David Williams
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My name is David Williams, I’m the creative producer of Version 1.0 which is a theatre company based in Sydney. Version 1.0 has received a number of grants since 2002 from the theatre board. The most recent project application that we received was a new work grant for a project we’ve got coming up called Hurt and Damage – that’s a project looking at domestic violence policy and the way in which domestic violence cases are processed in the criminal justice system.
Be very clear about what the particular application that you are applying for is for. If it’s new work then apply to do new work - either a creative development or a production stage of a project. Don’t apply to the theatre board of the Australia Council if you want to do a production of a hot new play by a European playwright. The Australia Council, given its name has a national agenda, it is to fund contemporary Australian work. That doesn’t mean you can’t collaborate with international artists, but be very clear that the Australia Council is about funding Australian work.
Do some research, work out what has previously been funded – all that information is on the Australia Council website – look it up. It will take you half and hour, you’ll know who got money, what for, and how much they got, and that’s vital information for anyone to know.
Often the trickiest part of an application is articulating the skills of the artist team involved. That’s partly to do with the page limits of an application to the Australia Council which I do recommend people stick to very strongly – excess pages will not be assessed, they’re not joking about that. You only get two pages for biographies of artists so be very clear about what’s relevant to your project and what’s not. Your artists may be really great quiltmakers; unless that’s relevant to your application don’t focus on that.
When addressing the question contribution to diversity in Australian theatre we draw very much on past research that we’ve done about the nature of other work in the field. So what does Version 1.0 do that other companies that have been funded by the Australia Council over the last decade haven’t done, or if they have done it how do we do it differently – that’s what we focus on. So we look at diversity through what makes us unique.
A really important question is the criteria effective planning and use of resources. The second part of that use of resources is financial. I wrote five applications to the theatre board before I got one that was funded. The one that I got that was funded was the one in which I stopped asking for less money than I actually needed to do the project. For a number of years as a young artist I thought they don’t know who I am, I don’t have much of a track record, they’re never going to give me more than say $10,000 to do a project even though the project itself might cost $70,000 – $150,000. Ask for the amount that you need. Board members know how much things cost they are people with a large degree of skill in the art form area they are assessing. Be realistic about your timelines and budgets. If you can do that then you will be able to address effective planning and use of resources.
I like to think that vision and necessity can meet in useful ways.
Be very clear about what the particular application that you are applying for is for. If it’s new work then apply to do new work - either a creative development or a production stage of a project. Don’t apply to the theatre board of the Australia Council if you want to do a production of a hot new play by a European playwright. The Australia Council, given its name has a national agenda, it is to fund contemporary Australian work. That doesn’t mean you can’t collaborate with international artists, but be very clear that the Australia Council is about funding Australian work.
Do some research, work out what has previously been funded – all that information is on the Australia Council website – look it up. It will take you half and hour, you’ll know who got money, what for, and how much they got, and that’s vital information for anyone to know.
Often the trickiest part of an application is articulating the skills of the artist team involved. That’s partly to do with the page limits of an application to the Australia Council which I do recommend people stick to very strongly – excess pages will not be assessed, they’re not joking about that. You only get two pages for biographies of artists so be very clear about what’s relevant to your project and what’s not. Your artists may be really great quiltmakers; unless that’s relevant to your application don’t focus on that.
When addressing the question contribution to diversity in Australian theatre we draw very much on past research that we’ve done about the nature of other work in the field. So what does Version 1.0 do that other companies that have been funded by the Australia Council over the last decade haven’t done, or if they have done it how do we do it differently – that’s what we focus on. So we look at diversity through what makes us unique.
A really important question is the criteria effective planning and use of resources. The second part of that use of resources is financial. I wrote five applications to the theatre board before I got one that was funded. The one that I got that was funded was the one in which I stopped asking for less money than I actually needed to do the project. For a number of years as a young artist I thought they don’t know who I am, I don’t have much of a track record, they’re never going to give me more than say $10,000 to do a project even though the project itself might cost $70,000 – $150,000. Ask for the amount that you need. Board members know how much things cost they are people with a large degree of skill in the art form area they are assessing. Be realistic about your timelines and budgets. If you can do that then you will be able to address effective planning and use of resources.
I like to think that vision and necessity can meet in useful ways.
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