A 650-hour paid placement for an emerging Indigenous artist or cultural worker, with an Indigenous or racialised mentor attached.
CultivART puts $20,000 into a Montreal organisation so it can host an emerging Indigenous artist or cultural worker for about six months, with a mentor paid separately to accompany them.
One detail matters and is easy to miss: the intern and the mentor do not have to live on the island of Montreal. Only the host organisation does.
CAM pays the host organisation $20,000, split three ways. $12,500 covers the intern's fees at $19.23 an hour. Up to $5,000 goes to the mentor for roughly 150 hours at $33.33 an hour, paid in two instalments. $2,500 covers what hosting actually costs, such as a workstation, software or equipment.
The placement totals 650 hours including the time with the mentor, usually across about six months, and it can be stretched over a year if that suits the intern better. Roles can be in management, curation, project development, artistic assistance, communications, production or market development.
The mentor is Indigenous or racialised: an Elder recognised by their community, someone with professional experience inside arts organisations, or a recognised cultural leader. CAM funds about five placements a year.
- ·THE APPLICANT IS AN ORGANISATION, and a circus or dance company counts. Artistic research and creation or production are both eligible mandates, alongside specialised or multidisciplinary diffusion including artist centres and galleries, cultural periodicals, events and festivals, museums, and service organisations supporting the arts or Indigenous communities.
- ·The organisation has to be a non-profit corporation or a non-profit artist cooperative that pays no dividend, with its head office on the island of Montreal, and a board that is majority Canadian citizens or permanent residents. An Indigenous organisation needs a board that is majority First Nations, Inuit or Métis usually resident in Quebec. A for-profit incorporated company does not qualify.
- ·Not eligible: an artist offering a placement in a personal capacity, an artist collective wanting to host an intern, public and parapublic bodies, libraries, teaching and training organisations, and organisations working exclusively in variety or comedy.
- ·The intern must be an Indigenous artist or cultural worker, First Nations, Inuit or Métis of Canada, living in Canada. Montreal residence is not required.
- ·The mentor must be an Indigenous or racialised artist or cultural worker, a Canadian citizen or permanent resident, living in Canada.
- ·Forming the trio of organisation, intern and mentor before filing is preferred but not required. An organisation selected without one can run its own call afterwards, with CAM's Indigenous arts committee keeping a say over the choice.
- ·One placement per organisation, for one intern. You cannot propose someone you have already paid for more than one project.
- ·Circus is on the eligible discipline list, with street arts, digital arts, film and video, dance, literature, music, theatre, visual arts, non-disciplinary practices and the multidisciplinary sector.