Micro-Grants to support and strengthen cultural, artistic and heritage expressions
Through its Action Plan for Official Languages 2018-2023: Investing in Our Future, the Government of Canada announced the creation of a new Micro-Grant program to support and strengthen the cultural, artistic and heritage expressions of official-language minority communities (OLMCs). In consultation with arts and culture organizations, the Department of Canadian Heritage developed ententes with ELAN and the FCCF (la Fédération culturelle canadienne-française) to manage the program for the English minority language communities in Quebec and the French minority language communities in the rest of Canada.
Available Funding
Beginning in the 2019-20 school year, Quebec’s OLMC public elementary and secondary schools* can apply for their ArtistsInspire Grants:
- $1500 grant per school/year for 4 years = $6000 in total
Schools can apply once and update artist information annually
*Including public schools from Quebec’s English School Board Association members and the Cree and Kativik School Boards (eligibility requirements were determined by the Department of Canadian Heritage).
Program Management
ArtistsInspire Grants / Art Ed Program Management – an ELAN & LEARN partnership
To meet the Department of Canadian Heritage’s requirements for the management of the ArtistsInspire Grants, ELAN and LEARN are collaborating to promote and support the program. Through our partnership, we aim to reach as many of the 300 eligible schools as possible annually.
Support for Artists & Schools to Connect & Create!
ArtistsInspire Grants / Art Ed Program Management
ELAN’s ArtEd Team includes professional consultants who are available to connect with schools and artists – our goal is to identify and meet the needs of educators and artists. Our facilitators each have more than a decade of experience facilitating arts, community and education collaborations. We welcome all schools to contact us and either Christie Huff, Jennifer Cooke or Paula Knowles will respond with suggestions to connect you with artists, to prepare teachers and artists for collaboration, to access other sources of funds, and more.
LEARN, through its connections with schools boards, a network of consultants and Community Learning Centre Development Agents will support the program by reaching out to school boards, schools and other key stakeholders in education to inspire them to engage students in creative experiences with the grants.
Learning from Experience!
Based on feedback that we receive from schools, ELAN & LEARN will adapt the program administration on a continuing basis. In the section Feedback from educators, input on creative experiences will enable ELAN & LEARN team to identify professional development needs and to collaborate in designing and delivering timely responses for Artists and Educators.