Please note: Some of the content on this page was published prior to the launch of Creative Australia and references the Australia Council. Read more.

Fellowships

Australia Council Fellowships of $80,000 support outstanding, established artists’ or arts workers’ creative activity and professional development for a period of up to two years.

About the program

Australia Council Fellowships of $80,000 support outstanding, established artists’ and arts workers’ activity and professional development for a period of one to two years.

There are nine Fellowships offered in the areas of: Arts and Disability; Community Arts and Cultural Development; Dance; Emerging and Experimental Arts; First Nations; Literature; Music; Theatre; Visual Arts.

If you are successful, the payments will be made in two tranches: $75,000 on acceptance of the funding contract, and $5,000 on acquittal.

All Australia Council grants information including guidelines and application forms are available in accessible formats upon request.

Formats include word documents, audio CD, Braille, Easy English, Auslan and large print. Please note that requests for translated materials may take up to six weeks.

We accept applications for all our programs in accessible formats. Formats include Auslan, audio, video, printed, dictated, electronic and handwritten formats.

Contact Artists Services to discuss your specific requirements. 

Easy English

Click here to read in English how to apply.

 

Who can apply

Only individuals may apply to this category. You must be an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident, and a practicing artist or arts worker.

Applications for the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Fellowship must come from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals.

Applications for the Arts and Disability Fellowship must come from d/Deaf artists or arts workers, or artists and arts workers with disability.

Please note: You can only submit one application to this closing date of Fellowships.


Who can’t apply

You can’t apply for a Fellowship if:

  • you have an overdue grant report
  • you owe money to the Australia Council
  • you are applying as a group or organisation
  • you received an Australia Council Fellowship awarded by any panel, board or committee of the Australia Council since 1996 (excludes Australia Council Fellowships for Early Career Artists 2012-16, Australia Council Fellowships for Established Artists 2012-16, and Music Project Fellowships 2007-2014).

What you can apply for

You can apply for a range of different activity over the Fellowship period. Some examples of the activities we fund are:

  • the creation of new work
  • research and development
  • experimentation
  • collaborations
  • skills development
  • professional development and training
  • residencies
  • mentorships.

Access costs are legitimate expenses and may be included in your application. We encourage applicants to ensure that their work is accessible to everyone. Budgets may include costs associated with making activities accessible to a wide range of people (e.g. performances using Auslan, translation to other languages, captioning, audio description, temporary building adjustments, and materials in other formats).

If you are a d/Deaf applicant, an applicant with disability, or are working with d/Deaf artists or artists with disability, you may apply for access costs associated with the use of an interpreter, translation services, specific technical equipment, carer or support worker assistance. Please contact Artists Services to discuss your specific needs.


What you cannot apply for

You cannot apply for:

  • projects or activities that do not involve or benefit Australian practicing artists or arts workers
  • projects or activities that do not have a clearly defined arts component
  • projects that have already taken place
  • activities engaging with First Nations content, artists and communities that do not adhere to the Australia Council First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property Protocols.

Your application must comply with the following protocols. We may contact you to request further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding.

  • Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts. All applications involving First Nations artists, communities or subject matter must adhere to these Protocols, provide evidence of this in their application and support material. More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here.
  • Commonwealth Child Safe Framework. All successful applicants are required to comply with all Australian law relating to employing or engaging people who work or volunteer with children, including working with children checks and mandatory reporting

Applications will be assessed by panels of industry advisors, with final decisions approved by the Board of the Australia Council.

You must choose which peer assessment panel you wish to apply to assess your application.

Learn more about assessment panels.

If you are unsure which assessment panel to choose, contact Artists Services.

Learn more about how we assess your application.

Industry advisors will assess your application against the following criteria.

Under each criterion are bullet points indicating what the peers advisors may consider. You do not need to respond to every bullet point listed.

Outstanding professional achievement

Industry advisors will assess the depth of experience of the artist or arts worker and the significance of their professional achievement.

They may consider:

  • the quality and diversity of activities you have previously delivered
  • the significance of your career and body of work
  • national or international response to work previously produced.

Viability

Industry advisors will assess the viability of your proposal.

They may consider:

  • relevance and timeliness of the proposed activity
  • skills and ability of artists, arts workers, collaborators, or participants involved, and relevance to activity
  • realistic and achievable planning and resource use, including, where relevant, contingency plans, and COVID-safe plans for activities involving public presentations, national or international travel, health and safety plans, and evidence that you have considered the well-being of people involved in the project
  • the timetable of activity
  • evidence of appropriate consultation with participants, audiences or communities
  • appropriate payments to participating artists, arts workers, collaborators, participants, or cultural consultants
  • where relevant, evidence that the Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts have been adhered to
  • where relevant, evidence that you have considered and addressed any access issues associated with your project
  • where relevant, evidence of an environmental impact plan which may include cost-benefits.

