FAQ for Artists

1. Eligible Artists identify as members of the English-speaking Communities of Quebec:

– they represent the diversity of the ESCs’ demographics and cultural communities. Their practices include a wide variety of specialties to engage students and lifelong learners of all ages.

2. Experience facilitating in education settings is required for working in Schools*:

Having listened to educators about what is essential to this program’s success, to qualify for the $1500 ArtistsInspire School Grants Program, Artists must already have experience as facilitators of hands-on creative experiences with students and teachers in elementary and/or secondary schools. They have demonstrated their skills/experience through prior work with ELAN’s ACE Initiative, ArtsSmarts, MASC, MikwChiyâm, the Quebec Writers’ Federation’s Writers in the Communities Program and/or from equivalent programs in the rest of Canada or internationally.  Many artists are also listed in Quebec’s Culture in the Schools Repertoire and are eligible for additional funding available from that program’s workshops or residencies.

*Please note that while we will continue to profile Artists who are only comfortable facilitating in-person experiences, being able to facilitate virtual workshops is an asset. Have a look at our Virtual ArtEd Facilitation Guide.

3. Recruiting Regional Artists

ELAN’s ArtEd program seeks to offer authentic Arts and Culture experiences aimed at developing young people’s creativity while fostering an understanding of the diversity that exists within Quebec’s English-speaking communities. Regional Artists (living out side the greater Montreal area), are welcome to connect with us at any time. Please email the project manager at artedcoach@quebec-elan.org if you would like to know more.

Recruitment of all other new Artists takes place during our Spring Artist Recruitment Campaign. The campaign will be posted on the ELAN ArtEd Social Media Pages and will be sent out in our mailing list as well as in the ELAN Newsletter. Stay up to date by joining those mailing lists.

Passionate about facilitating Lifelong Learning experiences with Adults and/or Seniors? 

As of June 2020, we are excited to be adding Artists with experience facilitating lifelong learning experiences for Adults and/or Seniors!  Many community and regional non-profit organizations have been connecting with Artists to facilitate inspirational activities in-person and online – we are delighted to expand our list, creating the most comprehensive and diverse possible list of Artists who are eligible to facilitate educational experiences in the country.

ELAN’s ArtEd program seeks to offer authentic Arts and Culture experiences aimed at developing young people’s creativity while fostering an understanding of the diversity that exists within Quebec’s English-speaking communities. Regional Artists (living outside the greater Montreal area), are welcome to connect with us at any time. Please email the project manager at artedcoach@quebec-elan.org if you would like to know more.

The recruitment period for new Artists is now over. Recruitment of new Artists takes place during the Spring. The message will be posted on the ELAN ArtEd Social Media Pages and will be sent out in our mailing list as well as in the ELAN Newsletter. Stay up to date by joining those mailing lists.

ELAN’s ArtEd program seeks to offer authentic Arts and Culture experiences aimed at developing young people’s creativity while fostering an understanding of the diversity that exists within Quebec’s English-speaking communities. Regional Artists (living out side the greater Montreal area), are welcome to connect with us at any time. Please email the project manager at artedcoach@quebec-elan.org if you would like to know more.

Recruitment of all other new Artists takes place during the Spring. The message will be posted on the ELAN ArtEd Social Media Pages and will be sent out in our mailing list as well as in the ELAN Newsletter. Stay up to date by joining those mailing lists.

If the submission takes a long time to process or does not process at all, a likely cause is that your images are too large. This form contains many images so you may be submitting too much data to process all at once. Here are some solutions.

1. Click the back button to return to your form.
2. Reduce the file sizes of your images. You can use a free image resizer website to re-save your images at a width of 900 pixels. Then resubmit the form with the smaller images.
3. Plan to submit your form with one image at a time.

