Magazines eligible for Creative Cluster Fund launched in Ontario

October 27 is less than a month away, but it's the deadline for the first round of the new funding source from the Ontario Ministry of Culture (administered by the Ontario Media Development Corporation). The OMDC held the first of three information sessions yesterday and is hosting two more today to outline the criteria and the details of the Entertainment and Creative Cluster Partnerships Fund.

There is $1.8 million allocated for this round. The minimum that can be applied for is $25,000, the maximum...well, there is no maximum, though it is expected that the grants will range between $50,000 and $150,000. So the Ontario government is being serious about this. The funding is capped at 50% of the total direct costs of a project (this may go as high as 70% with OMDC advance approval). It appears that applicants need to put at least 25% of the project costs in themselves in cash (that is, not in kind).

The fund is open to all the "creative content industries", including magazines, film, television, interractive digital media, music recording, book publishing and commercial theatre, so the competition for the money will be tough.

The objectives of the fund are

• to facilitate long-term growth of Ontario's creative cluster industries;
• to encourage collaboration and lasting partnerships
• to support allliances between companies, trade associations and educational institutions

Project categories that have been identified:

• capacity building
• prototype development
• domestic and global marketing
• skills development

It's not possible here to go into detail about what's expected in these areas, but more information and full details can be found at the OMDC website. Any applicant must consult with OMDC staff before completing an application. The coordinator for the fund is Jennifer Brown.

Every application needs a minimum of two primary partners, such as a trade association, a consortium of companies, a college or university or an industry-recognized festival, conference or congress. An application can have any number of secondary partners. This, along with the very short deadline, may cause some problems because the OMDC recommends a written partnership agreement (particularly where the outcome of the grant will be some asset or something with lasting equity value). Anything that involves lawyers usually takes longer than a month.

The applications will be judged by a panel of representatives from various Ontario ministries (Culture, Economic Development and Trade, Research and Innovation, Training, Colleges and Universities, Small Business and Entrepreneurship), probably at the assistant deputy minister level.