National Arts Centre plans to release details this month on its selection process for the National Creation Fund

By Alicia Wachon

The National Arts Centre is preparing to release more information this month regarding the submission process for its new $3-million-a-year National Creation Fund. Specific deadlines have yet to be announced for the first stage of evaluation, but the NAC has provided a brief summary of what artists should incorporate into their proposals.

Artists interested in submitting a proposal are to include a description of what the project is, who is part of the artistic team, who are the producing partners and a rough budget. Lastly, the artists will be asked to explain why they need the funds and how the money would enhance the creative process.

The fund was intended for Canadian artists with ambitious projects but who lack the time, proper workspace and resources to develop their ideas. When the NAC was doing research on establishing the fund, artists reached out to explain an obvious “creation gap” that needed to be addressed.

They mentioned that little has been done for the fine arts community in terms of providing the time and materials to support a project’s full artistic capacity.

“Artists only have time for the first idea—the one you know is going to work. You don’t have time to innovate, you don’t have time to expand and test things out. A lot of that gets thrown out with the fact that you’ve only got limited resources,” says Heather Moore, the fund’s artistic producer.

“We want to be able to extend that opportunity for artists,” she said.

The NAC announced last December that they would be investing about $3 million a year on 15 to 20 different projects. The Elgin Street performance centre stated at the time that projects must meet three main criteria: the project has to be bold, there needs to be at least one secondary producing partner willing to invest along with the Creation Fund, and the art has to have the capacity to make a lasting national and international impact.

“We’re not going to replace the kind of funding that people usually get,” said Moore. “We fully expect those projects that we are involved in will have those kinds of funders, but what we want to do is make that game-changing investment that takes it (further).

She added: “We’re also hoping that we can change the model for creation.”

Moore said the NAC has not had the means to support Canadian artists at this level before, and that smaller artists are influenced by international ones who have gone on to improve their projects significantly.

“We were told that it’s time that we stepped up and make that happen,” she said.

Although the NAC recognizes that not every project they invest in will be a success, they hope that promoting artists in the creative stages of their projects will be the encouragement they need to continue thinking of grand ideas.

“We can make this bold Canadian work good enough for our big stages in Canada. It doesn’t always have to be a tiny stage in the back to show people that (Canadians) have an ability and that other people are also supportive of it,” said Moore.
A second selection process will follow, in which Moore and a group of NAC members will select specific projects to invest in through the fund.

Though official proposals will not be accepted until Nov. 1, for the first round of funding, further detailed information on submissions will be released on the NAC’s website later in the month.