Ask and ye may be given

It's always assumed that if small magazine publishers are good at anything, it is taking maximum advantage of support programs for which they are eligible. But is that the case?

Taking just one program, in one province, which is the home to many literary and cultural magazines, here is the record of grants given out by the Compass mentorship and technical assistance program of the Ontario Arts Council.

According to information on the OAC's website, of 123 grants and nearly $1 million given out to various arts organizations in the past two years, about 2.5% went to cultural magazines. There is no information on how many applied.

Fair disclosure: the author of this log has received funds from some of these magazines as the result of this program.