Artist Development Microgrant: Info Session Video & Transcript

Taylor Poitras: Hello and welcome to the online information session for the 2024 Artist Development Microgrant.

The purpose of this recording is to share some of the information that is already in the program guidelines and the frequently asked questions online, but in a more visual and auditory way, with some added context, examples and approaches that might be helpful when considering if you will apply and how best to do so.

That being said, the most important information is included in the guidelines and FAQs. So whether you’re watching this recording or not, please read those documents before applying.

We apologize that this video does not have ASL interpretation included. We ran into some last-minute issues with scheduling and needed to get this video up quickly, since the program is only available for a short time. We have included closed captioning and a written transcript, and we will endeavor to continue to have ASL interpretation in all of our information sessions moving forward. For those in need of ASL or any other language translation, please reach out for one on one support at any time.

My name is Taylor Poitras. I use she/her pronouns, I’m currently the specialist for Individual and Collective programs at Calgary Arts Development. Please feel free to reach out to me directly If you have any questions about this program or need support applying. Van Chu, our Grants Coordinator, is also available to help answer any general or technical questions that you might have. Perpetual Atife will also be supporting the program this year, but emails can go directly to myself or Van.

I want to take a moment to talk about our Commitment to Equity, which is an ongoing, never-ending commitment and learning journey. It’s important to acknowledge that systems like granting and public funding are usually designed in a one-size-fits-all way, meaning they’re designed for the dominant culture and are rooted in colonial, western European academic systems which create barriers to access for many artists in our communities who are seeking and deserving of support.

One obvious example of this at CADA is that we currently share our programs and accept applications primarily in an online written format — in English. This alone creates technological, linguistic, communication and cultural barriers to name a few. As a public funder, we have a responsibility to ensure equitable access to public funding. We envision a city where all artists have the freedom, agency and platform to share and amplify their stories, art, cultures and experiences. A city where Calgarians of all backgrounds can access, create and participate in art as part of their everyday lives.

To that end, we are dedicated to addressing and working to eliminate institutional inequity in our programs, policies and practices. Our staff are accountable to ensuring that lines of communication are welcoming clear and open, and that our application and assessment processes are fair and deeply considerate. While we have been continuing to expand and improve our processes and policies around equity, accessibility and accommodation, we still have a long way to go.

We aim to continue building relationships and learning from our communities, particularly those that are most directly affected, about the specific challenges that exist in granting and working to create more equitable systems.

In recognition of some of the barriers I mentioned, we will work one on one with applicants to develop accommodations or approaches that suit their unique abilities and situations.

Some examples of accommodations are translation of written materials into other languages, including ASL, transcription of verbal meetings or audio and video recordings into a written document, language interpretation for phone or video meetings, video or audio applications, which means that if you would prefer to answer questions verbally, then you can submit an audio or video recording of yourself, or our staff can help record your responses using an online platform such as Zoom, as well as grant writing assistance.

Program staff will do our best to provide support or share feedback with you over the phone email in person or through audio and video platforms like MS Teams or Zoom, just remember to reach out early. We can only guarantee feedback on draft applications up to 10 business days before a program deadline, but that could vary, depending on the volume of requests received.

To help with managing volume, we are also hosting four virtual open office Q&A sessions throughout September and October. These 90 min virtual open offices are offered on different days of the week, at different times of the day to help accommodate various schedules. Please take advantage of these if questions arise throughout the process of applying. These 90 min sessions Perpetual and I will basically be hanging out on Zoom answering any questions about the micro grant and providing applicants with support.

In past sessions, some artists have hung out the entire time and listened to other people’s questions simply to learn, and some folks popped in and out super briefly, just to ask their own specific question.

The registration links for these are on our website. But please email us if you cannot find them.

We also want to recognize the limitations of our own staff to adequately support all applicant needs, so we have formalized a process for applicants to request financial assistance to help alleviate some of the costs associated with preparing and submitting an application or a final report, or to receive and accept an investment. Basically, assistance is available at any stage of the grant process.