Whenever possible, schools are required to work with eligible local Artists. When local Artists are not available in the disciplines and/or specialties requested by schools, Artists may be eligible for travel expenses. Our travel budget is limited. As such, when a school has selected an Artist, they will need to fill out a Travel Form to be approved by the ArtEd team. When considering travel, the ArtEd team will look at the impact the project will have on the school and community and whether there are other more local Artists that could facilitate a similar experience. We may ask the school to contribute to the travel expenses, if possible, using other funds (e.g. combining an ArtistsInspire grant with Culture in the Schools funding is a great way to extend a project and cover costs). In some cases, we may need to use some of the funds from the ArtistsInspire grant in order to offset costs, which may affect the number of workshops the Artist will be facilitating. We may also ask that a school rearrange their schedule so as to be to accommodate consecutive workshops in order to save on travel expenses (e.g. accommodation and food).

In regions where a visiting Artist/Arts organization is required to travel further than 100 km each way, ELAN may request that schools select an Artist/Arts Organization available to work with multiple schools in a School Board and/or geographic region when possible. See details in the guideline for eligible artists’ fees and expenses.

ELAN is reaching out to each school board with schools eligible for the grant to determine how we can best support their schools in connecting with artists.

Schools will be able to view artists’ profiles on the website as well as our Elementary and High School Workshop Catalogues. The ELAN ArtEd team will be available to schools to help them in their connection process – if they request our assistance, we will recommend multiple artists who match with the schools interests by discipline and/or theme.

Eligible artists may contact schools that they already have a relationship with to encourage the school to apply. We are requesting that artists not contact new schools directly – we simply cannot have schools/principals being inundated with contact from individual artists.

Please watch the Artist Orientation Video for more information.

The artist profile is set up to display videos either from YouTube or from Vimeo.  To get the url for your video

1. go to the view page of your video
2. copy the website address from the URL bar
3. paste it into the artist profile form.

here is an example of what the URL looks like: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-CauQXNRig

The funder provided us with a list of eligible public elementary and secondary schools in the province including the nine schools boards that are members of the Quebec English School Board Association and the three special status school boards – Cree, Kativik and Littoral. The ELAN Art Ed Team is working with contacts at each board to promote the program and offer support in connecting their schools with artists. The way schools apply will vary based on geographic realities. Schools who can work with local artists (able to travel daily to the school – no accommodation required) will use our online form. Schools who need to bring artists in from longer distances will work with the ELAN Art Ed Team to arrange for artists to work with multiple schools.

LEARN will be disseminating the funds to cover artists’ fees and expenses for approved Artists Inspired grants. When schools have been approved for their grants, the school and artist will be contacted and the compensation will be organized directly with the artist when the agreed-upon activities are complete.

As independent professionals, artists are expected to submit an invoice for fees (an example will be provided). Approved expenses per guidelines to be provided to artists and schools (material, travel) will be submitted to LEARN using an Expense Claim Form.

Please watch the Artist Orientation Video for more information.

• Artists’ fees – the minimum fee for an individual artist’s in-person time is $150/hour. We expect Artists to work with a minimum of 2 classes, and each class should receive a minium of 2 separate workshop sessions lasting about one hour each. This is to allow students to be inspired and develop their creativity in the artistic discipline. In all, an Artist is expected to facilitate 6 to 10 hours of live workshop sessions, over different days.
  
• While some materials cost is expected, as much as possible, artists need to consider what is already available through the schools and their community. Material costs should not exceed 20% of the $1500/school grant including taxes = $300.
• To ensure schools in all regions have access to diverse arts experiences, travel costs for artists will be covered in addition to the $1500 grant when a qualified local artist is not available in the discipline/specialty. Travel will need to be pre-approved and involve multiple schools within a school board in remote areas.
  
• Grants can be leveraged by connecting with other arts and culture funding opportunities, combining for example with Culture’s in the Schools’ Host an Artist or Writer Program.
• See the guideline for eligible artists’ fees and expenses (PDF).
• See the Artist Orientation Video.