Chair Appointment

The Australia Council welcomes the announcement by Minister Mitch Fifield of the appointment of Sam Walsh AO as the 13th Chair of the Australia Council for the Arts.

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Strategic Plan

The Strategic Plan reflects an ambitious vision for the arts in Australia and is comprised of four goals.

Expressions Dance Company, Jack Ziesing in Natalie Weir’s When Time Stops

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National Launch Program

Image: Launch of the Australia Council Strategic Plan 2014 - 2019, at the Sydney Opera House, August 18, 2014

WHAT WE DO

The Australia Council's strategic plan reflects our desire to make more visible the vitality of our arts and culture, and to recognise the evolving way that Australians make and experience art. Our role is to support the unimagined along with the reimagined, the unknown and experimental along with the keenly anticipated. We are a champion for Australian arts both here and overseas. We invest in artistic excellence through support for all facets of the creative process and are committed to the arts being more accessible to all Australians.

The Australia Council was originally established as an independent statutory authority through the Australia Council Act 1975.

On 1 July 2013, the Australia Council Act 2013 commenced, updating the functions of the Australia Council. The Australia Council is accountable to the Australian Parliament and to the Government through the Minister for the Arts.

Through our grants we fund a range of arts activities including the creation of new work, collaborations, touring, productions, exhibitions, performances, publishing, recording, promotion, market development and audience engagement.
We provide multi-year funding to arts organisations across Australia that create and present work and service the arts and artists.
Through targeted programs and strategic initiatives we support the arts sector and lead change where needed.
We advocate for the arts sector and deliver original research and analysis to inform policy and strengthen the arts industry.

Click here to view the Australia Council Act.

Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body.

A Culturally Ambitious Nation

We are a diverse community of identities, faiths, individual differences and pursuits, yet we have many shared values and our sense of nation is strong.

A culturally ambitious nation draws strength from these diversities. It utilises them to expand the dimensions of our creativity. A culturally ambitious nation acknowledges that music, books, theatre, film, paintings, sculpture, dance and a myriad of other art forms are central to our lives. It cherishes its great artists from all regions, and across all practices.

We take great pride in our artists’ achievements – locally, regionally, nationally and internationally. In a culturally ambitious nation Australians demand opportunities to gain access to and participate in the arts, be it as consumers or creators.

Creativity starts with childhood curiosity. It continues through our lives. A culturally ambitious nation embraces the arts in everyday life – at home, in kindergartens, schools and universities, in shopping centres and office blocks, at sporting venues, in the media. We want to be a nation where artistic enterprise and respect for culture are entrenched.

In Australia, we expect and anticipate that our artists will exercise our freedom of expression and be fearless, take risks, and develop and present inspiring work across national and international borders. A culturally ambitious nation is confident and constantly striving.

At the Australia Council, artists are our heroes. In our culturally ambitious nation, they take their places amongst the nation’s heroes.

Sam Walsh AO, Chair Adrian Collette AM, CEO

Our culture is unique. It is a culture that is deeply shaped by more than 70,000 years of continued, unbroken Indigenous storytelling. It reflects Australia’s two centuries of settlement from around the world.