Projects for Individuals & Groups

Overview

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

Grants are available from $10,000 to $50,000. Supported activities must not last longer than two years from the proposed start date.

Please read the following grant guidelines and refer to the peer feedback from the previous round.

If you need advice about applying, contact an Artists Services Officer

Eligibility

Who can apply

You can only submit one application to each closing date for Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups.

Only individuals and groups may apply to this category. You must be an Australian citizen or an Australian permanent resident, and a practicing artist or arts professional.

Applications for funding to the First Nations panel must come from Australian First Nations individuals or groups only.

Only Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander people or groups led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people can submit applications to the First Nations panel.

If you apply as a group to the First Nations panel, all members of the group must be First Nations people.

If you are applying to the First Nations Panel on behalf of a First Nations person or group, the application should, where possible, be made in their name. As this panel only supports First Nations people or groups, if you are considering applying on behalf of a First Nations person or people you must contact Artists Services to discuss the application before applying.

Who can’t apply

You can’t apply for this grant if:

• you have already applied to this closing date for Arts Projects for Individuals and Groups
• you have an overdue grant report
• you owe money to the Creative Australia
• you are an organisation
• you are applying to our International Engagement Fund or International Travel Fund for the same activities.

What can be applied for

We fund a range of activities, for example:

• professional skills development, including mentoring and residencies
• the creation of new work
• practice based research
• creative development
• experimentation
• collaborations and exchanges
• touring
• festivals
• productions
• exhibitions
• performances
• publishing
• recording
• promotion and marketing
• market development activity
• activities that creatively engage communities.

Activities can take place nationally, internationally, online, or in a combination of in-person and online.

If your project involves a partnership or collaboration with organisations in the National Performing Arts Partnership Framework you must discuss your application with us before applying.

Access costs are legitimate expenses and may be included in your application. We encourage applicants to ensure that their work is accessible to everyone. Budgets may include costs associated with making activities accessible to a wide range of people (e.g. performances using Auslan, translation to other languages, captioning, audio description, temporary building adjustments, and materials in other formats).

If you are a d/Deaf applicant, an applicant with disability, or are working with d/Deaf artists or artists with disability, you may apply for access costs associated with the use of an interpreter, translation services, specific technical equipment, carer, or support worker assistance. Please contact Artists Services  to discuss your specific needs.

What can’t be applied for

You can’t apply for:

• projects or activities that do not involve or benefit Australian practicing artists or arts professionals
• projects or activities that do not have a clearly defined arts component
• projects that have already taken place
• the same projects or activities you are applying for via our International Engagement Fund or International Travel Fund
• activities engaging with First Nations content, artists and communities that do not adhere to the Creative Australia First Nations Cultural & Intellectual Property Protocols.

Protocols

Your application must comply with the following protocols. We may contact you to ask for further information during the assessment process, or if successful, as a condition of your funding.

Protocols for using First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts

If your application involves First Nations artists, communities or subject matter, you must:

• follow these Protocols, and
• provide evidence of this in your application and support material.

More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here.

Commonwealth Child Safe Framework

All successful applicants must comply with all Australian law relating to employing or engaging people who work or volunteer with children. This includes working with children checks and mandatory reporting. Successful organisations who provide services directly to children, or whose funded activities involve contact with children, will also be required to implement the National Principles for Child Safe Organisations

Art forms and assessment panels

You must choose which peer assessment panel you wish to apply to. The panels are:

• First Nations
• Community Arts and Cultural Development
• Dance
• Emerging and Experimental Arts
• Literature
• Multi-art form
• Music
• Theatre
• Visual Arts

Learn more about assessment panels, or see the FAQs on this page.

If you are unsure which peer assessment panel to choose, contact Artists Services.

Learn more about how we assess your application.

Assessment criteria

You must address three assessment criteria in this category.

Under each criterion are bullet points indicating what peers may consider when assessing your application. You do not need to respond to every bullet point listed.

First criterion

Quality

Peers will assess the quality of the artistic and cultural activities at the centre of your proposal. They may consider:

• vision, ideas and artistic rationale
• benefit and impact on career, artistic and cultural practice
• level of innovation, ambition, experimentation or risk-taking
• rigour and clear articulation of creative, engagement or development processes
• significance of the work within the relevant area of practice and/or community
• contribution to diverse cultural expression
• timeliness and relevance of work
• quality of previous work
• responses to previous work from artistic or cultural peers, or the public.

Application form

The types of questions we ask in the application form include:

• a title for your project
• a summary of your project
• a brief bio of the artist or group applying
• an outline of your project and what you want to do
• a timetable or itinerary for your activities
• a description of the impact your project will have
• a projected budget which details the expenses, income, and in-kind support of the project
• supporting material as relevant to your project, including examples of your work, bios of additional artists, and letters of support or permission from participants, communities First Nations Elders or organisations.

Support material

You should submit support material with your application. The peer assessors may review this support material to help them gain a better sense of your project.

Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks).

Please note: Our peer assessors will not access any URLs that require them to log in or sign up to a platform. Please do not provide links to Spotify or other applications that require users to log in or pay for access.

If you are linking to media files that are private or password protected like Vimeo, please provide the password in the password field on the application form.

Other accepted file formats

If you cannot supply support material via URLs, you may upload support material to your application in the following formats:

• video (MP4, QuickTime, and Windows Media)
• audio (MP3 and Windows Media)
• images (JPEG and PowerPoint)
• written material (Word and PDF).

It is the responsibility of applicants to ensure that support material formats, (weblinks and files) are accessible and working in their submission. Creative Australia will not contact applicants if peer assessors are unable to access support material.

We do not accept application-related support material submitted via post. Application-related material received by post will not be assessed and will be returned to the sender. If you think you will have difficulty submitting your support material online or need advice on what type of material to submit, please contact Artists Services.

There are limits to the amount of support material you can submit as a part of your application. Peers Assessors will not view or read support material that exceeds these limits.

1. Artistic Support Material 

This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic or cultural work.

You can provide up to three (3) weblinks that link to content that is relevant to your proposal.

These URLs can include a total of:

• 10 minutes of video and/or audio recording or
• 10 images or
• 10 pages of written material (for example, excerpts of literary writing).
  For some applicants, materials such as interviews, articles or additional budget information may be appropriate to submit in your application. These are not mandatory items, but if included must comply within the ten (10) page limit.

These limits only apply to the artistic support material described above.

1. Biographies and CVs  

You can include a brief bio or curriculum vitae (CV) for key artists, personnel or other collaborators involved in your project.

Brief bios or CV information should be presented as a single document no longer than two (2) A4 pages in total.

1. Letters of support  

Individuals, groups, or organisations can write letters in support of your project. A support letter should explain how the project or activity will benefit you, other artists or arts professionals, participants, or the broader community. It can also detail the support or involvement of key project partners, or evidence of consultation.

If relevant to your activity, letters of support must provide evidence of appropriate permissions and support from First Nations organisations, communities, and Elders. Please refer to the First Nations Protocols for more information.

You can include up to five (5) letters of support, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page.

1. Letters of confirmation   

If your application involves an international presentation, you must provide letters of confirmation from your presenting partners, such as festivals and venues. Each letter must include confirmation of any invitations, partners fees or contributions to the activity, whether cash or in-kind.

Please provide a single link to all confirmation letters or scan the letters into one PDF file and attach to your application. This must not exceed four A4 pages (4).

Please note that confirmation emails including headers fields are acceptable if collated in a document not exceeding four A4 pages (4).