The School Touring Program (STP) is available to individual professional artists, collaborations of individual professional artists, professional arts groups, and professional not-for-profit arts organizations to support the touring of productions to schools throughout Newfoundland and Labrador. Offered in partnership with the Newfoundland and Labrador Department of Education’s Cultural Connections Strategy, the program provides students with direct access to high quality artistic experiences. The program covers touring costs only (i.e., travel, accommodation, per diems, artist and technician fees, tour administration, royalties, and limited rehearsal). This program is open to all artistic disciplines served by ArtsNL dance, film, multidiscipline, music, theatre, visual arts, and writing.
Application Deadline:
June 15 for projects in the upcoming school year (September to June). Projects must start on/after September 15. If an application deadline falls on a weekend or holiday, the deadline will be moved to the next business day.
Completed applications must be submitted through the ArtsNL online application system by 11:59 pm on the application deadline. Late or incomplete applications will not be accepted. Note that technical support from ArtsNL will be available ONLY until 4:30 pm on application deadlines.
Program Funding:
Typically, $75,000 is awarded annually. The maximum grant request is $20,000.
How to Apply:
All applicants must register on the ArtsNL Online Application System before they can complete an online application form. The registration must be reviewed by ArtsNL staff to confirm eligibility for ArtsNL funding. Registrants will be notified via email when their registration is approved. This process typically takes up to two business days to complete. ArtsNL staff may request additional documentation or information from a registrant to confirm eligibility. If documentation has been requested, the registrant will not be approved until the requested documentation has been submitted and reviewed by ArtsNL staff.
All applications for ArtsNL funding must be submitted through the ArtsNL Online Application System. Paper applications will no longer be accepted. Applicants who may need support using the Online Application System are encouraged to contact ArtsNL staff well before an application deadline to allow time to familiarize them with the online system, or to arrange accessibility support. Video tutorials giving an overview of the online system, and how to complete an application for each program are available on the ArtsNL YouTube channel.
Program Contact:
For questions, or to arrange a meeting regarding an application, contact:
Katrina Rice
Senior Program Officer
Phone: (709) 726-2212 ext. 2
Toll-free in NL only: 1 (866) 726-2212 ext. 2
katrina@artsnl.ca
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
Who can apply to the School Touring Program ?
Definition of a professional artist:
A person shall be considered to be a professional artist if that person satisfies 4 of the following criteria, including at least one of the criteria referred to in paragraphs (a) to (c):
(a) the person receives or has received compensation which can be included in professional or business income;
(b) the person has a record of income or loss relevant to the history of his or her work and appropriate to the span of his or her artistic career;
(c) the person has received public or peer recognition by publicly disseminated critical reviews or appraisals or by similar means;
(d) the person has presented his or her work to the public by means of exhibitions, publications, screenings, performances, readings, or by other means appropriate to the nature of his or her work;
(e) the person is represented by a dealer, publisher, agent or similar professional representative appropriate to the nature of his or her work;
(f) the person devotes a reasonable proportion of his or her professional time to promoting or marketing his or her work;
(g) the person
(i) has received professional training in an educational institution from a practitioner recognized in his or her profession, or
(ii) is self-taught within the established practices of the person’s cultural traditions;
(h)Â the person has membership in a professional association, appropriate to his or her artistic activity,
(i) whose membership is or categories of membership are limited under standards of the association, or
(ii) which is a trade union or equivalent appropriate to his or her artistic activity; and
(i) the person holds copyright in his or her own work and has received royalty or residual payment based on that copyright.
Definition of a professional arts group:
 A group of individual artists who work in one or more of the artistic disciplines supported by ArtsNL:
- that has the creation and/or presentation of works of art as its primary activity
- that is composed of at least two individuals
- that has all members meeting ArtsNL’s definition of a professional artist
- that charges artist fees at established national standards for the artistic discipline(s) and practice in which it operates
- that pays individual members artist fees at established national standards for the artistic discipline(s) and practice in which it operates
- that has internal oversight of the group’s finances and can produce an annual financial statement
Definition of a professional not-for-profit arts organization:
A formal organization operating in one or more of the artistic disciplines supported by ArtsNL
- that has the creation and/or presentation of works of art as its primary activity
- that is registered, or operates as a non-profit arts entity
- that has a board of directors overseeing the operations of the organization
- that has a paid artistic director, general manager, or equivalent
- that pays artist fees at established national standards for the artistic discipline(s) and practice in which it operates
- that has internal or external oversight of the organization’s finances and produces an annual financial statement
Residency, age and activity requirements:
Professional individual artist:
- Must be a current resident of Newfoundland and Labrador for a minimum of twelve consecutive months at the time of application
- Must be at least 18 years of age or hold post-secondary standing
- Must have been active in Newfoundland and Labrador for a minimum of one year at the time of submitting an application
- Must have actively engaged in professional arts activities within the last year
- Must have at least half its members (for groups) or member artists and board members (for organizations)Â who are at least 18 years of age, or have post-secondary standing
How are applications assessed?