Impact of the Fellowship

Industry advisors will assess the impact that the Fellowship will have on you and the sector.

They may consider:

  • how the proposed activity strengthens your practice
  • the impact the proposed activity will have on your career
  • how the proposed activity will be documented, presented or shared with the sector
  • how the proposed activity builds or develops national or international collaborations
  • how the proposed activity contributes to diverse practice in your field.

The types of questions we ask in the application form include:

  • a title for your Fellowship
  • a summary of your Fellowship
  • a brief bio
  • an outline of three key achievements or career highlights
  • an outline of your Fellowship and what you want to do
  • a timetable of activity for your Fellowship
  • an outline of how the Fellowship activity will impact your career and have broader impact
  • supporting material as relevant to your project, including examples of your work, bios of additional artists, and letters of support or permission from participants, communities, First Nations organisations, or Elders.

You should submit support material with your application. The advisors may review this support material to help them gain a better sense of your project.

We do not normally accept application-related support material submitted via post. Application-related material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender.

However, if you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online, or need advice on what type of material to submit, please contact Artists Services for advice well before the closing date.

There are three types of support material you may submit:

1.  Artistic support material

This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic or cultural work.

Types of support material we accept

Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks).

You can provide up to three URLs (weblinks) that link to content that is relevant to your proposal. This may include video, audio, images, or written material.

These URLs can include a total of:

  • 10 minutes of video and/or audio recording
  • 10 images
  • 10 pages of written material (for example, excerpts of literary writing).

Please note: advisors will not access any URLs that require them to log in or sign up to a platform. Please do not provide links to Spotify or other applications that require users to log in or pay for access.

If you are linking to media files that are private or password protected like Vimeo, please provide the password in the password field on the application form.

Other accepted file formats

If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application in the following formats:

  • video (MP4 and Windows Media)
  • audio (MP3 and Windows Media)
  • images (JPEG and PowerPoint)
  • written material (Word and PDF).

2.  Biographies and CVs

You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project.

Brief bios or CV information should be presented as a single document no longer than two A4 pages in total.

3.  Letters of support

Individuals, groups or organisations can write letters in support of your project. A support letter should explain how the project or activity will benefit you, other artists or arts professionals, participants or the broader community. It can also outline the support or involvement of key project partners, or evidence of consultation.

If relevant to your activity, letters of support must provide evidence of appropriate permissions and support from First Nations organisations, communities, and Elders. Please refer to the First Nations Protocols for more information.

You can include up to five letters of support, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page.

Zanny Begg is a video installation artist who works across drawing and film to explore questions of feminism, migration, and ecological and intergenerational responsibility. Key works include The Beehive (ACMI/Artbank Commission), The City of Ladies (MCA Commission), Prisoners (Deakin Public Art Commission) and Stories of Kannagi (STARTTS, NSW Service for the Treatment and Rehabilitation of Torture and Trauma Survivors, Commission). 

This fellowship will support Zanny to take on several significant new video art commissions, participate in touring work to international venues, and take time to experiment in a new direction for her practice. This proposal includes projects in Orange, Sydney, Wagga Wagga, Berlin, and Hamburg among other locations, and is grouped around the theme of finding places of refuge in times of uncertainty. Each aspect of this fellowship will contribute to Australian culture through the making and sharing of new works and through the development and sustenance of creative practice.  

Brenda is a contemporary classical composer who creates music for ensembles, orchestras, choirs, dance performances, festivals and concerts. She composes for both European and First Nations instruments from violins and double bass to clap sticks and didgeridoo.  

Brenda’s fellowship will enable her to compose a new song cycle for string quintet, describing her own (Yuin) and other First Nations peoples’ connections to water. She will undertake research and collaborate with traditional Maori composers and musicians in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and Navajo composers and musicians in New York State.  

Eliza Hull is an award-winning musician, writer and disability advocate. She recently released ‘Running Underwater’, a song recorded with ARIA Award-winning producer Pip Norman. It is the first song Eliza has written about living with ‘Charcot Marie Tooth’, a disability which she has lived with since the age of five.  Eliza’s music has propelled her onto the national radar, with many notable performances at venues and events including the Sydney Opera House, Ability Fest, Forum Theatre, The Melbourne Recital Centre, Bigsound, internationally at SXSW and more. She has toured with the likes of Ainslie Wills, BATTS, Mia Dyson and The Cat Empire. 

