Applications are now open for the Dreaming Award. This award supports a young First Nations artist aged 18-30 years to create a major body of work.
The Australia Council has today announced its new vision for a creatively connected Australia where creative enterprise is entrenched across society, industry and government as the fuel that ignites our social, cultural and economic success.
How will you share
Australian art with the world? Our latest round of international development
opportunities is now open.
Community arts and cultural development encompasses collaborations between professional artists and communities based on a community’s desire to achieve artistic and social outcomes.
The Australia Council supports community arts and cultural development artists, practitioners, organisations, projects and programs through a range of grants and initiatives.
Our support is focused on priority areas including regional Australia, disability, young people, cultural diversity, emerging communities, Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and remote communities, as well as specific critical social and cultural issues requiring focused attention.
Community arts and cultural development is distinct from other arts practice as it is the creative processes and relationships developed with community to make the art that defines it, not the art form or genre.
This award is named in honour of Ros Bower, a journalist, television producer, community arts pioneer and founding Director of Council’s first Community Arts Board. The Award acknowledges the achievements of an artist or arts worker who has made an outstanding and sustained contribution to community arts and cultural development.
Past award recipients include Christian (Bong) Ramilo (2018), Steve Mayer-Miller (2017), Lily Shearer, Lockie McDonald, Steve Payne and Alissar Chidiac.
This award recognises a young artist or arts worker demonstrating outstanding leadership in community arts and cultural development (CACD). The award was established in honour of Kirk Robson who tragically died in a car crash in 2005. Kirk received the Council’s Young and Emerging Artists Initiative and was the Artistic Director of The Torch Project. The Award acknowledges the achievements of an artist or art worker 30 years of age or under (at the time of nomination) who demonstrates outstanding leadership within the CACD sector
Past award recipients include, Edwin Kemp-Attrill (2018), Nathan Stoneham, Shakthi Shakthidharan, Jade Lillie and Alexandra Kelly.
One of Australia’s most celebrated and internationally profiled contemporary artists, Angelica Mesiti works across video, performance and installation. Mesiti has developed a practice characterised by large-scale video and sound works.
Akolkol Dastan Gesa Group Image. Between May 2017 and April 2018, Akolkol Dastan Gesa engaged 40 young people between the ages of 12 and 29 to work with a team of professional artists to create a music video called SAME DRUM.
International residencies provide a unique opportunity for artists to immerse themselves in a new arts context, market, community and culture. The experience enables artists to articulate their practice within a global context and build knowledge, networks and partnerships.
The 2016-17 Australia Council for the Arts Annual Report was tabled on 23 October 2017. The report outlines key achievements and outcomes during the second full year of activity under its Strategic Plan.
The Australia Council for the Arts has released new research which examines the economic conditions faced by practising professional artists in Australia and their increasing value to society and the future of work.
Since its inception in 1973, the Australia Council for the Arts has been a world leader in having dedicated and unbroken funding to support community arts and cultural development practice.
This survey is the third in a landmark series by the Australia Council for the Arts, following editions in 2009 and 2013. It measures Australians’ engagement with the arts in 2016.