Canada: Artists in Communities Program

Deadline: 15-Jan-23

The Saskatchewan Art Board has announced the Artists in Communities Program to provide funding to organizations, professional artists or arts professionals for projects and residencies.

Purpose

• Development
  • Artists in Communities – Development provides small amounts of funding to organizations and/or professional artists or arts professionals to build relationships with potential partners, develop projects or residencies, and/or research community needs. Partnerships between artists or arts professionals and community-based organizations do not have to be established to be eligible to apply for the Development stream.
• Projects
  • Artists in Communities – Projects provides support for artists and communities to co-create projects through their combined knowledge, skills, and experience, and to:
    • Produce innovative, creative projects that are responsive to the community needs and have the potential for lasting impact while allowing the artist to build knowledge, cultural competencies, and deeper relationships with Saskatchewan residents.
    • Build awareness about social issues and facilitates change through the arts.
    • Encourage the participation of artists from a wide variety of aesthetic viewpoints, racial and ethnic backgrounds, cultures, and disability perspectives, who will honour, uplift, and be inclusive of the host community.
    • Ensure that the people of Saskatchewan have opportunities for deeper, active engagements with art while reducing the barriers for this type of experience in underserved and marginalized communities.
    • Align with the mandate and strategic priorities of SK Arts and its program partners.
• Residencies
  • Artist in Communities – Residencies supports community organizations in hosting an artist in residence by contracting a professional Saskatchewan artist, in arts activities that involve significant community engagement components. Participating artists take up residence in a community to contribute to its cultural life and the community’s continual engagement in the arts.

Funding Information

• Individual artists and artist collaborations: $1,000.
• Arts organizations and collectives: $2,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Development
  • The community organization must be based in the province of Saskatchewan.
  • The community organization can be any incorporated for-profit company or non-profit communitybased organization, e.g., business, institution, health care, justice facility, municipality, First Nation, Métis local, post-secondary institution, artists collective, Band Council, etc
  • Professional artists and arts professionals are eligible to apply to this program if they meet SK Arts’ definition of a professional artist or arts professional and are Saskatchewan residents.
  • Applicants must be in good standing with SK Arts, i.e., have no overdue reporting on any prior grants on the submission deadline and when any grant payments are issued.
  • Due to the four-week response time on these grants, SK Arts is only able to accept Development stream submissions in English. Applicants who find this challenging can request support from SK Arts’ Accessibility Fund but are encouraged to contact their Program Consultant and do this work well in advance of the submission deadline.
• Projects
  • The partnership of Community Organization and Professional Artist must be in place prior to the submission.
  • The Community Applicant can be any incorporated for-profit company or non-profit community-based organization (e.g., businesses, institutions, health care, Justice facilities, municipalities, First Nations, Métis Locals, K-12 schools [for projects outside of school hours], post-secondary institutions, artists collectives, Band Councils, etc.).
  • The Community Applicant must be based in the province of Saskatchewan, may make no more than one application to Artists in Schools or Artists in Communities program at any submission closing date, and must be in good standing with SK Arts (i.e., have no overdue reporting on any prior grants) when the application is received and any grant payments are issued.
  • The Artist Applicant may make more than one application at any submission closing date, up to the maximum allowable funding level as through the Residencies stream ($45,000). The review panel will, however, consider the individual’s ability to undertake multiple projects when assessing the applications.
  • The Artist Applicant must be a Saskatchewan resident and in good standing with SK Arts (i.e., have no overdue reporting on any prior grants) when the application is received and any grant payments are issued.
  • In the case of $20,000 grants with more than one artist, at least 50% of the artists, including the lead Artist Applicant, must be Saskatchewan residents.
  • SK Arts values diversity, seeking to be inclusive and accessible to all its applicants. For this reason, SK Art asks applicant artists to self-identify with and organizations to engage with communities that may have been historically underserved by SK Arts or are otherwise considered marginalized (artists or communities outside urban settings, Indigenous, People of Colour, Deaf or disability artist, 2SLGBTQ+, or newcomers to Canada). This helps us assess whether the program is achieving its diversity goals.
• Residencies
  • The partnership between the Community Organization and Professional Artist must be in place prior to the submission.
  • The Community Organization can be any incorporated for-profit companies or non-profit community-based organizations, e.g., businesses, institutions, health care, Justice facilities, municipalities, First Nations, Métis Locals, post-secondary institutions, artists collectives, Band Councils, etc.
  • The Community Applicant must be based in the province of Saskatchewan, may make no more than one application to the Artists in Schools or Artists in Communities program at any submission deadline, and must be in good standing with SK Arts (i.e., have no overdue reporting on any prior grants) when the application is received and any grant payments are issued.
  • The Artist Applicant must be a Saskatchewan resident.
  • The Artist Applicant may make more than one application at any submission, up to the maximum allowable funding level ($45,000/year). The review panel will, however, consider the individual’s ability to undertake multiple projects when assessing the applications.
  • The Artist Applicant must be in good standing with SK Arts (i.e., have no overdue reporting on any prior grants) when the application is received, and any grant payments are issued.
  • SK Arts accepts applications submitted in either English or French. French-language applications will be translated into English before they are provided to the reviewers. SK Arts will ensure at least one reviewer is able to read the application in its first language.

For more information, visit Saskatchewan Art.