During the fellowship, Eliza will develop her work through mentorship with industry leaders as well as completing a writing residency at Karma Sound Studios in Bangkok, creating with diverse musicians from around the world. She will create 40 new original works, some of which will be used for her forthcoming album exploring disability called ‘Reunion’, which will have collaborations with emerging disabled Australian artists.  

Tristan has become a leading creative voice within the LGBTIQ+ community nationally and internationally, specifically for championing the rights of LGBTIQ+ older people. He co-designs creative projects that give communities access not only to arts experiences, but to broader community and social services.  

Tristan will use this fellowship period to develop and deliver new projects in collaboration with three communities across Australia: youth, older people and LGBTIQ+ communities. As well as these new projects, Tristan will undertake short course study with expert Celebrant and Death Doula teachers to expand his understanding of  and  for  ritual and ceremony. 

Dr. Shellie Morris is one of Australia’s beloved and revered female vocalists and has dedicated the past 25 years of her artistic career to creating and engaging with music as a tool for healing. A remarkable aspect of Dr. Morris’s musical repertoire is her proficiency in singing and composing music in Aboriginal languages, many of which are on UNESCO’s endangered list.  

Her fellowship project, Wabudawu a-yabala, is the documentation of Shellie’s journey home to learn her language and become a senior songwoman, taking a place in the Yanyuwa clan of the Northern Territory. Translating from Yanyuwa to “water path” (road of water), this cleanses the past from the forced removal of her grandmother and the pressure from society that saw Shellie adopted out after birth.  

Alice Pung’s writing has focused on people living on the margins – pregnant teenagers, illiterate mothers, poorer Australians and genocide survivors. Her books have been included in VCE and HSC study lists and are studied in schools and universities in Australia and overseas.  

Alice is a mother as well as a lawyer and, until now, her writing practice has been ‘in addition’ to her work and carer responsibilities. Her fellowship project – a novel titled “Super Vision” – covers an important and underrepresented topic – working mothers. The cumulation of her workplace expertise, life experience, public platform and personal insight will yield a work that will hopefully be enduring and significant; and perhaps even change the national conversation about how we value certain ‘caring’ work.  

Dr Jen Rae’s 18-year practice is situated at the intersections of art, speculative futures and climate emergency disaster adaptation + resilience. Her work is predominantly articulated through transdisciplinary collaborations, multi-platform projects, community alliances and public pedagogies. Jen was a core artist of Arts House’s REFUGE project (2016-22) and is the Co-founder and Creative Research Lead at the Centre for Reworlding.

During this fellowship Rae’s main objective is to create a partnership model that can sustain a broad exploration of disaster resilience, artist communities + public engagement in the Pacific Rim. ‘Artists and Disaster Resilience’ (working title) is a new large-scale trans-disciplinary collaborative project engaging artists and arts communities across the Pacific Rim committed to developing intersectional creative pathways to climate-related disaster risk reduction + resilience.

This creative research and development phase is dedicated to establishing foundational aspects of the partnership; undertaking experimental forms of consultation and gathering for knowledge-sharing + relationship building; and, developing content components for the proposed gatherings + labs. The aim is to develop a program of activities to support collaboration, creative production and presentation in 2024 onwards including a large-scale exhibition and creative program in 2026.

S. Shakthidharan’s debut play Counting and Cracking, co-produced by Belvoir and Co-Curious in 2019, is a 3-hour epic with 16 actors and 3 musicians hailing from 6 different countries. It had a sell-out season at Sydney Festival and Adelaide Festival. The play toured to Edinburgh Festival and Birmingham’s Commonwealth Games Cultural Festival in 2022.  His most recent epic The Jungle and the Sea premiered in November 2022 at Belvoir, again with rave reviews and of profound importance for local Sri Lankan audiences.  

Shakthidharan’s fellowship will include a mentorship and development of a new large-scale work at The Public Theatre in New York (which helped create the musical Hamilton). Building on many years of dedicated work elevating South Asian Australian stories and artists, this is a significant opportunity for the artist which will also have impact on the broader Australian theatre sector.

Vicki Van Hout is an Indigenous independent artist with over 20 years’ experience. A graduate of NAISDA Dance College and the Martha Graham School of Contemporary Dance in New York, she went on to perform with major Indigenous dance companies, Bangarra Dance Theatre and the Aboriginal Islander Dance Theatre, before joining forces with Marilyn Miller as a founding member of Fresh Dancers.  

