Frequently asked questions

The following questions are updated periodically and are based on common inquiries received at artsnb. 

NOTE: For any information about the programs, please consult the guidelines for each program. 

GENERAL

In order to be eligible for artsnb funding, an applicant must:
  • Be a Canadian citizen, have an affiliation with a First Nation on Turtle Island, be a permanent resident or have a permanent residency in process; and
  • Have resided in New Brunswick for at least one year (12 months) prior to the application deadline.
  • Applicants for all artsnb grant programs except Arts Scholarships must meet the definition of a professional artist (https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/eligibility/)
  • Most of artsnb’s programs require you to qualify as a professional artist according to artsnb’s Definition of a Professional Artist (https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/eligibility/) – the one exception is our Arts Scholarships program, which funds students who intend to become professional artists.
  • If you do not yet qualify as a professional artist under our criteria, you may want to look into the resources available from arts advocacy groups such as ArtsLinkNB, Association acadienne des artistes professionnel.le.s du Nouveau-Brunswick, and Mawi’art Wabanaki Artists Collective – you can read more info on the Opportunities for Artists section on our website (https://artsnb.ca/web/resources/opportunities-for-artists/)
  • artsnb funds projects in any discipline, genre, or style of art. Since most of our grant programs are project-based, this means you can apply for a variety of activities relating to your artistic practice. There is no restriction on the content of the work you are creating, as long as you demonstrate how it fits into the program criteria, and we encourage artists working in a variety of traditional and non-traditional art forms to apply.
These are the artistic disciplines you can choose from in our application process:
  • Architecture
  • Craft
  • Dance
  • Literary Arts
  • Media Arts
  • Multidisciplinary Arts
  • Music
  • Theatre
  • Visual Arts
artsnb uses these disciplines to ensure representation on peer juries. If your practice falls between or outside of these disciplines, or if you work in multiple disciplines, you can select the discipline that is closest to the project being proposed, or consult an artsnb Program Officer for advice (https://artsnb.ca/web/contact/)
In addition to criteria set out in individual program guidelines, the following activities and expenses are not eligible for grants from artsnb:
  • Artistic activities that are led by non-professionals (see above, “Who can apply for artsnb funding?”)
  • Capital expenses such as equipment purchases, unless explicitly eligible (capital expenses are eligible under the Arts Infrastructure and Equinox programs)
  • Exhibition, framing, publishing, and pressing costs
  • Projects produced for the purposes of academic credit or as part of basic training
  • Projects produced as part of the applicant’s work as an employee of a private or public organisation or institution
  • Projects which are intended to form part of a new business, an organization or a production studio with strictly financial goals
  • Be sure to read the detailed program guidelines for the program to which you are applying (available for each program here: https://artsnb.ca/web/programs/)
  • We have an entirely online application system, and you can create an account here: www.artsnb.ca/oa
  • Every artsnb funding program has detailed guidelines on what is eligible, and how to apply. Be sure to read the detailed program guidelines for the program to which you are applying (available for each program here: https://artsnb.ca/web/programs/)
  • We also have a useful section on our website called the Application Toolkit (https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/application-toolkit/) which includes many tips and sample documents.
  • If you have specific disability-related barriers to completing an online grant application, you may be eligible for our Application Assistance Program, which may be used toward specific services and supports in putting together a grant application. More info here: https://artsnb.ca/web/programs/accessibilityandequity/
  • If you still have questions after reading the program guidelines and Application Toolkit, you may be able to schedule a consultation with one of our Program Officers; note that our response times are often slower in the weeks leading up to a competition deadline. https://artsnb.ca/web/contact/) Alternatively, you can attend artsnb Speed-Consulting Sessions every 2nd and 4th Thursday of each month, and ask your questions online to a Program Officer without the need to schedule a consultation (https://artsnb.ca/web/2023/04/artsnb-speed-consulting-sessions/)
Yes – artsnb exists to help artists fund their professional arts practice, which we understand can exist alongside other employment, occupation and/or funding. The economic status of an applicant is irrelevant to the evaluation of their application.
