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 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.

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. 

• Read the guidelines carefully to understand the criteria. If you have questions, please contact grants@​edmontonarts.​ca.
• Do not submit a project description. Collectives are not eligible. This is an award program for individual artists, not a project-based grant program. 
• Consider this award as a financial investment to provide stability for the artist to renew, develop, create or experiment. 
• Do not submit a budget. Award amounts are fixed at $15,000.
• Artists who have overdue Edmonton Arts Council final reports will not be eligible. 
• Artists may not receive an EATF award in two consecutive years. 
• The EATF is not intended to support artists who primarily work outside the Edmonton region. 

The EATF was established in 1997 by John and Barbara Poole, the Edmonton Community Foundation (ECF), the Edmonton Arts Council (EAC), and Clifford E. Lee Foundation. When the awards launched in 1998, a jury selected four artists to share in a prize of $13,500. Twenty-five years and 200 recipients later, it continues to be administered by the EAC and funded thanks to the Eldon and Anne Foote Fund and the Lakhani Family Fund at the ECF. 

Those facing barriers while completing their application may be eligible for Access Support. A barrier can include, but is not limited to, language, culture, physical or cognitive limitations, or any inequity that may complicate completing an application. This support provides funding for specialized assistance in conveying the artists’ ideas. This could include hiring a qualified 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. 

Normally, professional grant writers are not supported by this program unless they are assisting the artist with a specific barrier. Eligible assistance will be supported up to $500. For more information, contact grants@​edmontonarts.​ca.

The EAC offers the opportunity for Nominees to have their draft submission reviewed before the application deadline. 

If you would like someone to review your draft submission with you, please call 780−424−2787 or email grants@​edmontonarts.​ca no later than 10 business days before the deadline. Requests for review made after this time may not be possible. 

The deadline for submissions is August 1 at 11:59 a.m.

• 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.

Letter of Nomination: The Letter of Nomination is the primary document considered by the assessors. This letter must demonstrate 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 can also include information about the Nominator and their connection with the Nominee. Consider providing relevant examples or anecdotes that demonstrate support for the Nominee. The Letter of Nomination must be limited to two (2) pages, signed by the Nominator and submitted as a PDF by the Nominee.

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

• A description of your demonstrated commitment to and achievement of excellence in your artistic practice. 
• A description of your demonstrated past contribution to, and anticipated future impact on, the cultural and artistic life of the Edmonton region. 
• Any other information about you that is relevant, including the impact that an EATF award might have on your ongoing experimentation, development and practice in the Edmonton region. 

The information in the Artist Background section will be directly imported into your application from your 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 practice – the primary applicants’ main artistic practices in which they have the most experience. These may be different than the main artistic practice(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);
• Social media and/​or web links – 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.

To support your application, you may upload up to 10 audio/​visual/​PDF files and up to 5 direct links to external websites. 

These must include samples of your artistic work, but may also be reviews, interviews, additional letters of support, etc. 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. 

Optional Letters of Support: Up to 2 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.

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 accessors 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. 

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 committee will make award recommendations to the EAC’s Board of Directors for approval. EATF award decisions are final. 

The assessors will be guided by the Letter(s) of Nomination, all the text in these guidelines, and the following evaluation 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.