During Van Hout’s fellowship period she will develop ‘In Between the Lines’ which occurs around three major activities, a book publication, a long form mainstage production and a professional development workshop series. Vicki will interweave an important archiving project – rare within the dance world and with the promise of broad impact with diverse diaspora artists, especially First Nations artists. 

Frequently asked questions

Download our FAQs for using the Application Management System in Word and PDF.

You can only submit one application per closing date to each of the following categories: Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups, Fellowships and Arts Projects for Organisations.

You will receive your grant payment within two weeks of accepting your funding agreement. Please note we pay our grants in the financial year which they are approved. We will not adjust payment timelines to the particular circumstances of individuals.

The deadline for applications is at 3:00pm AET on the closing date. We strongly recommend submitting before this. Administrative and technical support is only available during office hours (Monday-Friday) 9am to 5 pm AET. Late applications will not be accepted.

Please refer to the Languages Other Than English page.

We do not accept applications submitted via post. Any material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your application online, please contact Artists Services.

We do not amend, correct, update or change any part of your application once it has been submitted. However, if you receive additional confirmations for activities or artists after the closing date you may alert us to these, and we may bring them to the attention of peer assessors at the assessment meeting. These updates could include confirmation that a proposed activity will take place, a partnership has been secured, or funding from another source has been received.

You can update us about such confirmations by contacting us. Briefly describe the nature of the confirmation and cite your application reference number.  You do not need to send us copies of confirmation emails from third parties – if we need to see evidence of the confirmation we will request it.

If you wish to update your application once it has been submitted, but the closing date has not yet passed, you can submit a new, updated application and request to withdraw the original one by emailing operationsservicedesk@creative.gov.au

Grant applications can be found and are submitted through our online system. If you are using the system for the first time you will need to register your details before filling out a grant application form.

Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application approximately 12 weeks after the closing date. Please see the guidelines page for the grant category you are interested in for more details.

We accept applications in the following artforms and arts practice areas: First Nations Arts and Culture, Community Arts and Cultural Development, Emerging and Experimental Arts, Multi-Arts, Music, Dance, Theatre, Visual Arts and Literature.

If you are unsure of which assessment panel you should apply to, and for more information about what constitutes Community Arts and Cultural Development, Multi-Arts and Emerging and Experimental Arts, please refer to the Investment FAQs page.

We define a ‘group’ as two or more individuals who do not form a legally constituted organisation.  This can include co-collaborators and collectives.  Groups are not eligible to apply to programs open only to organisations.

An ‘organisation’ is a legally constituted organisation that is registered or created by law. For example, incorporated associations, companies limited by guarantee or government statutory authorities are all defined as organisations. Organisations that are not legally constituted are not eligible to apply for funding in grant categories that are open to organisations only. Organisations may be required to provide a certificate of incorporation or evidence of their current legal status.  Funding programs for organisations are not intended for sole traders or partnerships.

No, applying to a government program will not count as one of your applications to Creative Australia per year.

Yes. However, the contact person for group applications must be an Australian citizen or permanent resident.

Yes, provided that the project that they are proposing directly benefits Australian artists or the Australian arts sector.

We provide funding to practising artists or artsworkers. While you may not regularly earn income from your practice, you must be identified and recognised by your peers as a practising artist or artsworker. This may include cultural practitioners, editors, producers, curators and arts managers.

No; if you have an overdue grant acquittal you will not be eligible to apply for any further grants.

The following eligibility requirements apply to applicants to the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island Arts Assessment Panel:

  • Individuals – must be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
  • Groups – the members of the group must be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander
  • Organisations – the majority of the governing body of the organisation must be Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander.

No; only Australian citizens and Australian permanent residents may apply for funding. Foreign nationals who are permitted to live and work in Australia by holding visas such as a Special Category visa or a Bridging visa are not eligible to apply.

Yes. Creative research and development is a key component of the creative process and can be funded through our Arts Projects grants.

Yes. We accept applications in languages other than English, including Auslan.

If any part of your application requires translation into English, please contact the Artists Services team at least six weeks before the closing date of the round to which you intend to apply. We will use our best and all reasonable endeavours to assist in having some or all of the material translated. However we reserve the right to refuse an application in a language other than English if we believe there is no genuine reason to accept such an application, or if the time-frame for translation precludes us from making the materials available for assessment in the round to which it was submitted.

