Dance

Arts and Disability Mentoring Initiative 2019-21

The Australia Council for the Arts is offering six grants of $30,000 in each Arts and Disability Mentoring Initiative round. 

If you are an individual artist or arts worker with disability, these grants can provide support to extend your arts practice, networks, skills and ambition.

Applications close: Tuesday 13 April 2021, 3.00 pm (AEST)

UKARIA Residency

Through a partnership between the Australia Council and UKARIA, Expressions of Interest are invited for two residencies at UKARIA in 2021.

The successful applicants will be in residence at UKARIA for a maximum of ten days for the purpose of developing new creative projects that are led by musicians and composers.

Applications close: Tuesday 13 April 2021 (3pm AEST) for residencies starting after 1 July 2021.

PPCA Sound Recording Partnership

The Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) and the Australia Council for the Arts will deliver a grant partnership, the PPCA Sound Recording Partnership.

This partnership will support five Australian artists or groups to create new sound recordings. There are five grants of $15,000 (ex GST) each available. 

Applications close: Tuesday 13 April 2021. The round closes at 3pm AEDT on the closing date.

Translation Fund for Literature

International publishers may apply for a contribution towards the translation of Australian works by living authors of creative writing such as fiction, poetry, writing for children and young people, graphic novels, and narrative non-fiction (defined as autobiography, biography, essays, histories, literary criticism or analytical prose).  The majority of funding must be used to pay the rights holder and translator.

Applications close: Tuesday 13 April 2021 3.00 pm AEDT 

Playing Australia: Regional Performing Arts Touring Fund

The Regional Performing Arts Touring program (Playing Australia) supports performing arts to reach regional and remote communities across Australia. Grants are available to support the net touring and other designated costs associated with tours. There is no limit on the amount that can be requested. 

Applications close: Tuesday 1 June 2021, 3pm AEST

Contemporary Music Touring Program

The Contemporary Music Touring Program (CMTP) supports national touring activity undertaken by Australian musicians performing original contemporary music.

The CMTP is open to applications for funding with some fixed-term adjustments to the guidelines to account for COVID-19 conditions. 

Applications are now closed.

Contemporary Touring Initiative

The Contemporary Touring Initiative, as part of the Visual Arts and Craft Strategy, supports significant exhibitions of work by living contemporary visual artists and craft practitioners that reach and engage national audiences, and extend into regional communities. The grant provides up to three years of funding for the development and/or national touring of nationally significant contemporary visual arts and craft exhibitions. 

Applications are now closed.

PICA Interdisciplinary Lab: Encounter, Practice, Play

In 2021, PICA will host the first of a three-year artist exchange and professional development program with Australian and South and Southeast Asian artists. In 2021, this will include three artist labs led by Australian artists Joel Bray and Eugenia Lim, and will focus on interdisciplinary and intercultural practice through discussion, practice sharing and workshops. The labs will be an experiment in finding innovative ways of fostering togetherness and embodied practice, even when we must remain physically separated.

Applications are now closed

Australia-Singapore Digital Residencies

The Australia Council for the Arts and the National Arts Council Singapore are jointly administering the second iteration of a set of reciprocal digital residencies between Australia and Singapore.

Applications are now closed.

Capture All: A Sonic Investigation

Australia Council for the Arts in partnership with Liquid Architecture (Melbourne) and Sarai (New Delhi) invite applications from applicants based in Australia and India for Capture All: A Sonic Investigation.

How might experimental practices of sound and listening be mobilised as resources for understanding and intervening in questions of power, capture, and extraction? What aesthetic and political possibilities emerge by investigating sonic practices in relation to both domestic and urban space and their network interfaces? 

Applications are now closed

Kathleen Mitchell Award

The Kathleen Mitchell Award is presented biennially to the author, aged 30 or under, of an outstanding novel or novella to encourage advancement in their literary career. The novel or novella must have been published or accepted for publication within the 2 years prior to the Award closing date. This can be demonstrated by the providing an ISBN or letter of confirmation from the publisher as part of your entry.

Applications are now closed.

Transmitter: Darwin x Delhi

Transmitter is an international digital lab conducted by Serendipity Arts Foundation (India) and Darwin Festival (Australia), supported by the Australia Council for the Arts. The provocation is to interrogate the relationship between technology and the body and how this relationship might become a creative catalyst for performance in both virtual and physical spaces. 

Applications are now closed.

The Marten Bequest Scholarships

The Marten Bequest Scholarships offer talented young artists the chance to explore, study and develop their artistic gifts through travelling either interstate and/or overseas.

The scholarships provide financial support under the categories acting, architecture, ballet, instrumental music, painting, poetry, prose, sculpture and singing to help talented Australian artists achieve their dreams.

Applications are now closed

Dal Stivens Award

The Dal Stivens Award is presented biennially to an author aged 30 or under, for a short story or essay of the highest literary merit.

Applications are now closed.

Re-imagine: Industry Collaborations

The Industry Collaborations stream supports future-focused, cross-industry collaborations across and beyond the cultural and creative industries.

It invests in strategic cross-industry collaborations that explore new models of development and delivery. This funding stream is intended to leverage additional investment from partners (cash and in-kind) and to establish new frameworks for future partnership models.

Applications are now closed.

Re-imagine: Sector Recovery Initiatives

$2m will be invested in sector-led initiatives to support the recovery of Australia’s cultural and creative industries. The Re-imagine: Sector Recovery Initiatives fund is offered in acknowledgement of the significant forces of change and evolution facing the cultural and creative industries. This investment will support the sector to re-imagine practice and operations, and test ideas and models for a more resilient, equitable and thriving future.

