Explore and Create — Artistic Creation

• Your arts and cultural CV or resume, 3 pages maximum; for groups, a CV for each group member.
• Examples of artistic work, at least 1 item, such as writing samples, visual documentation or audio documentation.
• If you have presenting partners or collaborators, written documentation confirming their involvement, such as confirmation letters, emails, screenshots or agreements, plus short biographies or CVs.

Who is eligible?

• Artists or arts workers.
• Artistic groups.
• Artistic organizations.
• Business cultural connectors.
• First Nations, Inuit or Métis artists or arts/cultural workers, cultural carriers, groups or collectives, and not-for-profit or for-profit organizations.

Who is not eligible

• Organizations presently receiving core grants.
• Individuals working for a group or organization receiving a composite or core grant may only apply for a personal project that is not associated with the activities of that group or organization.

Eligible expenses

• Expenses directly related to your activities, provided they are justified and align with the delivery of the project.
• Honoraria for Elders and Knowledge Keepers, including payment(s) or gifts for individuals as a thank you for their time and knowledge.
• Equipment purchases required specifically for the activity, excluding equipment related to a building, up to $2,000 per item and for total combined costs of up to 15% of the requested grant amount.
• Travel costs related to the project; safety-related expenses such as supplementary insurance riders, safety gear and on-site specialists; and child/dependent care expenses if they are required to complete your activity.
• Public accessibility expenses, including sign language interpretation and translation, accessibility audits, audio description, relaxed performances, personal support workers, captioning, ramp rental and access coordinators.

Ineligible Costs and Activities

• Projects mainly focused on public sharing, dissemination or touring of artistic work, without an element of creation.
• Translation projects.

• Artistic 50%: artistic quality and potential artistic outcomes (/20), artistic and/or cultural rationale (/20), and relevance and timeliness within your area of practice and/or community (/10); minimum score 35/50.
• Impact 30%: how the project advances your artistic practice and career (/15), and the potential to benefit artists, participants, audiences and communities (/15); minimum score 15/30.
• Feasibility 20%: capacity and experience to undertake the project, including a realistic timeline (/10), and a detailed budget showing fair payment and efficient use of resources (/10); minimum score 10/20.
• Respectful and ethical cultural and artistic practices (RECAP): proper attention to First Nations, Inuit or Métis cultural protocols and respectful treatment of cultural materials, or no Indigenous content in the activities.

• Applications are reviewed by a peer assessment committee.
• Applications must receive a minimum score in each category to be considered for a grant.
• The RECAP criterion must be satisfied in order to receive funding.
• Notification of results is usually within 5 months of submitting your application.

• Application Assistance is available to individuals or lead applicants for groups who self-identify as Deaf, hard of hearing, having a disability or living with mental illness, or as First Nations, Inuit or Métis facing language, geographic and/or cultural barriers.
• Notification of results is usually within 5 months of submitting your application.