May 1, 2024 deadline
General Expert Panel comments
Comments made by the panel during the assessment of applications are outlined below. Please note these comments provide a summary of the panel’s assessment and do not necessarily relate to every unsuccessful application submitted to this deadline. The panel does not provide individual comments.
Panelists prioritized funding for projects where schools demonstrated:
- activities acknowledged and researched appropriate and respectful cultural representation
- the connection art has on the school’s experience and its learning outcomes
- programming was delivered by actively practicing artists with demonstrated experience in arts delivery, rather than hobbyists or amateurs
- specific barriers to schools, i.e., access to arts opportunities, lack of arts specialists on staff, socioeconomic factors, and language barriers that make it difficult for their students to experience the arts outside of the residency project and how will they address these barriers through the arts
- students were taught and involved in all aspects of the artistic and creative experience, giving the students a creative voice
- proposals were tailored specifically to address the unique benefits to the individual school and its students specific to each grade
- projects did not favour facilitating artists’ own work or artistic visions over student learning, skill development, or collaborative creative processes
- schools in rural communities that had less access to art programming
Future applicants can strengthen their submissions by:
- providing specific resumes/bios of the instructors, rather than general company resumes, so panelists can assess suitability for the proposed project
- demonstrating appropriate representation amongst residency leaders and instructors
- describing how they are engaging appropriate knowledge keepers and Elders
- describing the school’s population, demographics, and values and how many students are impacted and engaging in the art experience
- describing the school’s existing and/or specialized programming and its connections within its community as well as a specific breakdown of activities
- projects that linked to Alberta Curriculum and expand on arts learning outcomes
- ensuring proposals are clear, readable, and have been proofread to correct any typos, grammatical errors, and inconsistent formats
- writing a customized project description rather than relying on cut-and-paste information from the artist or organization leading the residency
