Artist Strategy: How I'm Transforming My Approach to Artist Grant Writing

At the beginning of 2025, I completed a 6-week grant writing intensive that focused on writing a Canada Council for the Arts grant application. We all received feedback from the teacher and our peers, which helped refine our grant applications. I extracted the key elements from this program and incorporated them into my existing grant writing and project planning skills I've developed since 2019. In this post, I'll share my approach and my results.

After completing my grant proposal in the grant writing intensive, I used Canva to draft a Gantt chart to visualize my project plan. Gantt charts are typically used with non-profit grant writing, but I find a visual helps me see my artist's journey come to fruition. I then updated my Artist Statement, which I've found essential for artist grant writing. Next, I updated my business model canvas for this project.

I learned the one-page business model canvas through workshops in the Alberta entrepreneur ecosystem and a course at Bow Valley College. The business model canvas is a framework and a practice. I find learning frameworks takes a commitment to a practice that evolves over time, like a constantly blooming flower of information. I have a business model canvas for my overall business, and then I've broken up my services and projects into their own one-page business model canvases. Not only do these one-pagers support proposals, but they also support digital marketing and the creation of key performance indicators or KPI's and setting objective goals.

To increase the number of applications I planned to submit, I considered artist development activities that would complement my project. My plan was to use my grant application, which I prepared during the grant intensive, as a jumping-off point for as many grant applications as possible. With three levels of government (Federal, Provincial, and Municipal), I wasn't going to bet all in on Canada Council for the Arts to support me.

While grant writing can feel like a numbers game, I’ve come to see the importance of stepping back and approaching it with the mindset of a proposal writer who sees the bigger picture. In total, I applied to the following four grants to finish creating my manuscript, a creative non-fiction book that weaves poetry, personal essay, and collage into a hybrid storybook:

• Explore and Create, Canada Council for the Arts
• Artist Development, Canada Council for the Arts
• Literary Individual Project, Alberta Foundation for the Arts
• Micro Artist Development grant, Calgary Arts Development

With all four results in, I'm happy to report that I was awarded one of the four grants I submitted. I received an artist development micro grant from Calgary Arts Development to attend the first CSS facilitator retreat in Kelowna. It wasn't the big creation grant I'd hoped for, but it's my first artist grant. Now I'll be able to list this grant award on my artist resume, which will give me some points towards artistic merit, a large part of the jurors' assessment of artist grant applications.

Remember, you don't need a grant to deem yourself an artist. Grant funding buys you time to create without stressing about how you'll make rent or feed your kids. Artistic merit is shown in various ways.

As I waited for the grant results, knowing artist grants are a numbers game, I started thinking about ways I could raise money to support my artistic project and jumpstart my dedication to the practice of writing. Life Café was born out of necessity to support my artistic journey and my duty to share my knowledge, including grant-writing. With free and paid subscriptions, I hope to grow a small income to support my creative entrepreneur self. Paid subscribers will be invited to a monthly circle to share their projects and questions on submitting proposals. A support group for the isolating tasks within a creative entrepreneur's journey. Join me every third Saturday of the month starting on November 15, 2025.

My project is my first book, and I'll use heuristic inquiry and the CSS framework during its creation. The first phase is immersion in personal writings. I have a trunk full of my notebooks and archives of my journey throughout this lifetime. During this first phase, I'll also research family history and conduct interviews. Once I've completed reading all my notebooks, phase 2 begins, incubation. I take two weeks to let everything simmer, until phase 3, when I revisit the journals with fresh eyes to begin a hyper-focused writing season. I need at least 8 months of subsidies for my rent and food for this project, and I'm determined to make it happen.

I scored a 74/100 on my Explore and Create grant. I'm almost there. I’ve reviewed my application to identify areas for improvement. I need to carefully select my writing sample to attach to my application. Updating my resume with my recent grant award will also help. Upon revisiting my business model canvas, I have ideas on possible non-profit partnerships that would align with my project's impact. I am planning an update "date" at a local café to review the components of my proposal and to update and reapply for another round of grant applications.

What's changed for me is that I no longer need government funders to tell me my art is worthy, which aligns with me finally understanding why I needed so much validation from others. I was on my own at 15 and didn't get the validation I needed that would have supported my mental health and development. I saw I was striving for government accolades to finally be noticed, because I didn't receive any social services support when I left home. It's not about the grant or money; it's about untold stories finally finding a pathway of expression.

The other decision I had to make was asking for help. In my fourth year as a creative entrepreneur small business, I've racked up a lot of debt, which I've reframed as an investment in my business. However, I've never carried this much debt before, and it reminded me of my teenage years, when I struggled to pay rent and buy groceries. The way I showed up at work began to suffer as I hustled to earn enough to pay my rising rent. I wasn't focused on my art at all, and the burning stories in my belly finally need to get out. Something had to give, and before it did, I made a decision before it was made for me.

I decided to ask for help and found a place to crash while I work on publishing my first book (planned for a late 2026 release). I gave my landlord notice and packed everything into a truck to embark on my artist's couch-surfing era. I laugh inside as I think, now my grant applications will be on point, remembering the hearsay that funders and assessors look to see if you've paid your dues as a creative. It shouldn't be like that, and hopefully it's a rumour someone told me. Either way, it's a small detail I'll be sure to share in my applications.

Stay tuned for my next update about my journey as an artist! Can't wait to share more with you soon. As we settle into our rhythm here at Life Café, we're excited to bring you more content on grant writing and creative entrepreneurship.

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