Heather Latter
Local artist Lindsay Hamilton recently helped distribute funding to artists and arts organizations based in the province after sitting as a juror on the Ontario Arts Council earlier this year.
The OAC, which offers more than 50 grant programs to provide assistance for specific activities and operating expenses, annually assembles advisory panels and juries of Ontario arts professionals in a peer review system of grant application assessment.
“It was a really interesting experience,” Hamilton enthused, citing she was one of six members of the Arts Education Projects advisory committee and Artists in the Community/Workplace advisory committee.
“These two programs are incredible when it comes to supporting artists,” she insisted.
Hamilton noted she had received an Arts Education Project grant back in January, 2010 to teach an art course at Seven Generations Education Institute here.
“It was an honour to receive it. It took the class to another level that I couldn’t have achieved without the funds,” she expressed, noting soon after the course was completed, she received a call from the OAC with the offer to sit on this year’s advisory committees.
“Someone must have recommended me,” she guessed, adding she was thrilled with the opportunity.
Hamilton then spent two weeks in Toronto in May where she and the other jurors reviewed upwards of 130 grant applications.
“The other jurors were amazing,” she voiced. “Not only did they each represent a different [art] discipline, but they were all from different cultures, backgrounds, and sexual orientations.
“The jurors were so open-minded, knowledgeable, and respectful,” she added. “Some beautiful conversations came from it and changed the way I think about some things.”
Hamilton indicated in her experience as a juror, she got to see the benefit arts are to communities.
“I think it’s important for people to apply for these grants because the money is there to stimulate the arts everywhere,” she stressed.
She explained it was a difficult choice determining which artists and arts organizations would receive the funding they requested.
There were 116 applications for the Arts Education Projects and the jury awarded 35 grants, a total recommendation of $331,715, while of 54 applications for the Artists in the Community/Workplace program, 15 grants were awarded with a total recommendation of $116,775.
Hamilton noted they took into consideration many aspects while making their decisions, including those labelled as “high priority” such as those living in the North and Aboriginal groups.
“The most amazing thing was the collaboration of the group, the empowerment,” she voiced, citing she would certainly act as a juror for the granting process again, although they try to get different people involved each year.
Others artists from the area who have served as a juror or advisor on the OAC include Eric Keest and Pam Cain.
