Update on Canada Coun­cil tran­si­tion to New Fund­ing Model and upcom­ing appli­ca­tion dead­lines for media arts orga­ni­za­tions cour­tesy of IMAA/AAMI

Most media arts orga­ni­za­tions that cur­rently receive assis­tance from the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts through the pro­gram Grants to Media Arts Orga­ni­za­tions – Ini­tia­tives will be moved to one of the two fol­low­ing new pro­grams:
Sup­port­ing Artis­tic Prac­tice – Sup­port Orga­ni­za­tions (for most Production-based orga­ni­za­tions and dis­trib­u­tors)
Arts Across Canada – Arts Fes­ti­vals and Pre­sen­ters (for fes­ti­vals)

There will be no multi-year appli­ca­tion due this fall. Instead, the Multi-year cycle which began in 2014–15 will be extended for a fourth year (2017–18). The 2017–18 instal­ment of Multi-year fund­ing will be released upon approval of an interim report.

The next multi-year appli­ca­tion will be in May or June 2017 (details below). In the mean­time, here are the upcom­ing dead­lines for media arts organizations:

Grants to Media Arts Orga­ni­za­tions – Ini­tia­tives: 1 Novem­ber 2016
Project Grants to Media Arts Orga­ni­za­tions, Groups and Col­lec­tives: 1 Novem­ber 2016
Grants to Media Arts Orga­ni­za­tions – Equip­ment: 15 Novem­ber 2016

More infor­ma­tion will be pub­lished by Coun­cil in Decem­ber 2016, at which time you’ll also be able to cre­ate a pro­file on the Council’s new web portal.

The first appli­ca­tion dead­lines for the new multi-year pro­grams will be:
Sup­port­ing Artis­tic Prac­tice – Sup­port Orga­ni­za­tions: 15 May 2017
Arts Across Canada – Arts Fes­ti­vals and Pre­sen­ters: 1 June 2017

Note that although these appli­ca­tions will be sub­mit­ted part-way through the 2017–18 fis­cal year and com­pe­ti­tion results won’t be known until Decem­ber 2017, they will cover a three-year cycle begin­ning with the 2017–18 fis­cal year. This means that in addi­tion to your core fund­ing for 2017–18 which you will receive accord­ing to the same lev­els as the last three years, there is an oppor­tu­nity for a retroac­tive top-up to your 2017–18 core fund­ing, if the jury assess­ing your appli­ca­tion decides on an increase to your orga­ni­za­tion.
For fur­ther infor­ma­tion, con­tact your offi­cer at the Canada Coun­cil or go to: http://newfundingmodel.canadacouncil.ca/

ODSP Action Coali­tion, Media Arts Net­work Of Ontario, Work­man Arts, ACTRA Toronto, and Tan­gled Art + Disability

ODSP and Arts Grants Questionnaire

Are you an artist and a recip­i­ent of ODSP? We need your help!

The ODSP Action Coali­tion, Media Arts Net­work Of Ontario, Work­man Arts, ACTRA Toronto, and Tan­gled Art + Dis­abil­ity are work­ing together to gather sto­ries and expe­ri­ences of being both an artist and a recip­i­ent of ODSP.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R3XVVNT

The Ontario Dis­abil­ity Sup­port Pro­gram (ODSP) is a social assis­tance pro­gram run by the Ontario Min­istry of Com­mu­nity and Social Ser­vices. It pro­vides income sup­port and employ­ment sup­port to peo­ple who receive it.

In order to qual­ify for ODSP your income and assets can­not be above cer­tain amounts. All pay­ments to a per­son receiv­ing ODSP are con­sid­ered income, unless they are specif­i­cally exempted by the rules gov­ern­ing ODSP.

Dif­fer­ent kinds of income for ODSP recip­i­ents are treated dif­fer­ently.  For exam­ple, employ­ment or self-employment income is par­tially exempt, mean­ing you can keep some of it but part of it is deducted from ODSP.  But you can keep 100% of gifts or money that peo­ple give you vol­un­tar­ily, up to $6000 per year.  And you can keep all income that is intended for disability-related expenses, but must get approval from the ODSP office for this.  Because there are so many dif­fer­ent rules, it is not clear how arts grants will be treated.

Some artists who receive ODSP sup­port are con­cerned that if they are awarded arts coun­cil grants their ODSP pay­ments will be reduced, or cut off com­pletely. They may also be con­cerned that they will no longer qual­ify for the health ben­e­fits they cur­rently receive. Since ODSP sup­port is not enough to cover liv­ing expenses and the costs of mak­ing art they face bar­ri­ers to advanc­ing as artists.

The ODSP Pol­icy on Canada Coun­cil of the Arts Grants and Ontario Arts Coun­cil Grants states: These grants are not specif­i­cally exempt under ODSP…The details of the spe­cific grant should be reviewed to deter­mine the nature of the grant, how it is paid and the cir­cum­stances under which the grant is pro­vided. (Direc­tive 5.1)

These reviews are con­ducted by ODSP case work­ers and indi­vid­ual recip­i­ents have had a range of experiences.

This is where you come in.

If you’re an artist and are or have been recip­i­ent of ODSP, please fill out the ques­tion­naire. The ques­tion­naire is vol­un­tary and confidential.

The infor­ma­tion we gather will help us to seek changes that would allow artists who receive ODSP to develop and thrive as professionals.

That means we could see more plays, films, books, songs, etc. cre­ated by and about peo­ple with disabilities.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/R3XVVNT

If you have any ques­tions about this ques­tion­naire, please contact:

Eliza Chan­dler, Tan­gled Art + Dis­abil­ity
647–725-5064
eliza@tangledarts.org

Pre­vi­ous con­sul­ta­tions have demon­strated the need for the media arts sec­tor to develop a set of (uniquely tai­lored to the orga­ni­za­tional struc­tures of artist-run media orga­ni­za­tions) best prac­tices, poli­cies and doc­u­ment tem­plates on human resources, gov­er­nance,  equity, and con­flict resolution.

With the sup­port from the Canada Coun­cil for the Arts (Lead­er­ship for Change pro­gram), MANO’s mem­bers worked with con­sul­tants Giselle Bas­anta, Charles C. Smith and Sheila Wilmot in order to develop such poli­cies and pro­ce­dures dur­ing the sum­mer and fall of 2015. After research, con­sul­ta­tions with work groups, the draft­ing of poli­cies and a work­shop on Medi­a­tion and Con­flict Res­o­lu­tion, the con­clu­sion of the project took place in Jan­u­ary 2016 with the pre­sen­ta­tion of the project’s poli­cies and pro­ce­dures to MANO’s mem­ber­ship at the Map­ping Medias symposium.

Guide 1 — Con­flict Resolution_0229

Guide 2 — Best Prac­tices on Equity_0229

Guide 3 — Board Governance_0229

Guide 3– Board Gov­er­nance Templates

Guide 4 — HR Bet­ter Practices_0229

Guide 4– HR Templates

These Guides are the intel­lec­tual prop­erty of MANO/RAMO and are to be used for the ben­e­fit of its mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions. All rights and priv­i­leges that adhere to these Guides are owned by MANO/ RAMO. The infor­ma­tion in these Guides is offered for infor­ma­tion pur­poses only and does not con­sti­tute legal advice. The infor­ma­tion in these Guides may be sub­ject to updates as prac­tices and applic­a­ble leg­is­la­tion change over time. Mem­ber orga­ni­za­tions should con­sult the appro­pri­ate pro­fes­sional for advice relat­ing to spe­cific issues.