We have a section on our website called Annual Deadlines with a list of all the artsnb program deadlines throughout the year: https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/deadlines/
It depends on what your project is about! We have grants for: More info on all of our granting programs here: https://artsnb.ca/web/programs/
  • Most of artsnb’s grant programs are project-based, which means that you have to propose a specific part or phase of the work that you are hoping to get funded. It’s important to be specific about what you want the money for, as being able to clearly define your goals and expenses will help make an application stronger.
  • You may be able to apply for different phases of the same work overtime (see below, “Can I apply for 2 different grant programs with the same project proposal?”)
You can receive up to one grant per program per fiscal year (April 1 – March 31), as long as the projects are distinct. If you don’t receive a grant in a particular program, you can reapply for any subsequent deadline of that program, or for any other program.
The artsnb Creation program has 3 categories:
  • Category A: Senior or established artists
  • Category B: Mid-career artists
  • Category C: Emerging artists
The eligibility for these categories may be different depending on your artistic discipline, but for the most part it depends on your level of experience/years of practice in your field. If you are not sure which category to apply under, you can consult the Senior, Mid-Career, and Emerging Artist Criteria available on our website (https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/eligibility/)
The grant category you apply for has more to do with your level of experience than with the number of grants you receive. There are two ways to move up into a different category:
  • Your CV and experience as an artist have advanced you into the criteria for a higher category, regardless of how many or if you have received other grants; or,
  • You receive the lifetime maximum of two Category C or four Category B grants, which automatically moves you into the next category. The logic here is that completing those funded projects give you the experience required to move you into another stage in your artistic career.
  • Yes – as long as your projects are distinct, you can apply for multiple programs at the same time (eg one Creation application and one Documentation application for separate projects, both submitted for the same deadline).
  • Note that Career Development has four components which are all treated as separate grant programs; you can apply to all four components for the same deadline, and you can receive up to one grant per component per fiscal year (e.g. one Career Development – Arts by Invitation application and one Career Development – Professionalization and Promotion application for separate projects, both submitted for the same deadline).
  • No, the same project/application cannot be funded by two different grants. Projects that have already received funding from artsnb under the same program or another program are ineligible.
  • Applicants may apply for separate grants for separate phases of a project ONLY if there is no overlap in project expenses between the two grants, and if these phases are clearly defined as separate activities.
Yes, as long as the ongoing project was not funded by the same program to which you are hoping to apply (e.g. you have an ongoing Creation project, and you can still apply to any other program with separate projects).
Applicants with an overdue Final Report from a previous grant must submit their Final Report before submitting a new application for any artsnb program. See details here: https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/if-you-receive-a-grant/.
In this case, the deadline will automatically be extended to the following weekday. In rare cases, there will be a longer extension of the deadline; deadline extensions will be noted on our social media channels and in the monthly newsletter.
First, Program Officers make sure each application received is complete and eligible. Then, they organize a jury for each competition, share the applications with the peer jury members, and are responsible for moderating the peer jury meeting. The Program Officers do not influence the decisions about which applications receive funding. Rather, they offer support to the jury as its members evaluate the feasibility and artistic merit of the applications. Once the jury makes its decisions about the distribution of the available grant budget, Program Officers communicate these results to the applicants via email, contact the grant recipients to issue payments, and prepare a general summary of peer jury feedback for each competition. This summary is published on the artsnb website and provides insight into the jurying process, that may strengthen future applications. Additionally, the Program Officers contribute to artsnb’s outreach efforts by offering presentations and by advising applicants about artsnb programs. The best way to get in touch with a Program Officer is to join an upcoming Speed Consulting session, or to send specific questions by email at prog@artsnb.ca.

