UKARIA Music Residency

Through its residency program, UKARIA provides opportunities for exceptional musicians and composers to think, develop, collaborate, and create.

Priority will be given to:

• the creation of new work
• the transformation of existing work
• collaboration with other artists, including cross-artform and cross-genre collaboration.

Projects which are focused on preparing for performances and/or making recordings of existing works will be given a low priority.

Projects which are focused on a single artist will be given a low priority. This opportunity is not offered as a retreat for a single artist to work on a score.

For examples of previous residencies click here.

What is offered

This residency includes access to

• UKARIA Cultural Centre (UCC), which has a Steinway Grand Piano model D
• Twin Peaks (TP) which is a separate site. It is located approximately five minutes’ drive away, via the same road as UCC.

Facilities at Twin Peaks

• A cottage with four bedrooms, two bathrooms and a large rehearsal room (8 x 5m) with a Bosendorfer Grand Piano.
• The rehearsal room has internal and external access.
• The house upper level, which has six bedrooms and three bathrooms
• The house lower level, a self-contained suite comprising one large bedroom, a kitchenette, a bathroom and a large break out room.

Twin Peaks is available for exclusive use for the duration of the residency for up to ten people for a maximum of ten nights. This includes linen, cleaning and daily breakfast provisions. However please note that if there are a total of four or fewer artists for the duration of the residency, only the cottage will be made available.

Access to UCC is by negotiation, considering performances already scheduled at UCC and the requirements of the successful applicant.

When it is offered

One residency will be offered in 2023. Exact dates to be negotiated.

Who can apply:

• Individuals and organisations may apply for projects that are led by a musician or composer.
• If you are part of a group, you may nominate one of the members to apply on behalf of the group.
• You must be a practicing artist or arts worker and an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident.

Who can’t apply:

You can’t apply for this opportunity 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.

If you are an applicant with a disability, or are working with 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.

If you need advice about applying, or have specific access requirements, contact Artist Services.

Your application must comply with the following Protocols. We may contact you to ask for 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

If your application involves First Nations artists, communities or subject matter, you must:

• follow these Protocols, and
• provide evidence of this in your application and support material.

More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here.

Commonwealth Child Safe Framework

All successful applicants must comply with all Australian law relating to employing or engaging people who work or volunteer with children. This includes working with children checks and mandatory reporting. Successful organisations who provide services directly to children, or whose funded activities involve contact with children, will also be required to implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations.

Applications will be considered by the Australia Council in consultation with Industry Advisors and a UKARIA representative.

In your application, you must address the three assessment criteria listed below. Under each criterion there are bullet point prompts indicating what the advisors may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to respond to every prompt.

1. Quality

The advisors will consider the artistic quality of your proposal, including:.

• significance and quality of the work
• quality of previous work
• the potential impact and timeliness of the project on the artist(s) career
• responses to previous work from artistic or cultural peers, or the public
• your artistic rationale and process
• the level of experimentation and risk taking involved in your work.

2. Viability

The advisors will consider the viability of your proposal, including:

• skills and ability of artists, industry professionals, collaborators or partners involved, and their relevance to the proposed activity
• demonstration of realistic and achievable planning
• a logical and realistic residency budget
• the role of any partners, including confirmation of involvement
• for proposals which involve working with diverse audiences or communities, demonstrated cultural competencies.

3. Creation

The advisors will consider how the project outcomes will contribute to the creation of new Australian work, including how it:

• develops or extends your area of creative practice
• contributes to diversity of artistic expression
• builds or develops national or international collaborations
• creates opportunities for the artists involved.

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

What you should provide

We do not 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. 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.

There are three types of support material you may submit:

1. Artistic support material

This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic 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.

Please note: These 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.

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, CVs

You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project. Bios and CVs 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 will support the aims of this fund. It can also detail 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.