The Manitoba Arts Council (MAC) uses the peer assessment process to award most grants. That means that qualified artists and arts professionals make the funding decisions.
Peer Assessment
As a steward of public funds, MAC endeavours to make the best possible use of its resources. To ensure that funding decisions are made fairly and are grounded in the artistic community it serves, MAC uses peer assessment. Peer assessment is the cornerstone of the granting process.
Peer assessors are qualified professional artists or arts professionals with experience and knowledge relevant to the applications under consideration. They are individuals capable of making an informed assessment of the comparative merits of grant applications and advising on priorities for funds. Judgments regarding artistic merit, impact, and feasibility are complex and depend upon the assessors’ aesthetic and cultural perspectives and artistic experience. Entrusting peers with granting decisions allows MAC to involve the arts community directly in its operations, while making decisions at arm’s length from the government and from the competing interests of the applicants.
Read MAC’s Peer Assessment HandbookApply to become a Peer Assessor
To ensure diversity of opinion and artistic expression, the Manitoba Arts Council maintains an extensive database of potential assessors from Manitoba and from across Canada. All professional artists, arts/cultural professionals, and Indigenous Knowledge Keepers are invited to create an assessor profile on our Online Application System for inclusion in this database.
Note: Anyone with an active profile in MAC’s Online Application System is included in this database. If you do not have a profile and would like to be considered as a potential peer assessor for the Manitoba Arts Council, we invite you to submit an assessor profile in our system for inclusion in this database.