PUTTING TOGETHER AN APPLICATION

All of our applications feature the same basic building blocks: a project description, a budget, an artist CV, and samples of work. There may be other documents required; make sure to take a good look at the program description for the program to which you are applying (https://artsnb.ca/web/programs/)
  • The project description is your opportunity to communicate your project to the jury; you have a limit of 350 or 500 words, depending on the program, to describe what you want to do, how you propose to do it, and why you want to undertake this project.
  • The Application Toolkit available on our website (https://artsnb.ca/web/application-toolkit/) includes tips and a sample project description.
  • Think of the Artist CV (Curriculum Vitæ) as a brief record of your artistic activity and achievements. It is a curated summary of your experience as a professional artist and should not include any non-artistic work experience or activities, except if they are linked to your artistic experience.
  • The Application Toolkit available on our website (https://artsnb.ca/web/application-toolkit/) includes tips on writing and formatting a professional artist CV.
  • As much as possible, your samples of work should relate to the project for which you are applying. This is your opportunity to show the jury your artistic merit and your ability to carry out your proposed project. The combined length of samples should not exceed 15 images, or 15 minutes of footage or audio, or 15 pages of text. The jury will be told to spend a maximum of 10 minutes on your samples of work.
  • There are Samples of Work Guidelines included in the program description of each funding program; be sure to carefully read the guidelines.
  • The Application Toolkit available on our website (https://artsnb.ca/web/application-toolkit/) includes tips on how to submit your samples of work.
  • Letters of recommendation should provide an assessment of the applicant’s past artistic achievement and of the artistic merit and feasibility of the proposed activity or project. Anyone can write a letter of recommendation, as long as they are familiar with your artistic work.
  • Letters may be sent by email to prog@artsnb.ca. Recommendation letters must be received by artsnb within one week after the competition deadline.
  • The Application Toolkit available on our website (https://artsnb.ca/web/application-toolkit/) includes a sample recommendation letter.
Yes, as long as you are listed as a collaborator and not as a primary applicant, you can submit an application for another project as primary applicant.
No, you can only be a primary applicant on one application per program.

BUDGET

  • Most of our grant programs include a maximum grant amount you may request, as well as information about eligible expenses, so be sure to thoroughly read the guidelines for the program to which you are applying.
  • A basic budget includes balanced amounts for Expenses, and Revenues. Our online application form includes some pre-set expense lines, including Subsistence, Execution Costs, Travel & Transportation Costs, and pre-set revenue lines including artsnb Grant Requested, and Personal Contribution. You also have the option of uploading a detailed budget breakdown document.
  • The Application Toolkit available on our website (https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/application-toolkit/) includes tips and sample budgets.
Subsistence is a living allowance, or the salary that you may pay yourself as an artist. Most of our grant programs include subsistence as an eligible expense; please consult the detailed program guidelines for program-specific information (https://artsnb.ca/web/programs/)
If your project budget exceeds the total grant amount you are eligible to request under that program, you may include a line under Revenues for “personal contribution” to make the budget balance (e.g. you are applying under Creation Category C, which has a maximum grant amount of $5,500, but your expenses total $6,000. In this case, you should indicate that you are requesting $5,500 from artsnb and include $500 in the line for Personal Contribution to balance the budget or from another source of revenue).

PROJECT TIMELINE

In order to be eligible for an artsnb grant, your project may begin any day after you submit your application. You may submit an application before the deadline if you would like to start your project earlier. Please note that you will still only receive results for your application according to the regular results timeline (see below question “When will I be notified of results?”).
  • After each program deadline, artsnb’s Program Officers verify each submitted application for eligibility and completeness. We may contact you for follow-ups if there are missing elements of your application, or if there are questions of eligibility.
  • After all follow-ups are completed, your application proceeds to evaluation by a peer jury.

EVALUATION OF APPLICATIONS

All of artsnb’s programs are evaluated by juries of professional artists, and there is one or many juries for each competition. Your application will be discussed and ranked by the jury, and the budget envelope for that competition will be disbursed according to that ranking. Juries are asked to evaluate based on two main criteria: Artistic Merit, and Impact and Feasibility.
  • artsnb Program Officers assemble a different jury of 3-4 professional artists to evaluate each competition deadline. Some competitions may have multiple discipline-specific juries, but most are multidisciplinary.
  • Jurors are selected to represent the balance of artistic disciplines, media, and styles submitted, and are also balanced by gender, region, official language, and expertise required.
  • artsnb reports the name of all jurors who have served within the last fiscal year in our Annual Report (https://artsnb.ca/web/about/annual-reports/). We do not identify which jurors correspond to which program deadline, in order to protect the confidentiality of the jury process.
  • To be considered as a potential juror, please complete the following form: https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/juror-application/
  • Jurors are not required to reside in New Brunswick, and you do not need to have received artsnb funding in order to be considered as a potential juror.
  • Artists who have received Creation Category A and B funding from artsnb are automatically added to our list of potential jurors. Please note that emerging artists are not currently accepted as potential jurors.