If you wish to request an application form in a language other than English, please contact the Artists Services team at least 12 weeks before the closing date of the round to which you intend to apply.

We reserve the right to refuse an application form translation request if we believe there is no genuine reason for the request. We also reserve the right to refuse an application form translation if the time-frame for translation prevents us from providing a translated form in time for assessment in the round to which it was submitted.

If you supply examples of creative content in a language other than English, we may engage an industry expert to give the peer assessors an evaluation of its artistic merit.

You can speak with our staff in your first language. Please telephone the Translating and Interpreting Service on 131 450 (local call anywhere in Australia) and ask to be connected with Creative Australia.

Applications that focus solely on academic studies, or are for activities that are part of assessable coursework are unlikely to be successful with our assessment panels. Assessment panels are also unlikely to support applications requesting the costs of academic fees or courses.

If you wish to apply for study costs, explain to the panel how your project extends, or supplements, the course’s standard curriculum requirements. Also, bear in mind that your project will be assessed on artistic merit of the work.

If you are applying for an Arts Projects grant for funding to complete a training program, course, workshop or diploma, explain how doing so will impact positively on your career or practice.

While we can support screen-based art, we do not generally support activities associated with feature film, television, or documentary. See Screen Australia, the Federal Government’s primary agency for production of Australian screen activity.

No, we do not offer quick response grants. Outside of our regular grants program, we do offer other grants and opportunities.

Yes. Early career artists are eligible to apply for funding through our Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups grant and a number of other opportunities listed on our website.

Yes. Organisations can propose a program of projects and/or activities. This could be an organisation’s full artistic program for a given calendar year or more, for example.

We encourage applicants to be mindful of the following considerations:

  • The activities should each contribute toward a clear, unifying overall objective – for example, the organisation’s artistic vision.  It is important to demonstrate the rationale for the inclusion of these activities and how the overall program will align with the organisation’s vision.
  • In proposing a program consisting of multiple projects or activities, it is possible that some individual projects may be less compelling than others. If you are submitting an application proposing multiple activities or projects, we encourage you to ensure that a similar level of consideration, planning, and artistic merit is common to each to avoid one component of your program potentially letting down the others.
  • You may wish to consider using one of the three URLs you can provide as support material to link to a document that provides more detail about each individual project or activity in your program.

Read more about how your application is assessed by Peer Assessor and Industry Advisors here.

Yes, if relevant. If your project has an environmental impact, you should provide evidence of an environmental impact plan which may include cost-benefits. Arts On Tour’s Green Touring Toolkit provides detailed information and resources for artists and arts organisations on how to mount a sustainable tour.

As a national arts funding body, all our grant rounds are competitive. Success rates are usually between 15% and 20%.

Yes. Projects must have a start date that falls after we notify you of the outcome of your application, and no later than one year from that date. We will notify you of the outcome of your application approximately 12 weeks after the closing date.

You can have your application assessed by the multi-art form peer panel if your project involves multiple separate art form-specific activities. This could include, for example: a festival that incorporates music, literature and theatre, or a project that has no one specific arts practice focus.  However, if your project does involve more than one area of arts practice, you still have the option to choose one of the single art form panels, which you think will best relate to your work, to assess your application.

Our multi-art form assessment panels are made up of artists and arts workers from a range of art form areas. Peers may include those from specific art form areas (e.g., music or visual arts), peers who work across several art forms, and/or peers who work in interdisciplinary practice.

Community Arts and Cultural Development practice is a community-based arts practice and can engage any art form. There are many variations of how community arts and cultural development works are made, developed and shared, and as such, there is no one model. What is at the core of this practice, however, is the collaboration between professional artists and communities to create art. The activity must be undertaken by with and for the communities involved. The artists and arts working facilitating the project should be highly skilled in these processes, and the activities should reflect the energy and qualities of the community.

No. However, applications involving venues and partners are likely to be more competitive if their involvement is confirmed.

In this context, the term ‘emerging’, refers to emerging art forms, not artists who are at the emerging stage of their careers.

Emerging and experimental arts practice is characterised by the exploration of challenging new concepts in the creation and experience of arts and culture. It plays with or invents new forms, methodologies, technologies or explores non-material ideas.  These sometimes include art/science research collaborations, bio art, live art, socially engaged practices and new technologies.

If you’re unsure about which assessment panel to select, contact the Artists Services team.

The First Nations Arts and Culture assessment panel consists entirely of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander industry professionals across art forms and across states and territories.

We also encourage First Nations applicants to apply to other art form assessment panels (for example visual arts, music and literature).

