Project Assistance Program for Visual Arts Organizations in Canada

Deadline: 2-Nov-23

The Project Assistance: Visual Arts Organizations supports eligible organizations and arts or curatorial collectives in the development, expansion, enhancement, or creation of new or unique public programming and community engagement initiatives in contemporary and traditional visual arts and craft.

The BC Arts Council is an agency of the Province of British Columbia under the Arts Council Act, nurturing and supporting arts and cultural activity in communities across British Columbia.

BC Arts Council grant programs supports a wide variety of practices within the visual arts, including:

• Independent critical and curatorial practice
• Studio-based practices, such as drawing, painting, photography, printmaking, and sculpture
• Multidisciplinary, interdisciplinary, and other visual arts practices, such as installation, video art, performance art, and public art
• Contemporary and traditional craft practices, such as beading, carving, ceramics, and weaving
• Community-engaged practices led by arts and cultural professionals

Funding Information

• There is no maximum request amount, but project assistance grants typically range from $5,000 to $25,000. Requests for amounts beyond this range must include a clear rationale for why the project requires a higher amount.
• Applicants may request:
  • a grant amount up to 50% of the total eligible project budget; or
  • a grant amount up to 65% of the total eligible project budget from applicants that are considered part of the BC Arts Council’s designated priority groups.

Designated Priority Groups

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

Eligible Activities

• Exhibitions, including development and installation
• Publications, documentation and dissemination of artistic works and exhibitions
• Professional skills development for artists, including workshops, artists’ residencies, and activities that develop the arts sector
• Exploration of new artistic or curatorial practices, including practice-based research, collaboration, experimentation and creative development
• Audience development, collaborations, exchanges, and activities that creatively engage communities

Ineligible Activities

• Ongoing multi-day festivals and projects embedded within ongoing multi-day festivals, and other activities eligible within the Project Assistance: Professional Arts Festivals grant program
• General operating expenses and activities, ongoing expenses, or annual artistic programming plans
• Equipment and capital asset purchases or maintenance expenses
• Projects or activities that do not involve or benefit artists or arts and cultural practitioners and professionals
• Projects or activities that do not have a clearly defined arts and culture focus

Eligibility Criteria

• Visual Arts Organization Applicants
  • A professional visual arts organization registered and in good standing as a non-profit society or community service co-op in B.C.
  • 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
  • An Indigenous (First Nations, Métis, Inuit) government in B.C. that offers regular arts and culture activities.
  • A professional visual arts organization operated by a local government in B.C.
  • A professional visual arts organization operated by a public post-secondary institution in B.C.
  • An eligible organization must also:
    • Provide public arts and cultural programming 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 intake closing date.
    • Provide programs that benefit the community at-large and not solely the interests of its nonprofit society members.
    • Engage skilled artistic, curatorial, and administrative leadership (volunteer or paid) for project or service 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.
• Arts or Curatorial Collective Applicants
  • To be eligible, an Arts or Curatorial Collective must:
    • Be established and readily identified as a collective of independent artists, curators, or art and cultural practitioners, consisting of three or more individuals who are professionally active in their field of practice
    • Have a demonstrated history of creating or presenting work as a collective and have a clear commitment to a current practice.
    • Apply under the name of an individual member of the collective who acts as the key contact person and is listed as the submitting representative or “Primary Contact” within the online grant system.
  • An eligible Arts or Curatorial Collective must also:
    • Engage skilled artistic, curatorial, and administrative leadership for project or service delivery.
    • Not be applying on behalf of the activities of a for-profit business.
    • 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.
    • Adhere to 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 submission deadline for this program.
    • Provide programs that benefit the community at-large and not solely the interests of the collective’s members.

What Will Not Be Funded?

• Operating expenses.
• Project phases or activities that have begun prior to the intake closing date.
• Project or budget deficits or contingency funds.
• Capital expenses (construction, renovation, or purchase of property or equipment).
• Feasibility studies, start-up costs, or seed money.
• Projects or activities that are not based upon artistic or curatorial decision making, or where arts and culture is not the primary focus.
• Activities that require payment from artists to participate; fundraising activities; competitions; conferences and conventions; family, religious, anniversary, or community celebrations.
• Podcasts and radio programming that are not embedded within established artistic practice or specifically dedicated to the dissemination of artistic works.
• 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, or heritage sites, historic places, or organizations dedicated to archives.
• Curriculum-based activities or projects, including those related to continuing education or post-secondary programs.
• Social service organizations.
• Projects or activities that are primarily intended for or focussed within creative industries or commercial sector (with the exception of book publishers), including architecture, fashion, commercial film and television, culinary arts, games, sports, recreation, mass media, journalism, podcasts, graphic design.
• Projects or activities already funded through other BC Arts Council grant programs.
• Projects or activities funded with BC Arts Council funds received through third-party delivery partners: ArtStarts, First Peoples’ Cultural Council, BC Touring Council, or Creative BC.

For more information, visit British Columbia Arts Council.