May 1, 2023 deadline
General Expert Panel comments
The following comments provide a summary of the panel’s assessment and do not necessarily relate to every application submitted to this deadline. The panel does not provide individual comments.
The panel felt the overall quality of the applications was high and appreciated the scope of arts activities proposed for residency projects in schools.
Panelists prioritized funding for projects where schools demonstrated:
- activities acknowledged appropriate cultural representation;
- programming was delivered by actively practicing artists, with demonstrated experience in arts delivery, rather than hobbyists or amateurs;
- projects addressed specific barriers to schools that make it difficult for their students to experience arts outside of the residency project, i.e., access to arts opportunities, lack of arts specialists on staff, socioeconomic factors, and language barriers;
- the challenges facing students participating in the arts, i.e., lack of budget, limited arts specialists on staff;
- projects left students and staff with skills and techniques that extend beyond the duration of the residency and leave a greater lasting impact on students and the school community;
- students were taught and involved in all aspects of the artistic and creative process;
- proposals were tailored specifically to address the unique benefits to the individual schooll, its students specific to each grade, and how the artist differentiated each grade;
- projects did not favour facilitating artists’ own work or artistic visions over student learning, skill development, or collaborative creative processes;and,
- schools in rural communities that had less access to art programming.
Future applicants can strengthen their submissions by:
- providing specific resumes/bios of the artist in residence instructors, so panelists can assess suitability for the 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;
- describing the school’s existing and/or specialized programming and its connections within its community;
- projects that linked to Alberta Curriculum;
- ensuring proposals are clear, readable, and have been proofread to correct any typos, grammatical errors, and inconsistent formats; and,
- writing a customized project description rather than relying on cut-and-paste information from the artist or organization leading the residency.
