Otherworld 2023 Grant Applications are OPEN!
We are excited for you to bring the magic of art to Otherworld 2023.
Grants close March 31st.
The Kindle Arts Society believes that everyone is an artist.
By envisioning a world that fosters creative expression, Kindle Arts endeavours to make the creation of art more accessible to our members and the greater community. As a community of volunteers, we produce events not only to raise funds for the creation of art, but also to showcase our artists. We endeavour to host annual events in the spring, summer and fall, as long as we have enough dedicated volunteers step forward.
The Kindle Arts Society awards grants to:
- Provide funding to members of our community to create art, and then present the opportunity to exhibit their art at our events.
- Provide funding to help facilitate workshops and activities for our community at our events
- Provide support for event-specific projects/theme camps/soundstages/performances/ect. that are centered around our events.
Kindle Arts is proud to provide grants to nurture the creative spark in everyone. Here is your opportunity to bring something inspiring, engaging, amusing, seductive, or whimsical to influence and inspire your community.
Projects must be presented within 1 year of funding at one of Kindle Arts events.
Contact us at grants@kindlearts.ca for questions about Art Grants.
NEW: travel@kindlearts.ca now handle travel grants questions and applications.
Quick Grants
The short application form is used for mini-grants and refurbishment grants.
Mini-grants are awarded in amounts up to $250.
Refurbishment/resupply grants are awarded in values up to $750. Unlike a full grant, you only need to supply a cost estimate and receipts. If you are requesting more than the maximum, you must follow the same procedure as to create a new project.
Mini-Grant
Up to $250
Refurbish or Resupply
Up to $750
Standard Grants
The Standard Grants are at fixed dollar amounts. The long form application is used, which includes documentation to help our grants jury evaluate your proposal in the event that we have more requests for funding than we have budget available.
Small
$500
Medium
$750
Large
$1000
XLarge
$1200
XX-Large
$1500
XXX-Large
$2000
Kindle Arts endeavours to provide projects with their requested level of funding.
However, given the limited amount of funds available, and an anticipated large pool of applications, we may not be able to grant all projects at the level of funding requested. In some cases, the grants team may elect to move projects into the next lower funding tier. Example: from Large to Medium, or Medium to Small. You must apply for a tier that is less than your overall estimated project cost. Start thinking about how you will pay for the rest. Example: hosting fundraisers/collecting camp fees/out of pocket/ect…
Please note, that as a participant-driven-non-profit, Kindle Arts Society does not provide grant money for event tickets, and successful grant recipients are not entitled to complimentary event tickets. Everyone buys their ticket, and that money is then returned to our community through our grants program and by hosting future events.
To apply for a Kindle Arts grant, please read this page in its entirety
Accessing Kindle Arts grant funding is not difficult. Ensure you have addressed all of the points listed, and answer all of the application questions to the best of your ability. The grants team may seek further information or clarification from you if your application is incomplete or has failed to meet the necessary requirements.
How do I apply?
- First, read this entire page.
- Choose the tier of financial support you are requesting from Kindle Arts and consider whether you would be willing to accept funding at a lower tier. Keep in mind that we may not fully fund your project, and you must apply for a tier that is less than your overall budget.
- Prepare a detailed description of your project. Be sure to include all of the Judging Criteria and Requirements we ask for. Make sure to be as succinct as possible, without leaving anything out.
- Apply online, after reading this entire document in full, by clicking on the link at the very bottom of this page during one of our biannual grant cycles.
Judging Criteria & Requirements
There is a four-point set of Judging Criteria and five Requirements that all Standard Projects must complete:
- The Judging Criteria are: creativity, interactivity, excitement, and social value
- The Requirements are: planning, budget, timeline, clean-up (LNT), and safety.
Please read over these judging criteria and requirements and have your answers prepared before beginning the online application process.
Refurbishment and Mini-grants do not need to complete the full pitch in their short-form application.
Judging Criteria
Creativity
Projects that are clearly derivative works or copies of other projects will not score as high as original ideas and creations.
How original, thoughtful or innovative is your idea?
Interactivity
Interactive art can be any of the following:
- requires human interaction with the piece or with other participants
- transforms the observers into active ‘pARTicipants’
How does this piece allow the viewer to engage with it on several levels?
How thoroughly does it involve the senses (touch, taste, sight, sound, smell)?
Excitement
We prefer to fund projects that evoke a sense of wonder and excitement and encourage projects that are stimulating and provocative.
How totally OMFG excited does this piece make you and why should others want to see this at a Kindle Arts event?
Social Value
Creativity enhances the societies we live in, and art contributes to both our individual and collective health and wellbeing. Art inspires cooperation, collaboration, empathy and tolerance. Creativity brings people together and opens our minds to diversity and inclusion. It helps us strengthen our imaginations, develop our self-expression and build our skills and confidence. Creativity helps us learn more about ourselves, others, and ultimately makes a positive contribution to our society.
How does this project promote social interaction, create conversation and connection?
In this sense, what is its value to the event or our community?