Who can request this type of assistance? Individuals or the primary contact of a collective who self-identify as an artist who is D/deaf, hard of hearing, has a disability, or is living with a mental illness or an artist facing language, geographic or cultural barriers To request application assistance. Just email us at grants@calgaryartsdevelopment.com ideally before you plan to submit your application.

You’ll need to provide the name and contact information of someone who can help you along with their hourly rate. This could be a trusted friend, family member or artistic peer, or a professional service provider. We might be able to make recommendations for some service providers depending on the type of service, but in most cases we look to the applicant to make that choice. They will email us an invoice with the hours that they assisted you, and their hourly rate, and CADA will pay them directly.

We understand that costs will vary, and we expect hourly rates and total hours billed to be reasonable, fair, and equitable.

The maximum we can provide is $600.

Please view the Applicant Support and Accessibility Policy for more information.

Now let’s dive into the program. The Artist Development Microgrant.

This microgrant is intended to provide one-time funding to Calgary-based individual artists, artist collectives and cultural workers working in any artistic discipline to help support activities related to either professional and artistic skill development or business and career development.

The goal of the program is to contribute to the skills and knowledge required to advance artists’ careers and develop artistic practices in Calgary.

Please note, this program is not intended to support activities that are primarily focused on the research, creation or production of artistic work or events, such as shows exhibitions, productions, programming, etc.

So the first stream is Professional and Artistic Skill Development. This stream is for activities related to the professional development of your artistic practice skills, knowledge and relationships through things like mentorship, continuing education, training, learning or development opportunities.

Activities can be self-directed or non-self-directed, and take place online or in person, locally, nationally or internationally.

Eligible activities might include attending courses, classes or workshops, apprenticeships, artistic training, mentorships, internships, invited opportunities or conferences to share your work or your knowledge or residencies.

Stream number two is Business and Career Development. This stream is for activities that are related to the development of the business side of your personal artistic practice. This could involve undertaking activities or opportunities related to documenting, marketing, promoting and sharing your previously completed artistic work, learning specific business skills or developing business models for your art practice or developing artistic networks, markets or income streams.

Activities, again, can be self-directed or non-self-directed, and take place online or in person, locally, nationally or internationally. Some eligible activities might include marketing, branding, and promotion of your art practice, or any completed work. That might be social media marketing, content, strategy and development, publicity, media tours, interviews, website development, whether it be creation or redesign, it could include documentation of completed work, so related to portfolio development, professional photography, or videography. It could involve attending conferences, markets, fairs, industry, showcases, or networking events. It might involve the development of business plans, models, or strategies related to your personal, artistic practice or attending courses, mentorship or training in areas such as entrepreneurship, finance, accounting, legal, etc., or hiring services in those areas.

One example is, you may want to hire a lawyer to develop or review your standard artist contract or create a template for you moving forward.

This program provides one-time funding to professional individual artists, artist collectives, and cultural workers in Calgary / Mohkinsstsis working in any artistic discipline at any stage of practice for a specific activity or opportunity.

Again, please read both the guidelines and FAQ page for more information about general eligibility and for a full glossary, including definitions for individual artists, artist collective and cultural worker.

While activities do not have to take place in Calgary, applicants must be Calgary-based. We also accept applications from Treaty 7 Nation members living within Treaty 7 or Southern Alberta if they can demonstrate a clear connection to Calgary/Mohkinsstsis communities.

If you’re not based in Calgary, please contact us to discuss this before applying.

We acknowledge that there are also many artists who are new, or returning to the city of Calgary, and may not be familiar with grant programs or the local arts community.

If you are a newcomer, immigrant refugee or reemerging Calgary artist and have questions or concerns about eligibility or navigating the grant process, please know that our program staff are available to help guide and support you.

It’s also important to note that you do not need to be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident to receive a CADA grant, but you do need to be able to report on this grant to the Canada Revenue Agency.