Our staff are available to assist you in understanding the purpose of the grant, application requirements, and submitting your application. Staff can assist over email, phone and using Skype. We cannot review application drafts.

Additional support can be discussed where needed. Where the additional support required is beyond the scope of what our staff can provide, we may recommend speaking to an appropriate organisation for further assistance.

The best applications are those where the voice of the artist comes through. Where possible you, as the artist, should write your application. Your manager or producer may administer the grant on your behalf to undertake the financial and reporting requirements.

No. You can only submit one application to the round.

If you are applying as an unincorporated entity, unincorporated association, or partnership you do not need to have an administrator for your grant. However, you must be able to provide an ABN and bank account that are in the group’s name. If you cannot do this, you must nominate an administrator. For more information about this, please contact us.

All individual or organisation grant applicants based in Australia must have an active Australian Business Number (ABN). Individual applicants without an ABN may have their grant administered by an individual or organisation with an ABN. Organisations operating outside of Australia do not need an ABN to apply. Individuals based outside of Australia may not need an ABN to apply, depending on their circumstances (please check with your accountant or tax advisor).

The name of the applicant must match the name of the ABN and the name of the bank account we pay the grant into. There are no exceptions to this rule. If you cannot provide an ABN and bank account that are in the same name as the applicant, you will need to nominate an administrator for your grant.

For more information about this, please contact Artists Services.

Grants can be considered income by Centrelink. The amount is generally assessed as a lump sum and could affect your Centrelink payment for the financial year. Artists who are running a business (even on a small scale) may have their grant treated differently. It is possible to have your grant paid to an administering body if you wish.

Applicants should contact Centrelink on 13 28 50 for advice. Additionally, Centrelink’s Financial Information Service (FIS) is an education and information service available to everyone in the community and may be of benefit to applicants who also receive assistance through the social security system. To contact FIS phone 13 23 00.

Yes. We expects that artists professionally employed or engaged on funded activities will be paid for their work in line with industry standards. Payment of artist fees should be reflected in your application budget.

For more information, see our Payment of Artists page.

Yes. Organisational administrative costs should be reasonable and directly related to project delivery. They should generally not exceed 10% of the total budget, although this will depend on the nature of the project. If those costs are higher, your application may be less competitive.

Grants may be considered part of your income in a financial year and may be subject to tax. You must determine your own taxation liabilities. We suggest you consult your financial adviser or contact the Australian Taxation Office on 13 28 66.

No. We encourage applicants whose projects will take place in regional and remote locations to budget accurately and realistically, we recognise that costs may differ between regions and major cities.

If you are GST-registered when you receive a grant, we’ll pay the grant amount plus GST. The budget provided in your application should be exclusive of GST.

Yes. Access costs are viewed as legitimate expenses and may be included in an applicant’s budget.

We recognise that funding may be required for access costs incurred for applicants with disability, or for costs associated with working with artists with disability who have access needs (e.g., use of an interpreter, translation services, specific technical equipment, or support worker/carer assistance). We encourage you to ensure that your work is accessible to everyone. Therefore, your budgets may also include costs associated with making activities accessible to a wide range of people (e.g. performances using Auslan, captioning, audio description, temporary building adjustments, materials in other formats such as Braille or CD).

The application form calculates your grant request as the difference between your total cash income, and your total cash costs. The gap between these two numbers is the grant request. In-kind contributions are not included in this calculation.

(Total cash costs) – (total cash income) = grant request.

For example:

($50,000 cash costs) – ($30,000 cash income) = $20,000 grant request.

Yes. Childcare is a legitimate expense to include in your budget.

We encourage our applicants to seek funding from other sources to cover the complete costs of their projects. While it does depend on the size of your grant request, we would expect that applicants with large requests would also secure funding from elsewhere to cover all costs associated with a large-scale project.

Yes. Volunteer out-of-pocket expenses, such as telephone calls or petrol for travel, are recognised as legitimate expenses and may be included in an applicant’s budget.

Yes. In-kind support refers to resources, goods and services (for example, use of a venue, materials, and people’s time) provided by yourself or others either free of charge, or below market value. Detailing in-kind costs in the budget is important as it gives peers a full understanding of the viability of your project and levels of support you are receiving. In-kind costs are also an expense so, when you save your application, any in-kind income you included will auto-populate to the expenses side of the budget.

Additional information

When choosing the artform assessment panel for your application, consider which group of assessors will have the experience and background to best appreciate its merits.  

If you are not sure which panel to choose, contact us. 

Use this section to introduce yourself, your project partners and your project aims. 

