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Shoshana Wasser

Associate Director of Public Affairs and Communications
416-969-7434
Toll-free in Ontario: 1-800-387-0058

OAC relaunches Chalmers Professional Development Projects program

April 16, 2021


The Ontario Arts Council (OAC) has relaunched the Chalmers Professional Development Projects program. Applications for the June 3 deadline are now open in Nova, OAC’s online grant application system.
 

What is the Chalmers Professional Development Projects program?

This program supports opportunities for Ontario artists at any stage of their career to acquire new or enhance existing artistic skills for their arts practice. It funds all contemporary and traditional art practices that are supported at OAC. (It does not include business or administrative training.)
 

Artists can apply for funding towards courses, training, mentorship, apprenticeship or masterclasses. All learning must be led by an expert – for example, a mentor, teacher, trainer or Elder – and include feedback throughout the training period. For now, no in-person professional development will be funded – only learning conducted online, by phone, by correspondence, etc.


There are two program deadlines in 2021:
  • June 3, 2021
  • November 18, 2021

For full information on eligibility, how to apply and how applications will be evaluated, please see the Chalmers Professional Development Projects page on OAC’s website.
 

About the Chalmers Family Fund

The Chalmers Family Fund was established at OAC in 1979 with donations by Floyd S. Chalmers, Jean A. Chalmers and M. Joan Chalmers. In recent years, this fund has supported two OAC programs – the Chalmers Arts Fellowships (to undertake a unique, large-scale exploration of an artist’s discipline or practice) and the Chalmers Professional Development Projects program (to acquire new or enhance existing artistic skills).
 

As the long-time steward of this important fund, OAC has developed several policies to guide the fund’s ongoing sustainability and viability. These include that the Chalmers programs are funded solely through investment returns, without touching the Fund’s principal, to safeguard it for future generations of Ontario artists.
 

Following the volatile global investment climate of late 2018 which saw low returns for most investors, OAC paused the Chalmers Professional Development Projects program. In 2020, the Chalmers Arts Fellowships was temporarily suspended due its travel component. This program will not resume until we have emerged from the global pandemic.
 

For more information

Carolyn Gloude
Officer
cgloude@arts.on.ca
416-969-7423
 

Rohana Buzamlak
Program Administrator
rbuzamlak@arts.on.ca
416-969-7416