The OLAccountant 0001: Government Cheese

Last updated on September 9th, 2014 at 10:45 pm

So it would seem that it has been decreed where my skills would be more useful, so this is the role that I shall address. This will be the art-business blog I had originally intended for it to be, before it got off-track.

With that said, before I can start free-posting on any and all topics relating to the business side of art, there were some lingering questions from a previous post that I should cover before moving on.

The first (and infinitely easier to answer) is:

Rene: I know that the Government is planning to invest $263 million into video game development, and with us developing Bijoux Red, I was wondering how we could tap into that?

Well, Rene—without working for Ubisoft, I don’t know how successful that approach is going to be 😊 I did some quick research (i.e. some Googling before I had to leave the house), and swiftly came up with a July 7, 2009 Toronto Star article with this as its title:

Province investing $263 million in game developer, predicts 800 new jobs in fast-growing digital media

What it is is a 10-year investment plan where the government will invest in the new Ubisoft offices here in Toronto on the condition that they dole out the new jobs. Which only amount, on average, to 80 jobs per year. In a city of millions, that ain’t much.

So I guess the answer here is to either get hired on by Ubisoft or take an entirely different approach. Which is actually a good segue for the next question…

Aaron Alfred had asked “How do I go about applying for grants?”

I consider this a wildly open-ended question. It’s like “how do I apply for a job?” With a job, there’re a number of factors that’ll affect the manner in which you’d apply for a job. These include (but by no means are limited to):

  • What kind of job it is
  • What the company does
  • What the company needs
  • What the job ad asks for

and so on. Similarly, a grant application must be treated with the same degree of individuality. You must consider:

  • What is the grant for and how do you match those requirements?
  • How accurately can you describe what it is you’d like to do with the grant money?
  • What makes you more deserving than the next grant applicant?

There are a number of factors one could consider—the point I am trying to illustrate is that it is difficult to give one catch-all answer on how to apply for grants and make sure that it is accurate.

A quick search on “canada art grants” using Google will give you results such as:

I invite you to check out some of the grants and see what the qualifications are. I’ll probably apply for a few myself, sooner or later, so I can definitely give more insight after going through the process.

Anyway, let me know any further thoughts, etc. that you might have and that I might be able to address.

Thanks,

–case p.

By Casey E. Palmer

Husband. Father. Storyteller.

Calling the Great White North his home, Casey Palmer the Canadian Dad spend his free time in pursuit of the greatest content possible.

Thousand-word blog posts? Snapshots from life? Sketches and podcasts and more—he's more than just a dad blogger; he's working to change what's expected of the parenting creators of the world.

It's about so much more than just our kids.

When Casey's not creating, he's busy parenting, adventuring, trying to be a good husband and making the most of his life!

Casey lives in Toronto, Ontario.

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