Workshop Registration

Grant Writing for Arts Councils

Federal, provincial, and municipal arts councils fund a wide range of media arts projects, including experimental films/videos, media installations, new media works, documentaries, and narrative films. Sustaining a career as an artist necessitates learning how to write a clear, concise, persuasive grant application. Get an early start with this workshop, which will outline the process of planning, writing and submitting media arts grant proposals that effectively represent your individual project. The class will focus on what arts council juries look for in the description of a project, and on budget preparation and support material. During the workshop, the instructor and other participants will review participants’ grant proposals to give individual feedback on your works in progress. 

For upcoming grant deadlines see:
Canada Council for the Arts: www.canadacouncil.ca
Ontario Arts Council: www.arts.on.ca
Toronto Arts Council: www.torontoartscouncil.org

The Introduction to Independent Filmmaking workshop is strongly recommended as a prerequisite. This workshop is recommended as a companion to the Short Film Writing, Advanced Script Studio and Producing Dramatic Films on a Shoe String Budget workshops.​

Participants must submit a one-page (maximum) project description before Wednesday January 31, 2024. Submit to workshops@lift.on.ca with LIFT Winter 2024: Grant Writing for Arts Councils in the subject line. This workshop does not cover grant writing for commercial industry funders such as Telefilm Canada, Canadian Media Fund (CMF), Ontario Media Development Corporation (OMDC), or Independent Production Fund (IPF).​

READ BEFORE REGISTERING
Prior to the class, please create a profile on Zoom and download the free version of the application. You will receive an email from LIFT with an invitation link to join the workshop one hour before the class begins which will prompt you to open the application or web browser. Please ensure that you log in using a Zoom account with a profile name that appears as the same name registered for the class. If not, for security reasons, you may not be permitted to join. During the workshop, we advise that you keep your microphone on mute to minimize external noise and that you unmute when participating in class discussions. Please also arrive to the session on time for attendance and class participation. ONLINE workshops may be recorded for staff and facilitator assessment. Recorded material will not be made available to participants. Review all workshop policies before registering.

part 1: Wed 26 June 2024, 6 - 9 pm   
part 2: Wed 3 July 2024, 6 - 9 pm   
(Registration deadline is Wed 26 June 5:00 pm)

Instructor: Chris Gehman

Chris Gehman is an award-winning filmmaker, and an arts administrator, educator and critic. His films have screened at venues around the world, including The Berlinale, TIFF, Experimenta (Bangalore), and Anthology Film Archives (NYC). Chris was Artistic Director of the Images Festival from 2000 to 2004, and has also programmed for Cinematheque Ontario and TIFF. He edited two critical anthologies on media arts, and his critical writing has also appeared in periodicals such as Cinema Scope and Millennium Film Journal. Currently, Chris is Finance Manager at Vtape, a non-profit artist-run video distributor, in addition to his artistic and freelance work. He is familiar with many granting programs, and has received numerous grants to support his work.



Category: Producing
Maximum Capacity: 8
6 hours of instruction in 2 parts$105 /member$130 /nonmember
Registration opens
Tue 21 May at 10am