To the change in how the program is being assessed. We needed to simplify the process, and we ask that all applicants request no more than $5,000.

We also noticed that over the past 2 years of running this program very few collectives ever reached out to request a higher grant amount.

So funds from this program are intended to support expenses related to accessing opportunities. There’s a list of eligible and ineligible expenses in the program guidelines that we strongly recommend you read over, but I want to highlight a few specific things, to be aware of.

1. While course fees are eligible, this refers to individual courses or continuing educational courses that do not count towards a credit, diploma or degree-granting program, meaning we can’t pay for your diploma or your degree. So if you are taking courses in pursuit of this, or making work related to this, we cannot cover any costs associated.

• Since this grant is not intended to fund activities primarily focused on the creation and production of artistic work, material expenses are only eligible if they’re necessary for accessing that specific development opportunity. For example, if you’re attending a residency that is primarily focused on learning and developing your practice, or a particular skill or growing your network and connecting with other artists, but there’s also an expectation or an aspect of the residency that involves creating work while you’re there, then you may request material expenses, since it’s necessary to fully participate and benefit from that residency.

• In professional development grants such as this one, artist fees are generally ineligible as this grant is not intended to support the creation or production of work. However, you are able to request coverage for travel, accommodation, and per diem, which are daily fixed rates for meals and incidentals for any opportunity that might take place away from your primary residence. If you’re accessing an opportunity that is local, and you need support around subsistence expenses, for example, rent, food, childcare, etc. in order to be able to access and participate in that opportunity, you may include this in your application as well.

For example, if you were taking a 2-week intensive training program and need to hire a babysitter for 10 of those days, otherwise you would not be able to access the training, then that is considered an eligible expense.

Other fees, such as technical fees or professional fees paid to service providers, mentors, etc. are eligible.

Now, there may be some exceptions to this, so please reach out to a program specialist to discuss before including any artist fees in your budget.

• In this program applicants are able to request the rental or purchase of equipment. That said, any equipment requests must be specific and directly related to the completion and success of your proposed activity.

When requesting the purchase of equipment in this program, you should include a description of the specific equipment, and why it’s necessary to help you achieve your stated goal. You should include information about the equipment and estimated cost in your budget and support material.

You might talk about how it will impact your practice or continued development. You might also speak to your rationale for purchasing rather than renting, given the goals, scope, or length of your activities.

If you have any questions about expenses, please reach out to discuss before applying.

Here’s a quick overview of the program timeline.

The full program guidelines are published on our website, and applications are currently open and available in our grant platform.

The deadline to submit an application is October 16, 2024. Applications must be submitted by 4:30pm MST on this day. Late applications will not be accepted.

We encourage you to submit your application as early as possible, and please see the deadline extension policy for information about extensions.

Activities may begin before the application deadline, but they cannot be fully completed before the application deadline of October 16, 2024.

Activities funded through this program must be complete by August 31, 2025.

Notification of the grant results will be shared in mid-November. Because this program runs so late in the year we offer our Installment Policy, this means that successful applicants will have the choice of receiving their grant payment either entirely in December of 2024, or entirely in January of 2025.

For tax purposes, we encourage folks to receive and accept payment in the year in which most of their expenses will be incurred.

This overall timeline is important to consider when determining if you are able to apply.

Since the results will not be shared until mid-November and funding won’t be released until December at the earliest, please consider your own timeline, cash flow, and circumstances. If your activity must be paid for in advance, or will occur before the notifications and funding goes out, please plan ahead and always be aware of the possibility of not receiving a grant.

Application eligibility can vary by program, so always read the guidelines for the program you’re applying to. Some important eligibility rules for the microgrant are as follows:

• Applicants may submit only one application per program deadline.

• A project may only be submitted by one applicant per program deadline. This means that multiple members of a group cannot submit for the same project to the same program deadline.

