The Lady Mollie Isabelle Askin Ballet Scholarship & Sir Robert William Askin Operatic Scholarship

Who can apply

Applications for the Lady Mollie Isabelle Askin Ballet Scholarship are open to individual artists who are Australian citizens aged 17 – 29 at the closing date.

Applications for the Sir Robert William Askin Operatic Scholarship are open to individual artists who identify as male and are Australian citizens aged 18 – 29 at the closing date.

These are terms established by the Lady Mollie Isabelle Askin Ballet Scholarship Trust and the Sir Robert William Askin Operatic Scholarship Trust. There are no exceptions to these requirements.

If you are an Australian citizen but will have difficulty providing a copy of a birth certificate, passport or citizenship certificate, please contact Artists Services.

Who can’t apply

You can’t apply for a scholarship if:

• you received a grant, or administered a grant, from the Australia Council in the past and that grant has not been satisfactorily acquitted
• you owe money to the Australia Council
• you were previously awarded a Lady Mollie Isabelle Askin Ballet Scholarship or Sir Robert William Askin Operatic Scholarship.

The scholarships are awarded biennially to candidates who have outstanding ability and promise in Ballet or Opera.

Scholarship funds can be used to assist with study programs, professional training courses and mentor programs that would not otherwise be obtainable due to lack of financial resources.

Scholarship proposals will be reviewed by the Australia Council. We may seek industry advice on your scholarship before making our recommendations to Perpetual, who will make the final decision.

The decision of Perpetual is final, and no feedback will be provided  on your application or the decision.

Your application will be assessed against two criteria:

• the potential of the applicant
• the viability of the proposal.

Scholarship applications are submitted through our Application Management System (AMS).

We do not accept applications sent 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.

Once signed in, click on ‘Apply for a Grant’ from the left panel menu. Scroll down the list of opportunities. Under ‘Co-Investment Opportunities’ select ‘The Lady Mollie Askin Ballet Scholarship’ or ‘The Sir Robert Askin Operatic Scholarship’.

The type of questions we ask you to complete include:

• your name and contact details
• your gender
• confirmation that you are an Australian citizen
• confirmation of your age
• information about your practice and professional experience, your career goals
• the proposed aims and activities of your scholarship (names of teachers/institutions, travel plans, dates, etc.), and how your planned activities will assist your career
• supporting material relevant to your proposal.

You may supply additional material to support your application.

You may submit up to two URLs (web links). These URLs should be direct links to material that can include video, audio, images, and writing.

For the Lady Mollie Isabelle Askin Ballet Scholarship, please provide:

• a direct link/URL to a 5 min (maximum) video recording of class/studio work (must include adagio, turning and allegro examples)
• a direct link/URL to a 10 min (maximum) video recording of performance material (must include examples from the classical ballet repertoire and a contemporary ballet example).

For the Sir Robert William Askin Operatic Scholarship, please provide:

• a direct link/URL to a video or audio recording of a performance.

You can include up to three letters of support or written references for you and your scholarship, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page. The letters should explain how the proposed scholarship will benefit you.

To find out more about support material, including advice on how to get examples of your work online, please contact Artists Services.

Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs. However, if you cannot supply artistic support material via a URL, we will accept artistic support material in the following formats:

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