EATF awards are intended to recognize individual artists at all stages of their careers, working in a wide range of art forms, practices and artistic traditions, including, but not limited to, customary and contemporary Indigenous and other cultural artforms. Recipients will demonstrate excellence in their field and commitment to working in, and contributing to, the Edmonton region’s arts ecosystem. 

NOMINEES (APPLICANTS) MUST:

• Be 18 years of age or older. 
• Be a resident of the greater Edmonton region / amiskwaciy-waskâhikan for at least one year prior to the deadline. The greater Edmonton region is defined as the City of Edmonton, the Counties of Sturgeon, Parkland, Leduc and Strathcona, and the Indigenous communities of Enoch Cree Nation, Alexander First Nation, Paul First Nation, and Alexis Nakota Sioux Nation. Nominees may be asked to provide proof of residency.
• Have a valid Social Insurance Number (SIN) – awards are considered taxable income.
• Artists who have overdue Edmonton Arts Council final reports will not be eligible. 
• Artists may not receive an EATF award in two consecutive years. 

NOMINATORS MUST:

• Be a member of the local arts and/​or cultural community who can speak to the Nominee’s merits, ability, and impact in their field and on the Edmonton region. 
• Provide their contact information including a valid email address and phone number. 
• Provide a signed Letter of Nomination, to be submitted by the Nominee as part of their application. 

• Read the guidelines carefully to understand the criteria. If you have questions, please contact grants@​edmontonarts.​ca.
• Do not submit a project description. This is NOT a grant program; this is an award of recognition. 
• Collectives are not eligible. This is an award program for individual artists, not a project-based grant program.
• Do not include financial details or a budget. Award amounts are fixed at $15,000. This award is an investment to provide stability for the artist to sustain and enhance their artistic practice in the Edmonton region, and therefore specific financial information is not needed. 
• The EATF award is not intended to support artists who primarily work outside the Edmonton region. 

RESOURCES

Please visit the Resources section of our website for more information on profile and application expectations: 

• Video resources
• Funding FAQ

ACCESS SUPPORT

Those facing barriers while completing their application may request Access Support for up to $500 to assist with submitting an application. A barrier can include but is not limited to, language, culture, physical or cognitive limitations such as those that may be considered a disability, or any similar complication that an applicant may face while completing an application. This could include hiring a typist, interpreter, translator, or other type of support worker to help with submitting a clear application that accurately reflects the artist’s ideas and intentions. 

For more information, and to download an Access Support Request Form, please visit the Access Support page.

DRAFT APPLICATION ASSISTANCE

The EAC offers the opportunity for applicants to have their draft application reviewed before the deadline. The review process could include: 

• Helping to define the intentions and outcomes of your application. 
• Providing guidance on how to describe your artistic practice and find your narrative. 

If you would like someone to review your draft application with you, please email no later than 10 business days before the application deadline. Requests for review made after this time may not be possible. 

Please ensure you have a complete draft of your application ready in SmartSimple at least one day (24 hours) before your scheduled meeting. If you do not have a draft ready in SmartSimple, your meeting may be rescheduled to accommodate serving applicants that are able to have their drafts reviewed. 

REVISION REQUESTS

In the two weeks following the application deadline, if your application requires an update or additional information, you may receive a Revision Request by email. If this information is mandatory, you will be informed and if not completed it may result in your application being withdrawn from assessment. You must log in to the SmartSimple portal to see the details of your Revision Request, as well as the deadline for submission. Revisions Requests are given no more than one week to complete. Instructions for accessing Revisions Requests are provided as a PDF in the email notification. Revisions that are incomplete after the deadline will be contacted with a notice of withdrawal where applicable. 

Please add support@​edmontonarts.​ca to your safe senders list to ensure you don’t miss notifications from SmartSimple, and ensure you are checking your email to see if your application requires attention. 

FEEDBACK

Due to the uniqueness and highly competitive nature of the EATF Award, less than half of the submissions progress to the discussion stage after an independent assessor review. Therefore, we are only able to offer assessor feedback on applications that proceed to the discussion panel. 

The deadline for submissions is August 1 at 11:59 AM (noon). 

Please note, the deadline is 11:59 AM (noon), not PM. Late applications or those that do not include all required information will be considered incomplete and will not be assessed.

• The Nominee is responsible for filling in the application through the Edmonton Arts Council’s online portal: SmartSimple.
• The Nominee must have a complete profile in the online portal eac​.smart​sim​ple​.ca. Once a profile has been created, the EATF submission form will be available in SmartSimple one month before the deadline. 

• If the Nominee already has a profile, the EATF submission form will be available one month before the deadline. If you have any questions about the SmartSimple registration process, please contact support@​edmontonarts.​ca.

