C. as a non-profit society or community service co-op for at least one year
- A B.C.-based, Canadian-owned book publisher that is a legally registered company in B.C
- A book or periodical publisher led by an Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) community organization or Indigenous government in B.C., for at least one fiscal year prior to application, with a community-based board of management that sets editorial policies.
- A professional literary organization or periodical publisher operated by an accredited postsecondary institution in B.C. with an independent advisory board that sets editorial and other policies for programs and services undertaken.
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An established arts or curatorial collective, which must:
- Be identified as an independent collective consisting of three or more B.C. artists and/or arts and culture practitioners
- Be able to demonstrate current fixed costs related to their practice and ongoing activities as a collective.
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An eligible professional literary organization must also:
- Provide ongoing literary arts programming and/or service to the arts and culture sector in B.C. and have done so for a minimum of one year with a commitment to ongoing operations.
Ineligible
- Operating expenses.
- Project phases or activities that have begun prior to the application submission deadline.
- Project or budget deficits or contingency funds.
- Capital expenses, e.g., construction, renovation, or purchase of property or equipment.
- Feasibility studies, start-up costs, or seed money
- Subsistence for artists or arts and cultural practitioners.
- Costs of producing commercial recordings or demo reels.
- Private or for-profit entities, except in the case of for-profit book publishing companies.
- Member-funded societies.
- Industrial/archaeological/heritage sites or historic places or organizations dedicated to archives.
- Curriculum-based activities or projects related to continuing education or post-secondary programs.
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Periodicals that:
- Primarily offer news reporting, current events coverage, or lifestyle content.
- Advocate for political organizations or causes.
- Are academic or scholarly journals.
- Promote a commercial enterprise.
- Are in-house newsletters or magazines that publish material of interest to a membership.
- Are principally devoted to the work of students or other non-professional writers
For more information, visit British Columbia Arts Council.