RESULTS

For the majority of our programs, you will receive an email notifying you of the results within 3 months of the program deadline; the exception is our Career Development program, which has an 8-week turnaround for results.
  • The success rates for each competition are published in a press release soon after results go out to applicants; depending on the number of applications received per program, and depending on the budget for that program, the success rates are usually between 20 and 50%.
  • You can see past press releases on competition results here: https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/past-recipients/
  • Evaluated applications may receive one of these three statuses:
    • Recommended (received funding),
    • Merit (recommended by jury, but did not receive funding), and
    • Not Recommended (did not receive funding).
  • These statuses are assigned to an application based on the jury score; if your application scored below 80, it is not eligible for funding and will have a status of Not Recommended. If your application scored above 80, it is eligible for funding; as the funding is disbursed down the ranking, applications will either be Recommended (receive a grant) or Merit (was eligible for funding and highly scored, but was not ranked high enough to receive funding before the budget was exhausted). Note that application scores are not shared with applicants.
All of our grants are paid out in full by Electronic Funds Transfer. A member of the artsnb team will be in touch with you shortly after you receive your results with more information about this direct deposit process.
An approved/recommended application may be awarded less than the amount requested; this varies from competition to competition, but juries may choose to award partial funding to some or all of the Recommended applications. In this case, they cannot offer less than 60% of the grant amount requested by the applicant.
If your application isn’t successful, it doesn’t necessarily mean that your work lacks merit. Grant assessment is a competitive process and budgets are limited. Remember that every competition has a different set of applicants and a different jury. After artsnb releases the results of its program competitions, general constructive comments and recommendations from the peer jury evaluation of the most recent competition can be found on this page: https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/feedback-from-the-peer-jury/
All of our grants are considered taxable, and we mail out T4As at the end of February every year. If you receive a grant payment between January-December, you can expect a T4A the following February.
If your project has received additional funding that affects the scope of your original application, this usually does not affect an artsnb grant, as long as the budget for the portion of the project proposed remains relatively the same. If you have specific questions or concerns, you can contact one of our Program Officers (https://artsnb.ca/web/contact/)
We request that grant recipients prominently feature visible recognition of artsnb’s support in all materials, publications (including media articles and interviews) and programs of works or performances related to the grant. More info and logos available for download can be found here: https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/if-you-receive-a-grant/

FINAL REPORTS

  • All of our funding programs require a Final Report for a project to be considered complete – once you have finished your project, you need to complete this form before you can apply again for the same program. A Final Report is a simple form with project and budget information, and we also ask for a Description of Completed Project and Documentation of the project (such as photos or videos or excerpts from a manuscript). More info here: https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/if-you-receive-a-grant/
  • Once you submit your Final Report, a member of the artsnb team will get back to you if there are any questions and will let you know if the report is approved.
Once you have finished your project, you should submit your Final Report to artsnb. A Final Report will be considered overdue if one year has passed following the end date of the project as indicated in the application for funding. More info here: https://artsnb.ca/web/grants/if-you-receive-a-grant/
  • A Final Report will be considered overdue if one year has passed following the end date of the project as indicated in the application for funding. If you do not submit a Final Report within that timeline, there is no penalty, but you will not be able to apply for another artsnb grant under any program until you submit the Final Report for your previously funded project.
  • If you apply for a grant and you have an overdue Final Report for a previously funded project, a member of the artsnb team will get in contact with you to ensure that the overdue Final Report is submitted.
  • Funded projects sometimes evolve during the process, and this is usually fine as long as the project remains relatively similar to what was originally proposed; if in doubt, get in touch with an artsnb Program Officer to confirm.
  • If a funded project has been delayed but will still be completed within one year following the proposed project end date, there is no need to inform artsnb.
  • If a funded project has been substantially delayed, you may need to fill out a Project Extension Request form (available here: https://artsnb.ca/web/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Extension_Request_Demande_dextension_Fillable.pdf)
  • If a funded project is cancelled or not completed, the recipient is responsible to reimburse all funds proportionate to the incomplete portion of the project. Such calculations are to be made by artsnb, with all relevant figures and information provided by the recipient.
We have two Accessibility and Equity programs which aim to provide New Brunswick artists with more equitable access to artsnb grant programs: Application Assistance and Access Support. More info here: https://artsnb.ca/web/programs/accessibilityandequity/
There is a button on the Online Application System for “I forgot my password.” If you forgot your username, you can get in touch with an artsnb Program Officer, prog at artsnb.ca to help reset your account.