Is it radically inclusive and free from barriers to participation?
Requirements
All applicants must prove that they have the appropriate plans for the following:
Planning
Assure us that you understand the scale of your project and that you have a solid and achievable plan to deliver it.
What is the scale of your project?
What experience do you and/or members of your team have that will assist in creating this project?
How will you transport it to the event?
What happens if some of your team can’t make it to the event to set up?
Will you have adequate storage for the project upon completion?
Timeline
Show us your schedule of incremental goals for completion.
What are the major milestones towards completion of your project?
Clean-Up, Zero Waste and Leave No Trace (LNT)
A core value of our community is “Leave No Trace.”
How do you plan to clean up your project at the event or display site?
How will you minimize the amount of waste you create?
How are you going to get your piece home?
If burning your piece:
How are you going to clean up the debris and fasteners?
What is your plan if the piece doesn’t work or can not be burned? Fire Bans may prevent your burn.
Safety
While a certain amount of risk is accepted by participants at our events, artists and event coordinators alike share the responsibility to ensure projects do not present an unreasonable hazard. Keep in mind that participants may interact with your art in unexpected ways, including climbing on it, moving it, or altering it. Any structure that could reasonably be expected to have people on it must be designed and constructed to the applicable standards required for the intended function. Stages and elevated structures must be to code and must be safe. All fire art & fire performance must be approved by our Fire Arts Safety Team (FAST) before receiving a grant.
Convince us that your project is safe and let us know how you are you going to ensure that it stays that way.
Budget
Please provide us with a detailed breakdown of your project costs. You must prove to our jury why you’re asking for the funding you’ve requested. If our jury can’t understand what you are asking for and how much it costs, it may not be considered for funding. In general, Kindle Arts will not fund your entire project.
We need a complete list of your project costs with a line-item budget. An itemized line budget includes every item you will require for the success of your project, the quantity of each item, and the item’s cost.
Research how much each item costs!
Do you already own the item?
Can the item be borrowed, donated, upcycled from a second hand shop or found used online?
Visual Representations
Visual representations are not required for all projects, however, as a picture is proverbially worth a thousand words we welcome any drawings, plans, pictures and/or sketches to clearly convey your idea to our grants jury. Send images via email to grants@kindlearts.ca. Please include the name of your project in the subject line.
YOU’RE SERIOUSLY GOING TO GIVE ME MONEY TO MAKE ART?
Yes we are, but of course, there is some fine print..
Please continue by reading The Fine Print, Eligible & Ineligible Expenses, Jury Procedure and Conflicts of Interest below…
The Fine Print
You must exhibit your project at a Kindle Arts event within 1 year of funding.
You own your art, but you must exhibit it at one of our events to qualify for a grant.
You make the art, and you retain all ownership of and liability for your project.
You must provide us with photographs of your project at our event!
You must provide Kindle Arts with two photographs of your project at a Kindle Arts event, with permission for Kindle Arts to use for archival or promotional purposes. Photographs are due two weeks after the event you attend. You will not receive your remaining funding without providing these photos. This is a really important step! Seriously, please DO NOT FORGET to take your photos!
Incomplete applications will not be considered.
There’s a lot of work involved and only so much time that our Grants Team has to devote to the process. If you don’t provide the answers to everything we’re asking for, or fail to provide an itemized line budget, it’s unlikely we will consider funding your project.
Receipts are not necessarily required for reimbursement, however please keep all receipts in case we request to see them.
Project costs must be reasonable and detailed. Refurbishment Grants and Standard Grants over $750 will be asked to file their receipts and costs with us, and in general our Grants Leads or the Kindle Arts Society Board of Directors may request a more detailed accounting of projects, which will require receipts to back up the costs provided.
Late applications will not be considered.
Do not wait until the last minute to submit your application. An advantage to submitting your application early during a grant round, is that our Grants Leads can work with you to resolve any issues with your application before the jurying process. If you wait until the last minute, it doesn’t leave time to fix any concerns that might arise.
You agree to respond in a reasonably timely manner to communications from our Grants Leads.
We may need to discuss specific aspects of your project, or check in on major milestones. This means we’d like to hear back from you within 48 hours, even if it’s just, “Hey, I got your message and will get back to you over the weekend.” We are all volunteers, and our job is not to chase you down.
You are expected to return all grant funding in full if your project cannot be completed, installed or performed at one of our events, as outlined in your application.
If you realize you are going to be unable to complete your project as described, please communicate with us as soon as possible at grants@kindlearts.ca. We would always rather support your project than get our money back. Unused grant funding is expected to be returned within one year of disbursement. If you are not going to use the grant money for it’s intended purpose, you have to give it back. Incomplete grants or outstanding obligations are ineligible for grant funding.
All successful applicants are contractually obliged to abide by our Kindle Arts Grants Agreement.
PLEASE READ: Grants Agreement
Eligible Expenses
Art can be almost anything. It can have utility and serve an observable function, can simply be about beauty and process, or can otherwise get people participating in various activities. It can be a painting, sculpture, a prop or costume for a performance, or supplies for an activity. As long as it is open to all participants at our event, it will be considered for funding.
