Impressions Artist Residency

Who is eligible to apply?

This residency is intended for individual artists from one of Montréal’s cultural communities.

What are the program objectives?

The Impressions Artist Residency promotes intersectional dialogue by allowing the artist to draw inspiration from the Museum’s collection to carry out a research and creation project. The MMFA is home to the largest encyclopedic collection in the country. The MBAM’s collection allows visitors to discover Quebec and Canadian heritage, Indigenous arts and international art, from a contemporary and innovative perspective. It brings together nearly 47,000 paintings, sculptures, graphic artworks, photographs, multimedia installations and decorative arts objects, from Antiquity to the present day.

The aim of this initiative is to support original proposals that offer those involved in arts and culture the opportunity to enrich each other.

What type of assistance is provided?

The artist in residence will receive $9,000: a $6,000 honorarium and an allowance of $3,000 ($375 per week for eight weeks). The residency will afford the artist the opportunity to conduct research that will serve as the foundation for creating works in the weeks that follow. 

What is the duration of the support?

The support will last eight weeks.

What do the partners provide?

This project is a partnership between the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and the Conseil des arts de Montréal.

The MMFA will:

• provide the artist with a work environment conducive to producing and presenting their work
• propose meetings with an MMFA curator that will allow the artist to explore the museum’s collections, talk about their artistic approach, discuss their current research and create networking opportunities with the museum community during exhibitions and tours
• support the artist throughout the residency

What are the general eligibility criteria?

• Be a professional visual artist (painting, sculpture, video art, installation, photography, etc.)
• Be a member of a cultural community or visible minority group
• Have less than seven years of professional practice in Quebec
• Be a Canadian citizen or permanent resident
• Have resided on the Island of Montréal for at least one year

Who is ineligible to apply?

• MMFA or Conseil employees (or any close family members)
• Artists whose works are already part of the MMFA’s collection

When must the project be carried out?

The eight-week residency will take place in March and April 2025.

How many applications will be accepted?

Only one application will be accepted every year.

Can specific populations receive additional financial support to submit their application or complete their project (accessibility costs)?

Yes. Accessibility costs refer to costs that certain individuals, particularly those who are D/deaf and/or living with a disability, must pay to take advantage, in the same way as others do, of the services and programs offered by an institution for research, to create, produce or disseminate their art. Reimbursement of part of these costs by the Conseil des arts de Montréal may offset the financial disadvantage.

The Support Fund for Accessibility Costs is a financial assistance measure that complements the Conseil’s other programs. The deadline to apply for support for accessibility costs is the same as that for the program being applied to.

Artists, collectives or organizations that have obtained financial assistance from the Conseil to carry out a project can also file an application for accessibility cost support up to three months after the decisions related to the successful project have been sent out, provided the project is not completed before the deadline to send out decisions for accessibility cost support applications.

Support is divided into three components:

• component 1 – Financial support to submit a grant application or to apply for one of the Conseil’s initiatives
• component 2 – Financial support for accessibility costs for a project funded by the Conseil
• component 3 – Financial support for presenter organizations for accessibility costs to welcome audiences for a project funded by the Conseil

For more details, please see this additional information on the Support Fund.

How can I submit an application?

Visit the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts website to learn more and apply.

How are applications evaluated?

Applications will be evaluated by a jury of peers from the Conseil des arts de Montréal and the MMFA.

What are the evaluation criteria?

The selection criteria are as follows:

• originality of the artistic approach
• flexibility and ability to work independently
• awareness of the historical and artistic context of the works in the MMFA’s collection
• positive impact of the project on the applicant’s career, expansion of the Museum’s audiences and the MMFA’s collections

How will the grant be paid?

The grant offered by the Conseil will be paid through the MMFA.

Accepting payment of the grant constitutes, for the artist, an undertaking to complete the activities covered by the grant and to comply with the accompanying conditions, which will be communicated upon selection of the application.

Artists agree to:

• carry out the proposed project as planned
• notify the Conseil as soon as possible if unable to carry out the project in the fiscal year for which the grant was awarded. Depending on the situation, a full or partial refund may be requested
• if requested, submit activity reports and financial statements at the required times
• if applicable, include in the report photographs, videos or any other relevant, royalty-free visuals that the Conseil may use for promotional or archival purposes

In addition, organizations, collectives, artists and their representatives agree at all times not to communicate with members of the evaluation committees or members of the Council’s Board of Directors in any matter relating to the management, evaluation or decisions related to their application.  

The Conseil des arts de Montréal staff are available to answer questions about the application evaluation process and decisions.