• An applicant should only apply for one primary opportunity or activity. This means that you should not lump many separate, disparate, or disconnected activities into one grant request just because there might be room within the budget. The opportunity or activity you apply for should be interconnected and related to a specific professional development or business development goal.

• Individual artists must apply using their individual account, and artist collectives must apply using their collective account. We cannot accept more than one application from the same account in the online grant platform.

• You may reapply for the same activity if a previous application was unsuccessful, regardless of calendar year, so long as it still meets the requirements.

• Applicants must be in good standing in order to apply, meaning they may not apply if they have any late or overdue final reports for previous grants, for which an extension has not yet been approved.

• You may receive more than one CADA grant in a year if they are for different programs, from different programs and for different projects. For example, applicants could receive both a microgrant and a project grant from CADA in the same year, so long as they were for different projects or activities that have not already been funded by CADA through another grant program, and so long as they do not exceed the maximum number of open grants at one time.

How to apply.

We accept applications to this program through our online grant platform, which is called Smart Simple. This can be accessed from the CADA website under login, and it’s linked in multiple areas of the program guidelines.

If you don’t already have an account with us, you’ll need to create an account and set up your user profile before you can apply. As mentioned. If you are applying as a collective, you must have a separate collective account.

If you’ve already applied to CADA before, you may log in as usual. If you can’t remember your password, just click forgot password to reset it. You can also reach out to Van to ask if you already have an account in our system, and she can search the system and reset passwords as well.

When you log in, you’ll notice that there is a section called My Profile. Please ensure that your individual and or collective profile is fully complete and up to date. The profile section includes information about you and your artistic practice, such as current contact information, years of practice, the disciplines you work in your artistic CV or resume, and your artistic practice statement.

Parts of your profile will be automatically transferred over to any grant application that you submit, so please ensure it’s accurate and up to date before submitting to any grant program.

You’ll also notice a section called Open Opportunities. This is where you will find any open grant application currently available there. You should see the Artist Development Microgrant, click apply and begin application to open a draft application form.

There will be multiple tabs that contain all the parts of the application form, including written questions, a budget and support material.

Remember to save as you go, you can save and return to your draft application as much as you like. After you’ve made your first draft and no longer need to go, you no longer need to go to Open Opportunities. Instead, you will see your draft application on the homepage when you log in under the drafts tab.

When you’ve completed your application, you can hit save and validate first, and the platform will check or validate your application to make sure you aren’t missing any mandatory information or sections.

Once everything looks good to go, you can hit submit before the stated program deadline and the system will still validate and check your application before it lets you submit.

You should then receive an email notification informing you of your successful submission. If you don’t, please reach out to confirm.

Besides your profile information, here is a checklist of everything you’ll be asked to provide directly in the application form.

• You’ll include a brief one sentence description of your proposed activity, meaning you’ll basically tell us what you want to do with the grant in 25 words or less. For example, to attend a three-week writing residency in Banff or to create a new website for documenting marketing and selling your work.

• You’ll include the amount you’re requesting from this grant up to $5,000 maximum for all applicants.

• You’ll indicate the start and end date of your activity. Please remember to ensure that your activity falls within the eligible date range for this program. In this case it can already be underway, but it cannot be complete before October 16, and it must be complete by August 31, 2025 at the latest.

• You will select your primary artistic discipline for this application. And which program stream you’re applying to. So either Professional and Artistic Skill Development or Business and Career Development. Choose the one that best describes the core focus of your proposed activity and goals.

• There are 2 short written questions in the application which I will describe in more detail in a few slides, each question is up to 300 words.

• There will be a budget form within the application itself that you will fill out, including all relevant expenses and revenues. We will dig into the budget in a moment as well.

• And lastly, you’ll upload any relevant support material. We ask that you include materials that provide more detail about the purpose of the activity that you’re applying for, and where you’re currently at with the process of confirming these activities. I’ll share some examples later on.

Your Artist Practice Statement, which will be located in your profile is basically an introduction to you and your overall artistic practice and goals.

