Professional Project Grants Program (Canada)

The Professional Project Grants Program (PPGP) is available to Individual Professional Artists, Collaborations of Individual Professional Artists, and Professional Arts Groups.

Grants support project costs related to creation, production, administration, travel, professional development, etc.

Grant Categories

• New Professional Artist(s), Collaboration, or Group: An individual artist with less than three years of professional arts practice post-education, or a collaboration or group in which at least half of the members each has less than three years professional arts practice post-education.
• Established Professional Artist, Collaboration, or Group: An individual with more than three years’ professional arts practice post-education, or a collaboration or group, in which at least half the members each has more than three years’ professional arts practice, post-education.

Funding Information

• New Professional Artist(s), Collaboration, or Group: Maximum request $6,000.
• Established Professional Artist, Collaboration, or Group: Maximum request $15,000.
• $1,700,000 is awarded annually. $850,000 is available to be awarded across all arts disciplines in each grant session.
• Successful applicants will be awarded a minimum of 75% of the funding requested.
• Applicants will be awarded one grant through PPGP in a 12-month period.

Who can apply?

• Definition of a professional artist: A person shall be considered to be a professional artist if that person satisfies four of the following criteria:
  • the person receives or has received compensation which can be included in professional or business income;
  • the person has a record of income or loss relevant to the history of his or her work and appropriate to the span of their artistic career;
  • the person has received public or peer recognition by publicly disseminated critical reviews or appraisals or by similar means;
  • the person has presented his or her work to the public by means of exhibitions, publications, screenings, performances, readings, or by other means appropriate to the nature of his or her work;
  • the person is represented by a dealer, publisher, agent or similar professional representative appropriate to the nature of his or her work;
  • the person devotes a reasonable proportion of this or her professional time to promoting or marketing his or her work;
  • the person
    • has received professional training in an educational institution from a practitioner recognized in his or her profession, or
    • is self-taught within the established practices of the person’s cultural traditions;
  • the person has membership in a professional association appropriate to their artistic activity,
    • whose membership is or categories of membership are limited under standards of the association, or
    • which is a trade union or equivalent appropriate to his or her artistic activity; and
  • the person holds copyright in his or her own work and has received royalty or residual payment based on that copyright.
  • Definition of a professional arts group: A group of individual artists who work in one or more of the artistic disciplines supported by ArtsNL:
    • that has the creation and/or presentation of works of art as its primary activity
    • that is composed of at least two individuals
    • that has all members meeting ArtsNL’s definition of a professional artist
    • that charges artist fees at established national standards for the artistic discipline(s) and practice in which it operates
    • that pays individual members artist fees at established national standards for the artistic discipline(s) and practice in which it operates
    • that has internal oversight of the group’s finances and can produce an annual financial statement
• Residency, age, and activity requirements:
  • Professional individual artist:
    • Must be a current resident of  Newfoundland and Labrador for a minimum of twelve consecutive months at the time of submitting an application
    • Must be at least 18 years of age or hold post-secondary standing
  • Professional arts group:
    • Must have been active in Newfoundland and Labrador for a minimum of one year at the time of submitting an application
    • Must have actively engaged in professional arts activities within the last year
    • Must have at least half its members residing in Newfoundland and Labrador
    • Must have at least half its members who are at least 18 years of age, or have post-secondary standing.

For more information, visit ArtsNL.