Grants are given to cover the costs of raw materials for construction or exhibition of the project.
Examples: component parts you need to create the art like wood, metal, fabric, glass, lighting, electronics, nails, fasteners, wires, cables, tubing, stakes, decorative items, etc.
Grants may be used to offer participatory experiences.
Examples: Supplies for your poi making workshop, rope for your shibari class, body paint for your zombie yoga, plaster for your body part casting workshop, alginate lube for slippery wrestling, etc.
Grants can be used for consumable items that are depleted during the construction or exhibition of your project.
Examples: sandpaper, saw blades, drill bits, adhesives, paints, paint brushes, ect.
Fuel for fire art used at our events may be eligible for our Fire Arts Fuel Fund.
Grants may be used for Theme Camps.
Examples: Basic needs for decor and infrastructure are currently eligible for grants. Large Theme Camp infrastructure intended to benefit all participants such as stages, generators/alternative energy systems, sound systems, facades and artworks will likely be supported.
Make us excited about the experience your camp is going to offer to the participants at our events.
Theme Camps are highly encouraged to host their own fundraisers and/or collect camp fees in order to help raise funds for their camp!
Limited gifts of food for all participants at our events may be funded.
Examples: A popcorn cart, guerilled cheese stand, or other foods/snacks that anyone may access would likely be supported. A pig roast for your theme camp that only feeds the members of your camp would not.
Special note about food: Your application must clearly show how you are going to keep food safe and not make participants sick. You assume all liability associated with distributing food and agree to follow all established best practices related to food acquisition, storage, preparation, handling, cooking, and serving. All food handlers must wash their hands before touching anything food-related. Food also requires more rigorous Leave No Trace planning, as it can attract wildlife and pests.
Please share your gifts of food, but do so responsibly.
Grants may be used for project expenses such as heavy equipment or truck rentals for one of our events.
We encourage projects to openly communicate their transport needs and join forces with other projects that are looking for the same.
If traveling from further up-Island or off-Island, fuel & ferry costs attributed to bringing your project to and from a Kindle Arts event may be considered for our Travel Aid Fund, to help remove the travel costs as a barrier to pARTicipation at our events on Vancouver Island.
Ineligible Expenses
Tickets to Kindle Arts events.
Everyone buys their tickets. That money is then returned to our community through our grants program and by hosting future events.
The cost of labour or tools.
We generally will not reimburse for the cost of tools. If you need to use specialized tools (bandsaw, welder, table saw, etc.) there are members of our community who may be able to offer advice or access to this kind of equipment. If you can’t find anything on your own, get in touch with us and we’ll see if we can help point you in the right direction.
No outfitting your shop. No paid help. No payment for artist’s time or for performers to appear.
Funding for alcohol or other intoxicants, or delivery systems for the same.
No booze, keg systems, hookahs, ect.
Anything that is unreasonably hazardous or illegal.
No knife throwing machines, rocket propelled chainsaws, ect…
Jury Procedure
Once received, the applications are sorted into event-specific grants. They are reviewed by our Grants Leads for any obvious issues or unsupportable requests. Once the grant round closes, grant applications are then sent to our Grants Jury members. The jury then records their votes and comments for each project within each tier. The Lead then schedules a Jury Meeting. The applications are discussed and final funding decisions are arrived at by the jury.
Our Leads communicate the funding results individually to each successful applicant, the Grant Agreements are sent, signed and finalized. If any grant applications are unsuccessful, they are notified at this time.
In order to receive the awarded funds, recipients must sign a completed Kindle Arts Grant Agreement, which lays out the expectations of both parties, and return it to the Grants Lead within one week. Once the agreement has been received by the Grants Lead, our Kindle Arts Treasurer will be advised to distribute 50% of the grant amount to the recipient.
After the event has been completed and all expectations outlined within the agreement, including photo requirements and Leave No Trace requirements have been met, our Treasurer will be advised to release the remaining 50% of the grant amount.
Kindle Arts expects recipients to have their photos submitted no later than two weeks after the event they attend.
Conflicts of Interest
Ours is a small (yet growing) community, and it will be inevitable that some jurors will be involved with some projects in some capacity. Jurors who have a conflict of interest will not be allowed to vote on these projects, and are required to recuse themselves from the jurying of any projects they are involved with.
When in doubt, we ask all jurors to disclose any apparent or real conflicts of interest to our Grants Leads.
All applications should remain anonymous, and we ask that you refrain from using any names that may point towards any individual or group. Give us only the contact information we ask for. This information remains hidden from all jury members.
If you have any questions please check the Otherworld Art Grants FAQ. If you still have questions or comments please contact grants@kindlearts.ca
Is the current grant round open?
Click the link below to apply:
The above grants are at fixed dollar amounts. The long form application is used, which includes documentation to help our grants jury evaluate your proposal in the event that we have more requests for funding than we have budget available.