Australia Council announces $10.4 million in arts funding

The Australia Council for the Arts has announced $10.4 million of investment in Australian arts through its September grants round.

Australia Council Chief Executive Officer Tony Grybowski said this grant round had received a strong response with almost 1,700 applications.

Grybowski stated "the 290 projects funded across all areas of practice will support an impressive and diverse range of work by individual artists, groups and small to medium arts organisations from across the country.

“The projects include innovative collaborations, ground breaking ideas, incorporation of science and technology, and capacity building for emerging artists.

“Australia’s international profile and artists and audiences in regional Australia will particularly benefit from this investment.

“Almost half the projects we have supported have an international component, developing valuable relationships, markets and audiences for Australian artists in 46 countries. In the last three years we have tracked an increase in artists applying to work on projects in Asia. This is reflected in this funding round, with activity in 19 countries in the Asia Pacific region.

“Nearly a quarter of the successful applicants are based in regional or remote areas, and almost a third of all projects have a regional component. This is important in ensuring that regional audiences benefit from stories told by their own communities, as well as increasing access to work toured between metropolitan and regional areas.

“Our new grants model allows deeper analysis of the impact of our investment. We are encouraged to note that in this round each project funded involves, on average, an additional five artists.

“The flexible and responsive nature of our new grants program continues to increase access to new artists, groups and organisations, with 13% of successful applicants in this round having never applied to the Australia Council before. This builds on the 20% of first time applicants in the first round of the new program in March.”

The Australia Council’s peer assessment process ensures that grants are assessed by experts in the relevant areas of practice. The 115 peers involved in this funding round represented all states and territories and all arts practices. The Council’s enhanced peer assessment process draws from a much larger and more diverse pool of experts.

In this round 25% of peers were from regional or remote areas, 16% identified as being Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander people, and 19% from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds.

The $10.4 million investment includes $3.7 million to 166 projects by individual artists, $1 million to 39 group projects, and $5.7 million to support 85 projects by small to medium arts organisations.

Prior to the partial return of funding last month, $6 million was available for this grant round. The Council is now able to invest $19 million across the two core grant rounds during 2015-16.

Click here to see the September grant results.

Applications are now open for the next grants round, which closes on 2nd February 2016.

26th November 2015 - AUSTRALIAN COUNCIL WELCOMES PART RETURN OF NPEA FUNDING

17th November 2015 - AUSTRALIA COUNCIL SUPPORTS INTERNATIONAL ARTS EXCHANGE AT APT8

16th June 2015 - AUSTRALIA COUNCIL ANNOUNCES FIRST RESULTS OF NEW GRANTS MODEL

19th August 2014 - AUSTRALIA COUNCIL INTRODUCES SIGNIFICANT CHANGES TO GRANT FUNDING