Ford government claws back money from the Ontario Arts Council.

About 10 years ago, Ontario's Culture Ministry announced a $5 million funding boost to the budget of the Ontario Arts Council. It brought the government's annual support of the OAC to about $60 million.

This week, the Conservative  government cut funding to the OAC by $5 million, dropping the base funding for 2018-19 to $65 million.

In addition. after barely a year in existence, the goverment has slashed in half the Indigenous Culture Fund from $5 million to $2.75 million in 2018-19. 
Go figure.

Ontario Arts Council applications will now all be submitted online through new website

The Ontario Arts Council has launched a new website that will be home to its new online application Nova; all of the approximately 12,000 grant applications each year will now be submitted online. Some of the 2017 application deadlines have changed. Applications may be done two months in advance of the program deadlines. 

The new website and online application complement the major reworking of the OAC's funding framework which was recently announced and launched. (Some 31 magazines received funding in 2015 for a total of $574,383.)

Ontario Arts Council will be launching new online application and management system in December

For literary and cultural magazines based in Ontario, there is a new online application and management system being launched by the Ontario Arts Council in December. The new system is called Nova and it will eventually eliminate much of the paperwork which has characterized the past OAC funding system. Most modifications will be implemented in funding rounds in 2017-18. Some 2017 program deadlines will have new deadline dates. 

The new application system is consistent with the new framework under four, already-announced, funding streams. 

"The OAC will launch a new website in mid-December to coincide with the shift to Nova," says an OAC release. "The website will be much easier to navigate than OAC’s current site – for example, you will soon be able to search for granting programs based on type of activity, priority group and more."

 Magazines receive either multi-year operating or annual operating funding and they are eligible for project support. In the most recent published results (2015) 31 publications received total support of $574,383.

Ontario Arts Council literature officer lasted less than two months in the job

[This post has been updated] Michael Schellenberg is no longer the literature officer of the Ontario Arts Council, according to a brief item from Quill & Quire site. This, after being in the job less than two months. 

The abrupt departure may be considered puzzling, even alarming, to the many nationally and regionally important cultural magazines based in Ontario which depend on the OAC for part of their operating funding. 

"According to OAC director of communications Kirsten Gunter, program deadlines and assessment panels remain on schedule," said Q&Q. "Details about interim management of the office will be released over the next few days."

According to the OAC's announcement of his appointment on April 4, Schellenberg had been freelancing as a publishing consultant in New York, and as an editor, teacher and writer. Before that, he was associate publisher at Alfred Knopf Canada from 2003 to 2011 and senior editor at Penguin Canada from 1998 to 2003.  

[Update: The job has been posted by the OAC.]

Ontario Arts Council celebrates 50th anniversary

The Ontario Arts Council is celebrating  its 50th anniversary this year (its founding legislation was passed April 26, 1963) and it's worth celebrating its development and sustaining of nationally important literary and cultural magazines. 

Through its Grants to Periodicals program and through ancillary programs such as Compass, it has quietly strengthened magazine publishing in this country. (See the list of recent grant recipients.)

Ontario Arts Council employees form a union

Employees of the Ontario Arts Council have formed a union. A new bargaining unit has been established as part of  The Association of Management, Administrative and Professional Crown Employees of Ontario (AMAPCEO) following a vote supervised by the Ontario Labour Relations Board held on February 6. The new union covers granting, communications, research, outreach, administrative and finance staff employed at the OAC's Bloor Street headquarters in Toronto as well as two representatives in Sudbury and Thunder Bay. This includes staff in the literature office, which most often interacts with literary and cultural magazines. 

The union was established in 1992 and represents employees both inside the Ontario public service and outside of it: such agencies as the Provincial Advocate for Children and Youth; Waypoint Mental Health Centre in Penetanguishene; Public Health Ontario; the Ontario Racing Commission; and Health Quality Ontario.

"We are honoured that the OAC staff chose AMAPCEO," said Association President and CEO Gary Gannage in a release. "The OAC and its employees do important work in promoting the arts and providing funding to the arts community in Ontario. A collective agreement will go a long way to ensure that they are able to focus on those responsibilities and continue to serve their stakeholders without having to worry about job security, working conditions and compensation." 

Ontario cultural magazines may benefit from $5 million increase in OAC funding

Funding for the Ontario Arts Council this year is to be increased by $5 million, bringing it to $55 million for 2008/09. The announcement was made by Ontario Culture Minister Aileen Carroll at a reception for Kingston area artists. The 2007 Ontario budget had previously included an additional $5 million increase in 2009/10, which means the OAC budget in that year will now be $60 million.

It is not yet known what portion of that extra $5 million will be finding its way into support for the 30+ cultural magazines that now receive OAC funding under the grants to periodicals program.

In her comments the minister noted that funding to the OAC has increased 140% from the Council’s 2003-04 budget of $25 million. This is true, but does not bring OAC funding back to the levels before the Mike Harris-era cutbacks. Carroll called on “all levels of government to foster the development and promotion of arts and culture”, something about which it is hard to disagree.

Ontario Arts Council announces major changes to grants to periodicals program

The Ontario Arts Council has revised its guidelines for its Grants to Periodicals Program. There are a number of significant changes, including removing the ceiling on grant amounts, allowing controlled circulation and online magazines to apply, instituting an easier-to-use application process and providing for three-year funding.

[Disclosure: my company, Impresa Communications Limited, did the review of the program on which the new guidelines are based, in part.]

In a memorandum that has gone out to publishers across the province today, here are the highlights:

1. The circulation ceiling funding categories have been eliminated to allow magazines to apply for what they need to publish, promote and distribute. The grant levels will be based on a percentage of their revenues as appropriate to the sector, the program budget, their assessments and the OAC’s current strategies. Grant increases will be phased in over a few years.

2. Grants are generally intended for magazines with circulations below 30,000 but exceptions will be made for culturally significant publications that fit all of the other eligibility criteria.

3. Free-circulation magazines will be eligible to apply to the program if they fit all of the other eligibility criteria and if at least 60% of their pages are editorial content and at least 25 per cent of their revenues come from advertising sales or a combination of advertising and circulation sales.

4. Online magazines are eligible to apply if they fit all of the other eligibility criteria, are published on a regular basis and can demonstrate at least 2,000 unique hits per month.

5. The assessment criteria are now Artistic Merit (50% weighting), Impact (25% weighting) and Viability/Governance (25% weighting.

6. The application forms have been modified to better suit the sector and to allow greater ease of application.

7. Three-year funding will become available in 2009/10.