Resources

County Arts Meet-Ups

We bring the arts community together several times a year for County Arts Meet-Ups – professional development opportunities for artists of all ages and stages! Past topics include Social Media Tips & Tricks for Artists with Angela Lavender, Chrissy Poitras, and Ambivalently Yours; Demystifying Publishing with Leigh Nash; Goal Setting for Artists with Christine Renaud; and Artists in the Community Grants with Stacey Sproule.

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram or better yet, become a County Arts Member to join our Member Mailing List to hear about these and a whole host of other opportunities in our regular Member Newsletters!

County Arts Guide – How to Work Respectfully with Visual/Media Artists

How to work respectfully with artists by Andrea Dawes. Click here for a PDF version of the Guide.

Resources

Grants and funding opportunities:

• Check out our County Arts Creation Grants 101 Session and Artists in the Community Grants 101 Session for tips and info about applying for these kinds of artist grants.
• Canada Council for the Arts resources on creating an artist CV
• Here is a great Budgets 101 resource on creating budgets for artist grants – focused on literary grants, but most of it is relevant for all artistic disciplines
• Emerging artists can apply for grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation.
• Funding opportunities for arts events and organizations: RTO9 (Regional Tourism Organization) Partnership Funding; Visit the County Community Partnership Fund; Picton BIA; Picton Recreation Committee; The County Foundation (new PEC Arts Fund, Neighbourhood Small Grants, and more); Experience Ontario – for festivals and events with a tourism economic impact; Eastern Ontario Development Fund for economic projects, open to businesses and nonprofits; Seniors Community Grant Program; Ontario Arts Council;  Canada Council for the Arts; Ontario Trillium Foundation; Canada Cultural Spaces Fund; OMAFRA’s Downtown Revitalization Program
• Artists requiring grant writing support and guidance can consult with Pam Patterson.

Teaching and learning opportunities:

• Our County Arts Lab (Picton) and the Baxter Arts Centre (Bloomfield) both offer teaching and learning opportunities for artists.
• Local publisher Assembly Press is offering “Guidance Counselling” sessions with publishing experts – County Arts Members get 20% off! For more info on this and other resources for writers, visit our Writers’ Corner page!
• Free online professional development for artists course- Creative Capital Curriculum.
• In our member Spark Box Studio’s “The Art Discourse” video series, Chrissy Poitras and Kyle Topping tackle fellow artists’ questions – on marketing to funding to finding one’s art community – about being a professional artist.
• PEC Chamber of Commerce Free Virtual Webinars
• Canadian Network for Arts & Learning

Artist Fees and Legal Resources:

• Canadian Artists’ Representation (CARFAC)
• Legal Resources for Artists (by CARFAC)

Communications / Digital Tools:

• Free Website Planner & Guide for Artists by Artistech.
• PADE, a project that aims to increase access to digital tools, resources and skills for puppeteers, multidisciplinary artists and arts organizations, is offering a free series of webinars and focus groups providing training and exploring digital skills and tools for building an online presence and connections.
• Imprimo, developed by CARFAC and partners, is an artwork management tool for visual artists launching in 2022. It offers simple tools for uploading, organizing, and sharing the history of artworks; creating a verified artist profile; generating certificates of creation; and more.
• Digital Main Street: Digital Transformation Grants provide qualifying brick-and-mortar small businesses with a digital assessment, online training and a one-time $2,500 grant to implement their digital transformation plan. The ShopHERE program creates online stores for independent small businesses and artists at no cost.
• Kick Start Arts!, in collaboration with our member Department of Illumination and SKETCH Working Arts, developed a Digital Toolkit of Online Strategies for Artists and Arts Organizations.

Space and Equipment

• Accessibility in Creative Spaces Toolkit, Artsbuild Ontario
• County Coworking is a coworking space located in Picton.
• The Picton branch of the Prince Edward County Public Library has a recording studio available for rent.

County Arts Mentorship Program

In Fall 2023-Winter 2024, we ran the very first County Arts Mentorship Program (program page here), which brought together 10 mentor-mentee pairs working in a wide variety of disciplines including painting, poetry, furniture making, ceramics, writing, dance, and more. Mentors, who were selected following an Open Call and Peer Assessment process, were compensated for their time, and Mentees also received an honorarium to help cover their costs.

We invite you to view the Mentorship Program Highlight document here including photos and testimonials, as well as this 3-minute video for a glimpse into the success and impact of this program, which was funded by the Government of Ontario through a Seniors’ Community Grant. We thank them for their support!

County Arts Mentorship Video from County Arts on Vimeo. Video shot, Directed & Edited by David Rendall/Heliograph Media. Music by Delta Will.

Local Facebook Groups and Pages

• Creative Rural Minds
• All Welcome Here
• Life au Lait: County Life Magazine
• PEC Media/Film/TV Creatives
• Prince Edward County Musician’s Group

Local Membership Organizations

We are a proud member of the Quinte Arts Council and the Prince Edward County Chamber of Commerce.