Are you a current or graduating Fine Arts student who’s been involved with some community-engaged creative activity between January 1 2024 & May 31 2025? If so, you could qualify for $1,000 via our annual juried, donor-funded Community Impact Awards.
Since 2021, we’ve awarded over $13,000 to 11 students from across Fine Arts for projects ranging from murals, theatre productions, music performances, art shows, curatorial projects & more. Your activity may include (but isn’t limited to) any exhibit, performance, workshop, publication, curatorial, educational, digital, production and/or administrative role within the regional boundaries of Greater Victoria (Sidney to Sooke).
These awards are looking to highlight the efforts of undergraduate Fine Arts students who have demonstrated an outstanding effort in a community-engaged creative activity in Greater Victoria that went over and above their academic studies.
Read about our previous winners here: 2024, 2023, 2022, 2021.
The fine print
A complete submission package — including the submission form and all supporting materials — must be received by 5pm Friday, May 30, 2025.
This award is open to any current or graduating undergraduate student enrolled in Art History & Visual Studies, Theatre, Visual Arts, Writing or the School of Music. Typically, three students receive awards each year and you must be a Fine Arts major to win: double-majors (ie: Humanities and Fine Arts) will only qualify if they choose Fine Arts as their graduating faculty.
The actual awards will be presented in fall 2025 as part of the annual Greater Victoria Regional Arts Awards, and recipients will be expected to attend. You will receive a physical award with your name on it as well as the funds, which are distributed by UVic’s Student Awards and Financial Aid office.
Helpful tips
To apply for this juried award, you’ll need the following:
- A description of the community-engaged creative activity (500 words max), including a title page with your contact information
- A letter from an individual or organization explaining how you were involved in this activity (300 words max)
- Two letters of endorsement for the project, from different people than #2 (two pages max, written by people unrelated to you)
- Your resume, CV or portfolio, noting relevant experience.
When it comes to your supporting material, consider these points:
- What was the actual impact of your project? How many people did you reach? What kind of feedback did you receive, even anecdotally?
- What are the benefits of engaging with the community through your arts practice?
- How did your studies prepare you to engage in this kind of community project?
- How will this award financially assist you?
What kind of work doesn’t qualify for this award?
- Any project for which you received a grade as part of your coursework
- Any student job that doesn’t have a creative element tied to a specific project
- Anything that falls out of the required date range (2023 or earlier, or later in 2025)
- Any project outside of Greater Victoria.
Frequently asked questions:
- What qualifies as “community-engaged creative activity”?
We’re looking for projects that engage the greater community in some aspect: past winners have been involved with painting murals, local theatre festivals, running sound for an orchestral series, performing live at pop-up installations, leading children’s arts camps, creating and distributing a ’zine, doing volunteer work for an arts group, mentoring with a children’s choir, running a gallery, and applying for and then mounting exhibitions of their own art. If it’s creative, isn’t for a grade and involves people, then it counts. - I mounted a self-created art project that had limited duration and no official support. Would this qualify?
It would qualify as long as you have sufficient documentation, can articulate the project’s impact and can find support letters for it.
- What’s the difference between the support letters?
One letter speaks to how you were directly involved in the project (ideally written by a supervisor, funder or community partner) while the other two letters speak to the project’s overall impact (could be written by a participant, audience member or other attendee).
- Can it be an on-campus project or does it have to have happened off-campus?
On-campus projects do qualify, as long as they are not directly related to a course or self-directed study.
- I’m graduating in June: can I still qualify for this award?
As long as your project fits into the required date range, you qualify. - Would a project for a non-Fine Arts course qualify?
No, this would still be considered course-related work. - I applied before but didn’t win. Can I apply again?
Yes, as long as your project fits the qualifying date range.
- I won this award before: can I apply again?
No, you can only win this award once. - Does a project involving a larger event or organization count?
Yes: many of our students work or volunteer for the Fringe Festival, SKAMpede, Art Gallery Paint-In, Symphony Splash, JazzFest or Rifflandia, for example. But keep in mind we are looking for students who have made an “outstanding effort”, not simply finding a summer job in the arts.
Questions? Contact fineartsawards@uvic.ca