By Tracey Longbottom
The Manitoba Arts Council’s Learn – Travel and Professional Development program allows Manitoba artists and arts/cultural professionals to attend, engage, or participate in activities related to the development of their artistic practice/careers. Activities can include local, national, or international opportunities for all phases of professional development.
The Program
The Travel and Professional Development program supports professional artists and arts/cultural professionals in all disciplines for activities related to the development of their practice or careers.
Grant amounts
This program allows you to apply for a grant of up to $ 1,000. Previously, a Travel and Professional Development Grant could only represent 50% of your project’s total budget. Now you can apply for up to 100% of the project’s expenses, to a maximum of $1,000.
Who can apply
In order to apply to the Travel and Professional Development program, you must be a professional artist or an arts/cultural professional. That means you must have a valid profile as an individual on MAC’s Online Application System. To give yourself enough time, make sure that you submit your profile to MAC at least 15 business days before you want to start your application.
What you can apply for
If your project involves workshops, special training, mentorships, public readings, or a presentation this could be the program for you! This grant can help you cover direct costs related to your current project.
Note: Writers who previously applied to the Public Readings by Manitoba Writers program will now apply to the Travel and Professional Development program.
When you can apply
The Travel and Professional Development program will have eight deadlines in a given calendar year. These will stay the same from year to year starting in 2019. The deadlines for the Travel and Professional Development program are January 15, March 1, April 15, June 1, July 15, September 1, October 15, and December 1.
For this year, we are offering a one-time only deadline for Travel and Professional Development applications on November 21st, 2018.
Applications for all MAC programs must be submitted by 11:59 PM on the day of the deadline. Previously, if an application deadline fell on a weekend or holiday, it would be moved to the following business day. This allowed applicants to deliver or mail their paper application during regular business hours. Now that applications will be submitted online, deadline dates will be fixed.
How decisions are made
Your application to the Travel and Professional Development program will be assessed by an internal committee. This committee will use the following criteria to evaluate your proposed project:
- Artistic Merit (50%)
- Impact (30%)
- Feasibility (20%)
If you’re interested in reading up on MAC’s evaluation process, you should check out our Peer Assessment Handbook.
Applied to MAC before?
Still wondering if this program is right for your project? Our new programs continue to fund the kinds of activities that were supported in our previous programs.
Specifically, the Travel and Professional Development grant supports most of the activities that were eligible in the following programs:
- Travel/Professional Development Grant
- Public Readings by Manitoba Writers (for individuals)
- Indigenous Arts Mentorship, Training, and Development Grant
If your still not sure, get in touch with us. We would be happy to help you!
Take Away:
- Eight application deadlines
- A public reading is an eligible activity
- You can now apply for up to 100% of your project’s expenses, to a maximum of $1,000.
- You must have a valid professional artist profile or an arts/cultural professional profile to apply.
