Deadline: 22-Feb-24
The British Columbia Arts Council (BCAC) is currently accepting applications for the Project Assistance Program to support the artistic development of local, community-based arts festivals by providing funding for fees paid to B.C. or Canadian professional artists and technicians and Elders or Knowledge Keepers engaged in the festival.
The festival must be an existing festival, with an arts focus, presented by local Indigenous or community arts organizations, and may feature a combination of local and touring artists.
A festival is an event that includes related arts and cultural activities and programming presented within a concentrated place and time and must be longer than one day in duration. Grants received through this program are provided to support the artistic and cultural programming fees of community-based arts festivals.
Funding Information
- Maximum request amount is $6,000.
What Can Be Funded?
- Grants are available to support:
- Artistic or tech fees for B.C. or Canadian professional artists and technicians (for example, video, audio, and lighting technicians, but not project coordination) as part of an eligible community arts festival.
- Fees for Elders or Knowledge Keepers as part of an eligible community arts festival.
- An eligible community arts festival must:
- Have a primary purpose focused on arts, and facilitate:
- The exchange of local ideas, narratives, or issues that engage community participation through an artistic lens.
- Development of the arts at a community level.
- A growing relationship between artists and the local community.
- Be organized primarily by volunteers and may also have a dedicated coordinator.
- Be in B.C., be concentrated in place and time, and be longer than one day in duration.
- Have community involvement, including support of local government, volunteers, business, and arts and cultural organizations.
- Have appropriate planning related to healthy workplaces, including emergency preparedness.
- Have a primary purpose focused on arts, and facilitate:
Eligible Activities
- Examples of eligible activities include but are not limited to:
- A community arts council presenting a three-day arts focused festival that has arts programming scheduled over all three days, including performances, workshops, and exhibitions, where professional artists are being paid to perform, teach, and show or demonstrate their work.
- An Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) Government or community organization offering a powwow over a two-day period.
- A small-scale community-driven literary arts festival that is primarily co-ordinated and programmed by volunteers who have a passion for books and writing, which pays authors to attend and present their works to the public.
- A community-based, non-professional film organization offering a film festival that has a week of film screenings and artist talks from professional and amateur film makers who are connected to that community or focused on a thematic interest and are paid to present and discuss their film.
Eligibility Criteria
- To be eligible, organizations must either be:
- A Community Arts 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.;
- Creative control and decision making for programming and engagement primarily maintained within the organization and by leadership based in B.C.; and
- A purpose or mandate dedicated to arts and culture programming and activities; or
- A purpose or mandate to provide services to the arts and culture sector in B.C.; and
- Operations and activities that reflect this dedicated purpose or mandate.
- Note: For the purposes of eligibility for this grant program, Community Arts Organizations are non-profit:
- Community arts councils;
- Community driven, generally non-professional, volunteer-managed arts and culture organizations; or
- Community-based arts and cultural centres, whose primary purpose is community centered engagement and access to the arts.
- Community Arts Organizations offer a range of programming focused on enriching a specified community through a variety of arts disciplines and experiences, using a grassroots approach to providing wider service to the community beyond their membership. Although generally community-led, community arts organizations may also engage and collaborate with professional artists, arts and cultural practitioners, arts administrators, Elders or Knowledge Keepers. or
- 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.; and
- A commitment to offering regular arts and culture activities. or
- An Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) government in B.C. that offers regular arts and culture activities.
- A Community Arts 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:
- An eligible organization must also:
- Provide public arts and culture programming and engagement (or service to the arts and culture sector) in B.C. as a primary activity and have done so for a minimum of one year prior to the application submission deadline.
- Engage community-based board leadership and, if applicable, skilled artistic or administrative leadership (paid or volunteer).
- 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 submission deadline for this program.
- Provide programs that benefit the community at-large and not solely the interests of its nonprofit society members.
Ineligible
- Grants are not available to support:
- Arts and cultural organizations eligible within BC Arts Council professional programs.
- Industrial, archaeological or heritage sites, historic places, or organizations dedicated to archives.
- Cultural organizations without a specific arts mandate or established arts programming.
- Operating expenses.
- Project phases or activities that begin before the program application deadline.
For more information, visit BCAC.