Back to school and bored already? Liven up the year with a visit to your school from a teaching artist — like me.

In Quebec, we have two great programs to help fund an author or artist visit to your school: Culture in the Schools and ArtistsInspire.

The Ministry of Education’s Culture in the Schools Program provides funding to bring an artist or author into your school for a single day of workshops, several days of workshops, or even several weeks of workshops with an artist-in-residence. (They also fund field trips to cultural events outside the school.)

The program funds the artist’s fee, travel costs, material costs, even administrative costs. Check out all the details on the Ministry of Education website. (For info in English, check out the Culture in the Schools Brochure.)

Each public school board has its own deadline to apply for Culture in the Schools funding. Private schools must apply by October 15th. Check out the Repertoire of available artists and authors to see who you might invite into your school. (NB: The Repertoire is in French only — even for artists like me who offer workshops in English only.)

Check out my (slightly outdated) Repertoire listing here. Also peruse my workshop listings on my website. Then get in touch if you want to apply for funding to have me in your school at no cost to you. (I’ll help with the application paperwork.)

The ArtistsInspire program is now in its sixth year, financed by the federal government to support minority language education (English in Quebec and French elsewhere). If you’re in an English school board in Quebec, you’re eligible for funding to bring an artist or author — like me — into your school for 2-4 days of connected workshops.

The program funds $1500 in artists’ fees and material costs, for 6-10 hours of in-person or virtual workshops (2-3 workshops with 2-3 classes or so), with an option for an additional one-day event at the school. See details on the ArtistsInspire website.

The deadline to apply for ArtistsInspire funding is February 28th. So no rush. But why dally? Search the ArtistsInspire directory to see who’s available in your area, then contact your preferred artist to confirm availability and workshop details.

Check out my ArtistsInspire profile here. I’d love to come to your school to lead a series of short story or fractured fairy tale workshops. So get in touch.

There’s a third program in Quebec, funded by the Ministry of Education, that brings authors or artists listed in the cultural Repertoire (like me!) into schools, daycares, and educational institutions outside of school hours.

This is a fabulous program that supports long-term projects that might involve more than one artist (or more than one institution). Artists and institutions work out the details together in advance and apply for funding by October 7th. Check out the call for applications (in French).

I’ve never worked with a school or daycare through this program, but I’d love to try a 6- or 8-week after-school series of workshops, expanding my Fracture Fairy Tale series into a full unit for younger writers and illustrators. If any Gatineau schools or day cares are interested, get in touch.

Check out other sources of Funding for Author Visits in Canada. And check out my Workshops and Presentations to see if one grabs your interest.

The arts are an important part of education, and all of these programs fund all of the arts — writing, music, visual arts, film-making, performance — there’s no end to the art that students could be making! So take advantage of these fabulous funding opportunities and bring some art into your school.

It makes the return to school a little easier.