March 3, 2025 deadline
General Expert Panel comments
Comments made by the panel during the assessment of applications are outlined below. Please note that these comments provide a summary of the panel's assessment and do not necessarily relate to every application submitted to this deadline. The panel does not provide individual comments.
Project description
- Please be sure your description clearly outlines how you plan to do your project, because vague descriptions, or descriptions missing information, makes it difficult for the panel to understand what your goals and intentions are.
- Including a timeline or schedule of activity is a valuable component of your project description. This helps the panel better understand how and when you plan to undertake your activities.
- Be sure to allow yourself ample time to complete your project so the panel has confidence that activities and goals are feasible.
- Please include clear anticipated outcomes, or end goals, as this addresses potential impacts the project may have on you, your artistic practice, and/or broader career goals.
- The panel was impressed with the diversity of projects and the quality of activities in the province.
- An unsuccessful grant request did not necessarily mean your project was without artistic merit. Not all strong projects could be supported.
- The panel encourages applicants to reapply in the future, and to reach out to AFA consultants for feedback prior to next submission.
- Tell a story about your work, why the project is important, and how it might impact you and/or your practice. For example, how do you see this pushing your work, skills, concepts and/or career beyond its current state?
- Do not assume the panel is familiar with your work, so use accessible, plain language and write in a way that is comfortable for you.
- It is beneficial to keep the project description under four pages, as the panel has to read a large volume of applications.
- Please reach out to the AFA staff in advance of a deadline if you need help with preparing the description, or providing support material items (images, video, etc.).
Budget:
- Budgets should be sufficiently detailed to give the panel all the information they need to evaluate the potential of a project.
- Budgets showing expenses were researched did better than those without support materials. Include quotes or invoices (where relevant), and/or budget notes stating which websites and other sources were used.
- When you have pending revenue in your budget (in addition to the AFA grant you are asking for), the application is strengthened if a contingency plan is provided. For example, if the only revenue received is the AFA grant, can you still do the project as proposed, or can you modify it to fit a smaller budget?
Support material:
- Please provide more than one image of your work, otherwise it may be challenging for the panel to understand the potential impact of your proposed project.
- If images do not reflect the proposed project, please provide a context.
- Do not provide an excessive amount of support materials above what is requested in the guidelines. The panel has many applications to review and may not be able to view additional materials.
- Please provide media files as per the guidelines on the website. Do not provide streaming or website links. The panel will not do additional research due to volume of applications.
- For images, have one image per page, where possible. By adding multiple images or design elements, your artwork may be more difficult to see clearly.