The Canada Council for the Arts has unveiled a new funding model for grants to artists and arts organizations.
Rather than maintaining 147 discipline-specific programs, the council has created six non-disciplinary programs.
For instance, Explore and Create will fund artists, collectives and organizations that research and develop work that advances various art forms. Engage and Sustain will support arts organizations that produce and present high-quality arts. Other programs support aboriginal arts, and help disseminate art nationally and abroad.
The changes will come into effect in 2017.
The council says the new system will offer artists “a simpler, more artist-centred application process” that responds to current trends and maximizes social, creative and economic benefits.
The council’s director, Simon Brault, says peer assessment will continue. But how this will work for non-disciplinary programs remains to be seen.