Artist statements shouldn’t be overly long or difficult to understand, between a hundred to 300 words. It does not need to be a manifesto on your artistic practice, but rather a concise and helpful overview. It should demonstrate who you are, what you value, what kind of work you make, how you make it, such as process or approach, and why it’s important to you.

Your artist statement will likely change over time as you and your practice do remember, context matters. The type of artist statement that you would submit to a company, a gallery show, or as program notes is going to look different than the type of artist statement you share within a grant application.

This introduction provides the most significant context for how assessors understand how the activities proposed in your application connect to your overall practice and goals.

Another piece that is located in your profile is your resume or curriculum vitae (CV). This is a clear list of experiences relevant to your artistic practice, and can include things like education trainings, workshops, past work, media awards, grants received, etc.

A resume or CV can be a helpful tool for assessors to view alongside your artist statement to better understand you your practice, and where you’re at in your career. There are many formats, and some may be discipline-specific for the purposes of our programs. Simplicity and readability are more important than fancy formatting.

Be sure to include important information, such as dates, locations and a very brief description of each experience if needed.

There are 2 written questions in the application. Question One is, describe what you want to do with this grant, including what will happen when and where activities will take place and who’s involved? 300 words, max.

The most important thing is that your response is specific, straightforward, easy to understand, and it answers each part of who, what, when, and where? Assessors and staff need to have a clear idea of exactly what you’re proposing in order to ensure it’s eligible within the program guidelines. If you’re not sure, please reach out before you work on preparing an application.

You’re welcome to speak a little about why and how you came to decide on the who, what, when, and where of your project, for example Why have you chosen a particular mentor to work with? What, specifically did you look for when researching and selecting a web designer? Or why is it important for you to participate in this specific residency overseas?

Question 2 asks Describe your goals, and why this activity or opportunity is important to you at this stage of your practice or career? 300 words max as well.

This section will ask you to speak more to your why and your goals. This question helps assessors and staff understand the primary focus or reason for pursuing the specific activity, and helps us to determine eligibility within the program.

As mentioned, the primary focus and goal for activities funded by this program should not be centred on research, creation or production of work, or the programming of your work through events, exhibitions, shows, etc. Those activities are better suited to our Project Grant Program, which runs once a year.

Depending on what you’re applying for, this section could include goals or outcomes related to your artistic practice, skill development, learning, training, experimentation, marketing, finance skills or literacy, expanding or developing platforms, audiences or networks, relationship building, marketing, growth, sustainability and so much more.

Consider why these goals or outcomes are important to you at this stage in your practice. How will this specific opportunity or activity allow you to achieve the goals and desired outcomes?

Your budget will ask for a list of all relevant expenses and the list of any relevant revenues. You might only have one revenue item, which is the amount that you’re requesting from this grant, or you may have other revenues contributing towards the cost of your activities, just be sure to account for the entire scope of the activity you’re applying for.

Each line item in your budget has a note section that I strongly recommend using to give additional information about each expense or revenue item, including calculations, breakdowns, or descriptions. Our advice for approaching a budget for this program and all programs really, is to first consider what opportunity or activity might fall within the general range of the grant program and budget for what you realistically need to complete the activity. Imagine how it would run ideally and then build your budget off of that rather than starting at the maximum and building backwards.

If your budget exceeds the maximum amount that you’re able to request through this program, then you might either reconsider the scope of your activities or look for where you can reduce costs or think about other funding or revenues to supplement your overall budget.

Your budget should balance to 0, meaning your total expenses should equal your total revenues.

If your total expenses exceed the amount that you’re requesting, you’ll want to show how you will fund the remaining expenses, either through fundraising other grants, sponsorships, your own contribution earned revenue like sales in kind donations, etc.

If you are applying for additional funding outside of this program but it won’t be confirmed before the deadline, do your best to demonstrate that you have done the proper planning and indicate what’s confirmed or pending at the time of applying.