First, the Arts Development and Investment team ensures the submitted applications meet the program’s eligibility criteria and are complete. Then the EAC will convene a multidisciplinary peer assessment committee to evaluate all submissions. This committee will include artists and arts professionals chosen for their skills, knowledge, and abilities. EAC assessors are recruited to reflect the full demographic diversity of Edmonton. The assessment committee will make award recommendations to the EAC. Decisions through this process are final. 

This process will take 12 to 16 weeks. Thank you for your patience! 

The assessors will be guided by the Letter(s) of Nomination, all the text in these guidelines, and the following assessment criteria listed here in order of importance:

1. The Nominee’s demonstrated commitment to and achievement of excellence in their artistic practice. 
2. The potential of the award to foster the Nominee’s development of their ongoing artistic practice. 
3. The Nominee’s impact, and future impact on the cultural and artistic life of the Edmonton region.

GENERAL

Nominator Information 

• First and last name
  
• Phone number
• Email
• Relationship with Nominee (eg, teacher, community member, mentor)

Letter of Nomination

The Letter of Nomination is the primary document considered by the assessors. This letter demonstrates the Nominator’s support for the artist being nominated. It should outline information relevant to the assessment criteria and make a case that the artist is worthy of consideration for this award. 

The letter must:

• Include information about the Nominator and their connection with the Nominee. 
• Provide relevant examples or narratives that demonstrate support for the Nominee. 
• Be limited to two (2) pages, signed by the Nominator and submitted as a PDF by the Nominee.

Please refer to the EATF Nomination Letter Template for more guidance. 

The following information will be entered as text by the Nominee, directly into the online submission, with a limit of 500 words each: 

• Describe your artistic career, commitment to and achievement of excellence in your practice. 
• Describe your past, present and future potential contribution to the cultural and artistic life of the Edmonton region. 
• Describe the impact that an EATF award will have on your artistic practice, commitment to excellence, and contribution to the Edmonton region. 
• Other relevant information not already shared.

ARTIST BACKGROUND

The information in this section will be directly imported into your application from the Primary Applicant’s individual profile in SmartSimple. Please ensure your profile is up-to-date and submitted before completing your application.

• Artist name – the name that you use publicly as an artist if different than your preferred name;
• Artist primary and secondary discipline – the primary applicants’ main artistic disciplines in which they have the most experience. These may be different than the main artistic discipline(s) of this specific application;
• Artist statement – a description of your existing artistic practice which may include major influences, disciplines, cultural practices and/​or lived experience (250 words);
• Artist biography – a summary of your life and career highlights, and education relevant to your practice (250 words);
• Artist CV/​Resume – artistic work history or comparable (PDF, recommended maximum of 4 pages);
• Online presence – these links are used by the assessors as additional information on your professional artistic practice. Please only include public links to information that will support your application.

SUPPORTING MATERIAL

Supporting Material is required and important for the accurate assessment of your application. To support your application, you may upload up to 10 audio/​visual/​PDF files and up to 5 direct links to external websites related to your proposed project. 

• These must include samples of your artistic work, but may also include letters of support, reviews, interviews, etc. 
• Optional Letters of Support: additional Letters of Support can be included that demonstrate additional community involvement and support for you and your artistic work. These Letters of Support must be limited to 2 pages and submitted as separate PDFs. 
• For each supporting material uploaded, you are required to provide a description of the material which could include creation date, medium, location, names of artists, etc. 
• Uploaded video or audio files should total no more than 10 minutes in length, and all files should be less than 2GB in size. Uploads are preferable to links whenever possible, so that access for assessors is as simple as possible. 
• Links must be direct and public. These links should go directly to the support material specified, rather than to a landing page or home page requiring further navigation by assessors. 
• Please do not provide links that go through file sharing sites, such as Spotify, Google Drive, Dropbox, etc., or online portals that require an account to access. This is for the privacy of assessors, as well as to have direct access.
• Please do not submit images as PDF files, rather directly upload images in JPEG or PNG format.

The EAC will convene a multidisciplinary peer assessment committee to evaluate all submissions. This committee will include artists and arts professionals chosen for their skills, knowledge, and abilities. EAC assessors are recruited to reflect the full demographic diversity of Edmonton. The assessment committee will make award recommendations to the EAC. Decisions through this process are final. 

The assessors will be guided by the Letter(s) of Nomination, all the text in these guidelines, and the following assessment criteria listed here in order of importance: 

1. The Nominee’s demonstrated commitment to and achievement of excellence in their artistic practice. 
2. The potential of the award to foster the Nominee’s ongoing artistic experimentation, development and practice. 
3. The Nominee’s demonstrated past contribution to, and anticipated future impact on, the cultural and artistic life of the Edmonton region. 

The Edmonton Arts Council encourages assessors to respect and consider the specific cultural context of artists from all communities. In the case of equivalent merits based on the published guidelines, assessors are asked to incorporate the Edmonton Arts Council policy of reflecting the full diversity of Edmonton before making award recommendations.