Packer family champion arts education in Melbourne and Perth

Crown Resorts and the Packer Family Foundation have announced a new $25 million arts education funding initiative.

The Melbourne and Perth Art Education Initiative, an eight-year, joint commitment of the Crown Resorts and Packer Family Foundations was announced by Foundation Chair Gretel Packer.

Designed, Packer explained to “provide more young Australians with the opportunity to engage with the arts and help them reach their full potential,” the program will be mostly focussed on education, using art to engage young people with learning and their community.

This new initiative follows on from the success of the $30 million Western Sydney Arts Initiative, launched in 2014, designed to promote the accessibility and availability of the arts in Western Sydney.

Packer added “Australia is a vast, dynamic and multi-cultural country (and) the programs we partner with through our Melbourne and Perth Art Education Initiative, as well as our Western Sydney Arts Initiative, will provide young Australians important social and cultural access points, mentoring and engagement opportunities, helping them on the path to fulfil their dreams.”

Both of these programs are funded through the National Arts Fund, which is part of Crown Resorts and the Packer Family Foundation’s National Philanthropic Fund, and they come at a time when reduced government funding for the arts has made philanthropic projects more important than ever.

Applications for grants from the Western Sydney Arts Initiative and Melbourne and Perth Art Education Initiative are open until 15th June.

Click here for more information.

Image shows Ros and Gretel Packer.

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