Endowment Funds Award Application Information Package
Awards from the Foundation were first made in 2007. Awards have been made in years when funds have been available from the growing endowments, or when funds have been donated for specific annual awards.
These awards are made possible because of the generosity of our endowment donors. Thank you for your vision, commitment and support of Saskatchewan Artists.
Literary Award; supported by The Colleen Bailey Memorial Endowment Fund
This award supports and assists emerging Saskatchewan writers in developing their craft. Eligible activities include fiction (adult or children) and art or photographic books. Research, technical manuals and audio books are not eligible.
This fund is in memory of Colleen Bailey, Yorkton businesswoman, art collector and supporter of the arts. She served as Chair of the Saskatchewan Arts Board and numerous other arts and cultural organizations in Saskatchewan.
The Dick & Jane Endowment Fund Awards
This fund was created by Richard Spafford and Jane Turnbull Evans, lifelong supporters of the Arts. Richard was a founding member of the Saskatchewan Foundation For the Arts and fulfilled a dream of Jane’s to enable private individuals, businesses, and corporations to build permanent and stable resources for the arts.
Learn about Richard’s and Jane’s role in the origin of the Saskatchewan Foundation For the Arts.
This fund supports the following awards:
Indigenous Literary Award; supported by The Dick & Jane Endowment Fund
This award supports and assists an emerging Indigenous writer in any literary arts genre.
Indigenous Traditional Craft Award; supported by The Dick & Jane Endowment Fund
This award is open to all Indigenous persons.
Activities may include beading, biting, leather, sculpture etc., with the focus on keeping traditional and cultural art forms alive.
Indigenous Multi-Media Language Arts Award; supported by The Dick & Jane Endowment Fund
This award is open to all Indigenous persons.
Activities may include audio, visual, digital, literature with a focus on keeping Canadian Indigenous languages visible/alive.
2SLGBTQ+ Artist/Art Award; supported by The Dick & Jane Endowment Fund
This award is open to emerging Artists that self-declare / identify as 2SLGBTQ+, with priority given to artists with intersecting identities that have been historically underserved.
The award is open to all creative disciplines and should help to showcase the recipients’ work to residents of the province and to people beyond our borders. This visibility should encourage artistic and economic well-being for the recipient and contribute to amplifying the presence of 2SLGBTQ+ artists of Saskatchewan.
Female Arts Entrepreneur Award; supported by The Dick & Jane Endowment Fund
This award is open to self-declared, identify as female, mid-career or established artists.
Activities may include support for business development to enable growth as an artist. Includes tools and/or development of professional skills, business planning, strategic planning, marketing & social media.
Prairie Folk Arts/Craft Award; supported by The Dick & Jane Endowment Fund
This award is open to a mid-career or established craftsperson (as defined by the Saskatchewan Craft Council ‘Craftsperson’).
Activities may include historically and culturally traditional “Prairie” craft works in fibre, wood, pottery, glass, photography and jewelry. Artist must make an argument for the project’s suitability regarding both the terms “Traditional” and “Prairie”.
Regina Artist Award; supported by The Harry Nick Kangles Endowment Fund
This award supports established artists living in Regina and who are working in the visual or performing arts.
This fund was created in memory of Harry Nick Kangles, a Regina businessman, art collector and supporter of the arts.
Visual Award for Female; supported by The Jane Turnbull Evans Fund for the Arts
This award supports emerging Saskatchewan female artists working in the visual arts.
This fund was created in memory of the late Jane Turnbull Evans, an artist, arts educator, and arts administrator.
Visual Award; supported by The Shurniak Endowment Fund
This award supports Saskatchewan artists working in the visual arts.
This fund was established by the late William (Bill) Shurniak, prominent businessman, Arts patron and Founder of the Shurniak Art Gallery in Assiniboia, Saskatchewan.
Indigenous Artist Award; supported by The Cameco Endowment for Indigenous Artists
The award supports arts activities that are causally related to the costs of the art project or practice, and for activities that reflect Cameco’s values – safety and environment, people, integrity and excellence.
This fund was created by Cameco to support emerging or established Indigenous artists working in any arts discipline.
Artistic Category
• Emerging Artist – An artist who has moved beyond training into professional practice and has begun to produce a body of independent work.
• Established Artist – An artist who has been practicing art professionally for some time and has produced a significant body of work.
Eligibility
You may apply for as many awards for which you meet the eligibility criteria. However, please note that no applicant will receive more than one award in any given year.
Applications from previous award winners will only be considered following a 7-year period, regardless of category, so we may support the greatest number of Saskatchewan artists.
Eligible Applicants
Emerging or Established Professional Artists who are:
• Current Saskatchewan residents (one year minimum) & Canadian citizens or permanent residents.
• Graduate students working on a project that is not being submitted for academic credit (as confirmed by a letter from their department head).
• Saskatchewan residents absent from the province for a period of up to one year for an artistic residency, arts education, or related opportunity, who intend to return at the end of the term.
Ineligible Applicants
• Presenters or agents applying on behalf of an artist
• Undergraduate students, except where an applicant has developed an artistic practice prior to enrolment at an educational institution, and providing the project is not being submitted for academic credit (as confirmed by a letter from their department head).
Eligible Activities
• Creation of new work or development of a work-in-progress within 1 calendar year of receiving the award.
• As defined by Endowment Award criteria outlined by donor.
• Activities required to continue with a work-in-progress.
Ineligible Activities
• Activity undertaken prior to the application deadline or after the one-year project term.
• Activity undertaken for academic credit or for professional development.
• Commissioned work.
Adjudication
• All eligible submissions are adjudicated by an independent jury panel of artists and arts professionals.
• The deliberations of the jury will be confidential.
• The jury will select the recipient.
All applications are based on the following criteria:
Adjudication Criteria
1. Applicant’s Practice (40%)
• The applicant’s resume, body of work and level of achievement relative to their status as an artist.
• The applicant’s development of a distinct and personal body of work.
2. Merit of the Project (60%)
• The significance of the project to the development of the applicant’s artistic practice.
• The merit of the proposed work or work-in-progress in the context of traditional and/or contemporary practice.
• The project’s contribution to the development of the art form or current practice.
Recognition of Funding
Within 18 months after the end of the project term, recipients will submit a two-page summary telling us about the creative activity accomplished over the one-year term, the impact of the Award on your artistic practice and information about actual or anticipated presentations, performances, or publication of the work.
The Saskatchewan Foundation For the Arts may publicly promote all recipients of awards and personal details provided by the artists in their application (i.e. name, biography, synopsis, etc.) on the SFFA website, its social media accounts, and other documentation as the SFFA sees fit.
All award recipients are offered the opportunity to present themselves as Featured Artists. We encourage our supporters to learn more about these artists, and where possible, support them. Biographies, photographic materials and digital links are provided by the featured artists and copyright belongs to the artist.
Please acknowledge the financial assistance of the Saskatchewan Foundation For the Arts whenever possible, including appropriate social media, in print or public presentations of the project.
Confidentiality of Information
The personal and confidential information provided by an applicant is required to process their application and is collected, used, and disclosed in accordance with appropriate legislation. It will only be shared as necessary to facilitate the jury process. The names of Awards recipients, community, project description and awards amounts will be made known publicly.