Support materials are samples of current work that are either relevant to your grant application or help give context for your grant application. They may include the work or activities of other key artists or partners involved in your project.
Make sure you obtain the permission of any other artists involved in the creation of the work before including it in your application. You must also credit the artists in collaborative projects, and any artists that appear or are heard in the support materials provided if necessary.
Support material may include:
- samples of your writing
- images and/or videos of your artwork
- audio recordings
- catalogues
- books
- reviews
If you are working in a new medium or genre, choose the strongest samples of your work that demonstrate the highest artistic quality. You may choose to include earlier work/activities to provide context for your application. Arts educators and artists applying to teach or work in the community should provide examples of work created in similar projects, such as workshops you may have led, sample lesson plans, etc.
For most MAC’s grant applications, you must submit a minimum of one and a maximum of three items of support material.
The following count as one item:
Up to 5 digital images
Up to 15 pages of text
Up to 4 minutes of audio or video
For instance, your three items can be a total of 15 images, or 45 pages of text, or 12 minutes of audio/video. You can also submit a combination of images, text, and recordings, as long as it falls within these limits.
Materials that are more than the allowable limits will not be distributed to the assessors. For example, an 11:34 minute video or audio recording will be stopped at exactly 4:00 minutes, which may mean it will be cut in mid-scene or mid-sentence.
File types allowed
- Images: tiff, jpeg, gif, png, bmp, jpg, tif; maximum file size: 10 MB
- Text: pdf; maximum file size: 5 MB
- Audio/Video: aac, avi, mp3, wav, mov, mp4, m4v; maximum file size: 500 MB
- For audio/video files, you may also enter a link toward Vimeo, YouTube, SoundCloud or Bandcamp.
File descriptions
All support material must be documented in the online form. Please include the following information:
- Images: date produced, title of work, applicant’s role, file name, dimensions, medium
- Audio/Video: date produced, title of work, applicant’s role, file name, running time
- Text: date produced, title of work, applicant’s role, file name, number of pages
File naming conventions
Ensure that the file names provided in the online form match the names of the files you are submitting.
- File names must not exceed 60 characters
- File names must not contain the following:
- ` ~ ! @ # $ % ^ & * ( ) = + [ { ] } \ | ; : ‘ “ , < . > / ?
- Labeling in the following format will ensure your material is viewed in the correct sequence. Numbering should correspond with the order on your support material list.
- Number the first nine files beginning with zero
- Include your initials (e.g. dg)
- Include the title of the work
- Example: 01dgTitle, 02dgTitle, 03dgTitle…
Why does MAC not accept links as support material?
For your security and ours
MAC has no control over external websites or their content, including malicious content like viruses, spam, spyware, and beyond. Since malicious content is hard to identify, we only accept links from vetted sites.
Additionally, by including a link as support material, you could unintentionally give others access to your personal information (i.e. public document on a Dropbox or Google Drive).
Fairness of applications
There are a few reasons why we limit the amount of support material an applicant can submit with their application.
- One deadline for all applicants
Content on external sites can be edited at any time. To ensure that the content submitted on the deadline has not been changed, we limit the kinds of external links that applicants can submit. - Relevance
MAC has set maximums for the quantity of support material you can submit. Some applicants may include links to external sites to bypass these maximums. Instead, we want you to take care in selecting a few pieces of support material that best represent the work you will undertake with this grant. - Time of the assessors
MAC’s assessors make a significant time commitment when participating in an assessment panel. To respect their time, and ensure each application is considered equally, we ask that applicants follow the set maximums for support material submitted and not include additional material through external links.
Assessor anonymity – external site monitoring
MAC’s assessment process is confidential. Some external sites provide tracking information that can divulge an assessor’s identity to the applicant when reviewing support material. To ensure assessor anonymity, external links to unvetted websites are not allowed.