Support material in this program is mandatory and really important to include. These are additional materials that you will upload to your application to help support your proposal. Include materials that provide more detail about the purpose of the activity you’re applying for, and where you’re currently at with the process of confirming these activities.

Examples of what you might include if they’re relevant are:

• Information about when your activity will be confirmed if it’s not yet confirmed.

• Letters of acceptance or confirmation, if received.

• Letters of support.

• Biographies of others involved.

• Course descriptions, budget support, for example, quotes, rates, paid invoices, etc.

• Examples of work.

• Research. For example, if you were comparing costs for different service providers or courses or equipment, you could include that as well.

Please note if you are requesting funds to access mentorship or training outside of a formal course from a specific person, you must provide evidence that you have begun building this relationship and negotiating professional fees, even if it’s not fully confirmed.

You should describe the mentor’s role, time, commitment, payment, and what will be covered or included in the mentorship.

Please be considerate of the committee’s time. Assessors will only be asked to review up to 5 min or so of support material for each applicant in order to determine if the activity is eligible. They are reviewing many applications, so please only provide information that’s relevant to your activity.

There will be a list of the allowable file types and sizes, but you should have plenty of room. The nice thing about the new grant platform is that you can upload media files, audio video images directly into the platform online, and there will also be room for PDF documents and links. Feel free to combine PDFs, multiple PDFs into one upload area.

Applications to the program will be reviewed by a committee for eligibility. The committee will be made up of artistic peers, which includes individual artists and art workers with experience and knowledge from a variety of artistic disciplines and practices.

Assessment committees are chosen to represent the broad diversity of Calgary and its artistic communities, including, but not limited to, artistic discipline, gender, sexuality, age, religion, beliefs, nation, physical and neurological identities.

We pay assessors an honorarium to serve on any of our committees. This honorarium is outlined in the assessor terms of reference which are linked within the guidelines. I would encourage you to read those terms, to understand the responsibilities and expectations that assessors are asked to commit to. Assessors are kept confidential and anonymous until next year, when a full list of assessors is posted as part of our annual report.

Assessors are required to declare conflicts of interest according to the Conflict of Interest Policy, which means they will not evaluate applications where there is a conflict.

The membership of the peer committees will be chosen through public nominations and staff expertise. If you or anyone you know is interested in assessing any of our programs. There’s a nomination form on our website, or you can send us an email.

How are grants awarded?

After you’ve submitted your application, assessment committees are responsible for reviewing applications for eligibility. This includes ensuring that applications are complete. For example, they include enough information to answer each question and section of the application, and that all requested expenses and activities align with the program guidelines.

Assessors will notify our team if they’re unsure if an application is eligible. Potentially ineligible applications will be further reviewed by our team before a final decision is made on a case-by-case basis.

All eligible applications will be entered into the lottery process.

The $500,000 pool available for this program will be divided between the two program streams based on the number of applicants that apply to that stream, and the dollar amount requested within each stream.

All eligible applications will be entered into a lottery for each stream. Applications will be drawn at random and awarded funding until the available funds run out.

Notifications will take place in mid-November. If an applicant is selected through the lottery process and can no longer accept the funding. Then funding will go to the next artist in line.

Some reasons why an artist may decline or return funding are, if they were not accepted into their chosen program. If they have received funding elsewhere, or if they’re no longer available to, or able to complete their project for various reasons.

So why the change to this process?

The change follows two years of running the Artist Development Microgrant, growing volumes and a lot of learning from our team.

We noticed that the assessment committees for this program had challenges deciding which applications merited funding in comparison to other applications. For example, for the many artists that asked for funds to build websites to promote their practices, assessors and the members of our team who reviewed the applications felt challenged to determine which applications were more deserving of funds than others, given the high volume of applications and the similar nature of the proposed activities. As a team, we were also grappling with the amount of time and effort that artists put into these grant applications, including their length and support materials. We took these factors into account when designing the application process for artists this year.