Applications are now closed

Re-imagine: Cultural and Creative Solutions

The Cultural and Creative Solutions stream supports artists and organisations to re-imagine practice and operations in light of COVID-19 impacts.  

This funding stream will invest in ideas and opportunities that create cultural equity, social inclusion and sustainable business models and careers for artists and cultural and creative workers.

Applications are now closed.

Milparanga Australia Council scholarship

The Australia Council for the Arts has partnered with the Australian Rural Leadership Foundation (ARLF) to support two scholarships over the 2020-2021 period for First Nations arts leaders to participate in the Milparanga Program.

Applications are now closed.

The Red Ochre Award (Lifetime achievement)

The prestigious Red Ochre Award was established by the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Arts Board in 1993 to pay tribute to a senior Aboriginal and/or Torres Strait Islander person for their outstanding lifetime achievement in the arts and their contribution to the recognition of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts, both nationally and internationally.

Nominations are now closed.

First Nations Emerging Career Development Award

The First Nations Emerging Career Development Award 2020 is the result of Australia Council’s Workplace Giving scheme 2019-2020. Through the generous contributions from our staff and board, $20,000 has been raised to help further the career of two (2) emerging First Nations artists or arts workers.

Applications are now closed.

The Dreaming Award

The Dreaming Award was established in 2012 to support an inspirational young First Nations artist aged 18-30 years to create a major body of work through mentoring and partnerships. The mentor/partner will be another established professional artist or partner nominated by the artist who will guide and mentor the applicant to assist in the development of work. This award will be presented at the 2021 First Nations Arts Awards.

Applications are now closed.

ARIA-PPCA-Australia Council First Nations Sound Recording Partnership

The Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) in partnership with the Phonographic Performance Company of Australia (PPCA) and the Australia Council for the Arts will deliver a grant partnership, the ARIA-PPCA-Australia Council First Nations Sound Recording Partnership.

Applications are now closed.

Cherish II

The Cherish II Fund is in response to the COVID-19 pandemic and the disruption experienced by the First Nations arts and cultural sector and community. The Cherish II Fund has been informed by the First Nations Roundtables and the sector discussions and consultations in which the themes have focused on the sector priorities and needs through the COVID-19 pandemic.

Applications are now closed.

First Nations Contemporary Music Program

Australia Council for the Arts has received funding from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communication through the Office of the Arts to provide grants to the First Nations Music Industry aimed at increasing development opportunities for musicians and bands.  The First Nations Contemporary Music program is one of five programs under the Australian Music Industry Package announced in the 2019-2020 Budget. 

Applications are now closed.

First Nations Contemporary Music Program: Musicians and Band support

Australia Council for the Arts has received funding from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communication through the Office of the Arts to provide grants to the First Nations Music Industry aimed at increasing development opportunities for musicians and bands.  The First Nations Contemporary Music program is one of five programs under the Australian Music Industry Package announced in the 2019-2020 Budget.

Applications are now closed.

First Nations Contemporary Music Program: First Nations Music Industry Partnerships

The purpose of the Grant is to deliver funding under the Indigenous Contemporary Music Program (the Program), to provide development opportunities for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander musicians and bands throughout Australia. It contributes to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications (the Department) Outcome 6.1: Participation in, and access to, Australia’s arts and culture through developing and supporting cultural expression.

Applications are now closed.

National Arts and Disability Awards 2019-21

The Council’s research has highlighted the importance of profiling, celebrating and acknowledging the achievements of trail blazers and leading lights at all stages of career development. These prestigious national awards are one of the ways we do that.

Nominations are now closed.

Australia Council Awards 2021

These prestigious national awards recognise outstanding and sustained contributions by Australian artists in music, literature, community arts and cultural development (CACD), emerging and experimental arts (EEA), visual arts, theatre, and dance. They are awarded by the Board of the Australia Council, informed by key industry advisors.

Nominations are now closed.

2020 Resilience Fund

The 2020 Resilience Fund is designed to provide emergency relief to support the livelihoods, practice and operations of Australian artists, groups and organisations during the COVID-19 pandemic.

We are directing approximately $5M to the Resilience Fund to provide immediate relief to the Australian arts sector.

Applications to the Resilience Fund have now closed.

Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups

Our Arts Projects program funds a range of activities that deliver benefits to the arts sector and wider public, including national and international audiences.

Applications are now closed.

Arts Projects – Organisations

Our Arts Projects program funds a range of activities that deliver benefits to the arts sector and wider public, including national and international audiences.

Applications are now closed.

Fellowships

Australia Council Fellowships support outstanding, established artists’ or arts professionals’ creative activity and professional development for a period of up to two years.

Applications are now closed.

International Arts Strategy Outcomes Fund

Due to current restrictions on international travel, the following international opportunities will not be available: International Arts Strategy Outcomes Fund, International Residencies Program, Support to attend international markets and platforms. 

Artists and organisations seeking funding for international engagement are encouraged to apply to the Grants Program through the project categories closing Tuesday 1 September 2020 and subsequent rounds in 2021.

Leadership Program

The Leadership Program offers a dynamic suite of development opportunities for arts leaders at all career stages. The Program is made up of five components including the Arts Leaders Program, Future Leaders Program, Governance Program, Mentoring & Secondments and Scholarships & Partnerships.

Applications are now closed.

International residencies

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 that support future international arts activity. 

Applications are now closed.

Co-investment opportunities

The Australia Council has a long and proud history of partnering with philanthropic foundations, corporations and individual donors to co-invest in the arts. Learn about the co-investment opportunities.

Applications are now open.

International development opportunities

Our international activity supports artistic, market and audience development and grows the international profile of Australian arts and artists.