Musicians, Take Note

Jeff Green | May 05, 2021

Blue Skies in the Community (BSIC), the outreach arm of the 48 year old Blue Skies Music Festival, has received an anonymous donation of $10,000 to help the music community during the COVID-19 pandemic. The BSIC committee has decided to provide 10 small(ish) grants of $1,000 each to musicians whose household income from musical activities has been significantly impacted by COVID-19.

In normal times, BSIC provides grants for workshops, concerts, and other musical projects in schools and communities throughout Eastern Ontario. Most of its funding comes from the annual music festival that takes place in Clarendon, near Sharbot Lake, on the August long weekend.

Much has changed for BSIC, over the past year, as it has for the festival. The summer arts camp, and the adult music camp, that BSIC runs have been cancelled in both 2020 and 2021, and the festival has been cancelled in 2021 for the second straight year, although a virtual festival has replaced the live one (see blueskiesmusicfestival.ca for details about the 2021 version).

“After receiving this money, we had to decide what would be the best thing to do. We know that there are quite a few people who are having a tough time, and we decided to try to help out some of those musicians with 10 grants,” said Linda Rush of Ompah, the community granting lead on the BSIC committee.

The grant application form, which is available at blueskies-in-the-community.ca, describes the purpose of the grants.

“We are very open to a wide variety of creative musical projects that would benefit from this grant. Whether it is the time to write, arrange or record new music, engage in educational projects that will assist you in the redevelopment of your post Covid career, or any other creative idea, we will consider supporting it with this grant,” it says.

Musicians from a broad region, “Kingston north to Bancroft, Belleville east to Ottawa and places in between” are invited to apply.

The application deadline is May 28. The grants are going to be awarded in June, and successful applicants will be asked to submit a report, outlining what they have accomplished with the money.

“These grants will not solve all the financial or career problems that musicians have encountered, but it will give a bit of a boost financially, and maybe open up some possibilities for them going forward,” said Rush.