  • Introduce yourself or your organisation in more detail. Don’t assume the assessors are familiar with your work. Talk about your background, how you work, and what you value. 
  • Don’t use this section to simply list key achievements. You can attach a CV/bio that provides this information in the support material section. 
  • Speak in your own voice, using the first person. 
  • Be concise, clear, and succinct. Avoid jargon. Talk about the project in the way that you would with your peers and colleagues. 
  • Use bullet points and subheadings where appropriate. 
  • Avoid generalisations, repetition, and hyperbolic or unsubstantiated claims. 
  • If you are applying on behalf of a group or organisation, use this section to talk about your key collaborators and partners. How does the group or organisation function creatively? What do each of its members bring to the whole? How do you work together? What drew you to working with each other? 
  • If your project involves a major project partner, provide information about them and how they will be involved. 
  • Describe the project clearly in terms of ‘what,’ ‘why’ and ‘how’. 
  • Provide the context and background of your project. 
  • Focus on what makes your project distinctive, original, and innovative. How is it different from your past work? What do you expect the impact of your project to be for you, the arts sector and Australian culture? 
  • Make it easy for assessors to understand the creative rationale behind your project.  
  • Describe your expected outcomes. 
  • What are the ideas at the centre of your project? Why are those ideas exciting? 
  • How will the public experience the project? 
  • Explain the steps you are going to take to deliver your project.  
  • Provide a clear, detailed, well-planned timetable in the ‘Activity Details’ section. Use this section to show the major milestones, events, and stages in your project. 
  • Explain how your proposal is timely and time sensitive. 
  • Situate the project within the context of your career progression, or your organisation’s long-term objectives. Explain where you have come from, where you are going, and why this project will help take you there. 
  • Think about any questions and concerns that the assessors might have regarding your application. Try to answer these pre-emptively. 
  • Leave as little room for doubt or ambiguity as possible. 
  • Show that you have considered and planned for any risks associated with pandemic, flood, fire, or other force majeure events. 
  • Choose the elective third assessment criterion that relates most directly to your project’s strengths. Your choice should reflect the main outcome of your project.  
  • If your proposal involves working with First Nations artists, communities, or subject matter, you must provide evidence of genuine consultation and consent. It is essential to implement adhere to our First Nations Protocols and demonstrate the practical application of these in your budget by including appropriate fees for Elders and/or consultants. You can find the Protocols here. 
  • If your project involves community engagement and participation, provide evidence of genuine community consultation and support. Be sure to outline your community engagement strategy and show that the community supports the project.  
  • If you have any questions about your project, contact us. 
  • Ask for what you need. Don’t underestimate the cost of delivering your project. 
  • Pay all artists, including yourself, fairly. Where possible, use relevant industry awards and rates of pay. Show how you have calculated the wages and fees for those involved in the description field. 
  • Be detailed and transparent.  
  • Break down large budget items and show your calculations in the description field.  
  • Where possible, diversify your income sources. 
  • Include the value of in-kind contributions that are being offered to your project. In-kind contributions are goods or services that are offered free of charge or at a discounted rate. 
  • Consider how you will provide accessibility assistance for audience members and project participants. Include those costs in your budget.  
  • If you have any questions about your completing your budget, contact us. 
  • Follow the limits set for support material in the published guidelines. 
  • Use the ‘Support Material’ section to include CVs and bios from your key collaborators and partners. 
  • Check your URLs to ensure that they work.
  • Assessors will not access any URLs that require them to log in to, or sign up to, an online platform. 
  • If you use a file hosting system such as Dropbox or WeTransfer, make sure your links are public and have not expired. 
  • Supply high-quality, relevant support material. It should demonstrate the merit and ideas of your project. Where you have collaborators, include examples of their work. 
  • Ensure your support material corroborates the claims you have made in the written component of your application. 
  • Provide letters of support. These should demonstrate that your work is held in high regard by others, especially those involved in the project. 
  • If you have any questions about your support material, contact us. 
  • Reread your application carefully before you submit it, checking for errors. 
  • Consider asking friends or colleagues who are familiar with your work to review your draft application. 
  • If you are having trouble submitting your application, contact us well before the closing date and time. 

Once you submit your application, we will send you an email acknowledging that we have received your application.

After we receive your application, we first check it meets the eligibility criteria for the grant or opportunity to which you are applying.

Applications to our grant programs are assessed by arts practice peer panels using the published assessment criteria for the relevant grant program.

We aim to notify you of the outcome of your application no later than 12 weeks after the published closing date for the grant round.