We also wanted to acknowledge that, regardless of artistic experience, artistic practice, or previous experience receiving grants, all artists had equal opportunity to funding that would help them grow and develop in their careers. We noted that other fields in health, research and other arts and civic recreational programs have used lottery processes and received positive feedback from the communities they support.

As a result, and after much discussion, our team is piloting a lottery process this year. After running the Microgrant Pilot this year, we’ll review the program and decide what changes to implement in 2025. We have not decided if artists will be able to receive the microgrant in consecutive years, but that information will become available next year after the review.

Given these changes that we’re piloting this year, we’re hoping to move back to multiple intakes of this program each year. We are also thinking about adjusting grant amounts and allowing unsuccessful eligible applications to roll into the next intake to make it as easy as possible for artists in future years.

Included in the grant application is a voluntary self-identification form which includes optional questions based on equity priority groups that Calgary Arts Development has identified. These equity priority groups include Indigenous, Black persons of olour, D/deaf persons, persons with disabilities, persons living with mental illness, and Two-Spirit LGBTQIAP+ individuals. For details. Please refer to the equity priority group descriptions in the guidelines.

This year we are still collecting data on equity priority groups through the voluntary survey in the application, but we will not use equity priority responses as a tie-breaking measure for this program. However, we will review data on the number of applications received and those funded from equity priority groups to determine if they appear proportional, and if any changes should be made next year.

We also use information collected through the voluntary self-identification form in aggregate to generate statistics to measure how well Calgary Arts Development programs are reaching members of equity groups, ensuring there is diverse representation in the membership of peer assessment committees and grant review panels, gathering information to help Calgary Arts Development design, review, evaluate and improve its programs and to plan outreach activities and report to Calgary Arts Development’s Board and Committees.

Please see the Disclosure of Grant Information Policy for information about how Calgary Arts Development collects and uses information submitted through grant applications.

Tips for applying to this microgrant program.

1.  Ensure your activity is eligible. We encourage applicants to read the full guidelines and reach out to chat with a program specialist to ensure that what you’re applying for is a good fit with the program, and that your activity and expenses are eligible. Don’t waste your time applying to the program with something that might not even be eligible. Keep in mind only eligible applications will be included in the lottery draw, so this is key.

• Support material. A big part of ensuring that you meet eligibility is demonstrating the purpose of the activity you’re applying for, and where you’re currently at with the process of confirming your activities. Show that you have done the research to know what you need, what it will cost, what’s confirmed or not, and what your plan is for feasibility.

• Clear demonstration of relationships. While the microgrant is not being assessed on criteria this year, assessors and staff are still reviewing applications to ensure that there are clear and supported relationships and compensation for others involved wherever relevant. This is part of why we request a budget and support material to confirm participation and rates.

If you are requesting funds to access mentorship or training outside of a formal course from a specific person, you must provide evidence that you have begun building this relationship and negotiating professional fees, even if it’s not fully confirmed. You should describe the mentor’s role, time, commitment, payment, and what will be covered or included in the mentorship.

• Use plain language rather than academic language, or artists speak. Plain language is often clearer and more concise. Avoid jargon or technical language, remembering that the assessment committee will be made up of people from many different practices and experiences. Assessors really appreciate being able to easily read and understand an application, since they are reading so many.

• Start this process early. Give yourself time to put your ideas and plans together to leave it, reflect on it, and come back to it as needed. Also make sure you have time to gather support material, some of which might depend on getting a letter or a confirmation or support material from someone else.

• And lastly, it’s important to consider the tax implications of receiving a grant. If successful, you will receive a T4A tax form from CADA, and it’s important to know what is taxable and as income and what are deductible expenses, and how best to track and manage those.

Our FAQ page has some information and resources about taxes. However, Calgary Arts Development does not offer tax advice. We highly recommend that you consult a tax, professional or accountant, when planning your grant applications and preparing your taxes each year.

All right. Here’s the contact info for this program. Again, we are available to answer any questions you might have before you apply. Just remember to reach out early, if possible. Thank you so much for listening.