Submission Criteria

A maximum of $20,000 each will be awarded to up to five separate projects which successfully fulfill the criteria of a new, collaborative artistic creation incorporating more than one discipline or field. As in previous years, the work must be original, never before presented or performed, and be ready for presentation or installation at Harbourfront Centre between April 2011 and May 2012.

The Applicant shall:

be a working professional artist defined as:
- an individual who has completed specialized training in his or her artistic field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
- who is recognized as such by his or her peers (artists working in the same artistic tradition)
- who is committed to artistic activity, and
- who has a history of public presentation
be a Canadian citizen or landed immigrant to Canada
take on the role of Project Lead and represent the collaborating team by completing the online application and submitting a Letter of Intent

The Project shall:

be a new artistic creation never before presented or performed
involve more than one discipline or field (artistic or otherwise)
include participants working in different disciplines or fields
be targeted to an audience of children or youth, which for the purposes of this Call are defined as:
- children = elementary school students between the ages of 5 and 12
- youth = junior high and high school students between the ages of 13 and 18
NOTE: you may choose to focus on children or youth, but you must specify for which age group or grade you are creating
be ready for installation or presentation at Harbourfront Centre between April 2011 and May 2012

Proposals will be evaluated on:

the relevance of the project to the criteria as outlined in the Call
the innovative nature of the collaboration
the depth of the project's engagement with its young audience
the achievability of the project by the collaborators
the feasibility of the project's implementation

How to Submit a Proposal

Project Leads must submit a Letter of Intent briefly but clearly outlining the core concept of the project, including the age group or grade your project will focus on, as well as describing how the project will be realized including a brief introduction to each collaborator and their contribution. The Letter of Intent shall be a maximum of two single-spaced 10pt typed pages in length, pasted as unformatted text into the field provided in the online application form.

Submission Deadline

Letters of Intent received after 5pm EST on Monday 30 November 2009 will not be eligible.

Acknowledgement confirming the date and time of receipt will be sent automatically by return email. All applications will be reviewed by a selection committee from Harbourfront Centre's Public Programmes division. Short-listed applicants will be invited to submit a more detailed proposal in Stage Two of the adjudication process; these applicants will be notified by Monday 01 February 2010. If we have not contacted you by this date, you have not been short-listed.

Visit this link for more information on Fresh Ground new works, Harbourfront Centre's national commissioning programme, the first nine projects commissioned and the projects being presented this season.

Fresh Ground new works is made possible by the generosity of several major individual donors who have actively assisted in the creation of new Canadian artworks: Peter Allen, Lionel F. Conacher and Joan Dea, Margaret and Jim Fleck, John Kazanjian and Susan Soloway, Michael and Sonja Koerner, Judy and Wil Matthews, George E. Myhal, and grants from the Canada Council for the Arts and the J.P. Bickell Foundation.