Applications are assessed by a multidisciplinary peer assessment committee, typically consisting of five to seven members. At least one peer assessor will be from outside the province. Decisions are reviewed and ratified by Council. Government members of Council and ArtsNL staff do not vote on funding decisions.
Can I apply if I owe a final report on a past grant?
A final report on all grants awarded by ArtsNL is typically required within three months of the project end date listed on the application form. A final report form is available on ArtsNL’s online application system.
When applying for new funding from ArtsNL, an applicant is permitted to have one final report owing across all ArtsNL programs. In this instance, a final report is considered owing on any past grant awarded by ArtsNL that is past the end date listed on the application or extended on approval of ArtsNL staff before the current application deadline. Applicants owing more than one final report across all ArtsNL programs will not be permitted to apply for further funding from ArtsNL.
Grant Criteria
Program guidelines STP:
- Applications must be submitted using ArtsNL’s online application system. Paper copies cannot be submitted.
- Incomplete or late application submissions will not be accepted.
- Applicants are encouraged to book a meeting (by telephone, video conference, or in person) with program staff to discuss their application well before the application deadline.
- Only one application per artist, collaboration, group, or organization will be accepted per annual application deadline.
- Applicants are expected to explore other sources of revenue. Applicants may not always be awarded the full amount requested.
- Complete STP applications include:
i. Tour title.
ii. Brief summary of the touring project (max. 400 words).
iii. Tour start and end dates.
iv. Detailed description of your tour including a timeline, information on the presentation you wish to tour, statement of the why the tour is important and the impacts it will offer schools, and enrichment workshops in the arts offered to students (max. 5,000 words).
v. List of potential schools you plan to visit on the tour.
vi. Detailed tour budget, and;
vii. Résumé/bio for each artist involved in the project, and/or each member of a collaboration or group that confirms a professional arts practice for each individual.
viii. Support material of the presentation to be shown to students.
For Groups and Organizations ONLY (in addition to the above):
ix. History of the group or organization (max. 1,000 words).
x. A list of your current board of directors (for organizations) or group members (for groups), including province of residency for each individual.
xi. Financial statement for the group’s last completed fiscal year that includes a listing of revenues, expenses, annual surplus or deficit, and accumulated surplus or deficit.
- Group or organization applicants whose financial statement shows a surplus or deficit of greater than 25% of the organization’s total expenses in its last fiscal year must submit a deficit or surplus reduction plan to be approved by ArtsNL staff.
- Applicants may include support materials with their application. These should relate to the project for which you are seeking funding and must be in an acceptable format for upload to ArtsNL’s online application system. Support material must be uploaded as part of your application by or before the application deadline date.
- Retroactive applications cannot be considered. The project, as described in your application, cannot start before you have been notified it has been funded by ArtsNL.
- Capital costs (e.g., purchase of lighting and sound equipment, computers, instruments) are not eligible for funding.
- Applicants will receive an email within three weeks of the submission of an application to confirm if the application is eligible for funding and will be sent to peer assessors for review.
- ArtsNL funding will only support travel based on the most economical route possible (i.e., the cheaper overall travel cost for driving versus flying).
- Fees and travel costs can only be considered for individuals who are18 years of age or older.
- ArtsNL travel rates:
i. Current provincial mileage rate is embedded in the application budget form
ii. Per diem for travel within Newfoundland and Labrador: Maximum $49/day ($9.80 breakfast, $14.70 lunch, $24.50 dinner)
iii. Per diem for travel outside Newfoundland and Labrador: Maximum $55/day ($11.00 breakfast, $16.50 lunch, $27.50 dinner)
- A full grant of $20,000 requires at least ten presentations/performances, or seven if the tour includes one or more stops in Labrador or communities on the south coast of the island that are not accessible by road. At least two-thirds of the presentations/performances must be in rural schools.
- Applicants are required to include workshops and/or enrichment activities that allow students to actively explore an art form as part of their visit to a school.
- All projects are partnerships between a professional artist/group/organization and a school. As such, teacher(s) are required to be present in the classroom and participating in the project as fully as possible at all times when the artist is working with students.
- Presentations/performances must be for students only. They must be designed for school audiences and must be age-appropriate in presentation and subject.
- Schools and individual students must not be charged a fee for the presentation/performance.
- Presentations/performances should enhance or support aspects of the school curriculum and explore Newfoundland and Labrador culture, past or present.
- Successful applicants must submit emailed confirmation from the schools they will visit before a grant payment will be released.
- Final reports on all past ArtsNL grants must be submitted before ArtsNL will release funding for a new project.