Once all applications have been assessed, you will be contacted about the outcome of your application.

If you have been successful, you will also be sent a funding agreement. This outlines the conditions of funding, how you will be paid and your grant reporting requirements.

The following accordion items outline these stages in more detail.

If your application is successful, you will receive an email telling you a grant is offered. You must then agree to the conditions of your grant, which represents our contract with you – this can be done online, by email or by letter. Payment of a grant will not be made until the grant conditions have been agreed and accepted by all the relevant parties.

You should not start a project that depends on a grant until all relevant parties have agreed and accepted the grant conditions and we have evidence of this acceptance on file.

Standard grant conditions require you to, among other things:

  • seek approval before making a change to a funded project (for example, changes in the activity budget; changes to key creative personnel; or changes to start or end dates)
  • respond to our requests for information about the project or grant
  • satisfactorily account for how the grant is spent (if you do not you will be required to return all the money which you cannot satisfactorily account for)
  • comply with all relevant laws
  • acknowledge our support in all promotional material associated with the project, including use of the Creative Australia logo and a standard text of acknowledgement
  • provide artistic and financial acquittal reports at the end of the project
  • return any unspent grant funds at the completion of your project or on notice from us to return such unspent funds.

Grant agreements must be signed by a legal entity – either a legally constituted organisation or an individual. For unincorporated groups, see the section on administered grants.

All individual or organisation grant applicants based in Australia must have an ABN. Individual applicants without an ABN may have their grant administered by an individual or organisation with an ABN. Organisations operating outside of Australia do not need an ABN to apply. Individuals based outside of Australia may not need an ABN to apply, depending on their circumstances (please check with your accountant or tax advisor).

The name of the applicant must match the name of the ABN and the name of the bank account we pay the funds into. There are no exceptions to this rule. If applicants cannot provide an ABN and bank account that are in the same name as the applicant’s name, they will need to nominate an administrator for their grant.

Groups/ensembles/collectives, unincorporated associations/ unincorporated entities and other bodies with no legal status do not need an administrator if they have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) and bank account in their name. If they are unable to provide an active ABN and bank account that matches the name of the applicant, they must nominate an administrator. The name of the administrator must match the name of the ABN and bank account into which we pay the funds  if the application is successful.

If we approve your application you will need to accept the conditions of the grant in a funding agreement.

After you accept your funding agreement online, we will automatically generate a payment for the grant on your behalf. You do not need to send us an invoice.

After you accept the funding agreement, we will pay the grant directly into your nominated bank account within two weeks. Grant payments cannot be postponed.

If you do not wish to have the grant funds paid directly into your bank account, you can choose to have your grant administered by another individual or legally constituted organization. Please note this does not apply to Arts Projects – Organisations.

When you apply, you will be asked to provide an active Australian Business Number or ‘ABN’. The ABN that you provide must match the name of the applicant (or the administering body, if you have nominated one). When you accept your funding agreement, you will be asked to enter the details of the bank account you wish the grant to be paid into. The name associated with that bank account must match the name in which the ABN has been registered.

When you have completed your project, you must acquit your grant by providing a grant report. The grant report provides detail on your funded activities and how the  funding was spent.

Please read your funding agreement to check details of the grant acquittal material you should provide.

The grant report is where you tell us:

  • how you spent your grant
  • what the artistic outcomes of your funded activity were.

If you do not provide a satisfactory grant report, we will not make any further payments that may be due to you, and you will not be eligible  to apply for further grants. We may also ask you to pay back all or part of the funding provided to you.

We use grant reports to fulfil obligations of accountability to the Australian Government. They are also essential to the development work of Creative Australia. The reports help us evaluate the achievements of funded activities, monitor the effectiveness of grant categories and ensure our policy development is consistent with the experience of artists in the field.

Reporting for Multi-year Funded Organisations

Organisations that receive multi-year funding are required to submit financial, statistical, and artistic reporting on an annual basis.

All reporting is submitted online via our arts organisations reporting system.

If you are not sure what reporting you need to submit as part of your annual reporting, or what information to provide, please get in touch.

All recipients must acknowledge that Creative Australia provided funding for their activities. When you acquit your grant, we will ask you how you acknowledged us.

For printed or online material use our logo and this phrase:

This project has been assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body. OR,

(Company Name) is assisted by the Australian Government through Creative Australia, its principal arts investment and advisory body.

Logos for download.

Where projects do not have a public outcome, or do not produce any printed or online material, you will need to think about how best to acknowledge Creative Australia funding.