Australia Council injects $9.1m into arts with new grants model

The Australia Council for the Arts’ newgrants model first round of funding has been announced with $9.1 million being injected into Australian arts.

The news was announced this morning by Australia Council Chair Rupert Myer AO kicking off the most significant change to the current arts model in its 40-year history.

Since the new grants model opened in January, 1,700 applications were received. 273 projects will be supported for the March round of funding, 20% of which are from first time applicants.

Of the $9.1 million investment, $4.6 million will go to arts organisations, $3.1 million to individual artists (who take up 55% of the projects with 150 recipients) and $1.4 million to groups.

“The 69 expert artistic peers involved in this round brought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the process,” said Myer. “They represented all states and territories, all art forms, and 28% were from regional Australia, 20% from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds, and 20% from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts.”

The 55 music related recipients include Kevin Parker's (Tame Impala)label Spinning Top Music, which received$5,000,Music NT ($132,022),Sydney indie-folk band Little May ($42,685), Brisbane indie-popband Ball Park Music ($25,000), Brisbane psych-rockersMoses Gunn Collective ($11,200), indie-folk duo Luluc ($25,000) andAMP Award winner Remi ($20,000).

The new grants program reduced 140 categories to five, and includes streamlined criteria and new opportunities to apply for multiple stages of a project in one application.

38% of the artist recipients work globally, with Australia Council noting their main location of project activity will be overseas.

“It is a wonderful outcome that this round will support 105 projects from independent artists and small to medium arts organisations to represent Australia in 34 countries,”added Myer.

The Australia Council was hit hard by the Federal Budget last month; the Government stripped its appropriation for 2015-16 of $104.7 million.

In the Budget announcementit was revealed the Government had set up a new National Programme for Excellence in the Arts to be administered by the Ministry for the Arts in Senator Brandis' Attorney-General's Department.

"Arts funding has until now been limited almost exclusively to projects favoured by the Australia Council,'' a statement from Brandis' office said at the time. “[…] The [program] will allow for a truly national approach to arts funding."

Because of this, a number of initiatives were axed by the Australia Council, including the June round of funding. ArtStart, the initiativeset up to help recent arts and music graduates set up their businesses and the Six-Year Funding for Arts Organisations category havebeen suspended. However the Australia Council will honour the current contracts of multi-year funded organisations until their conclusion at the end of 2016.

The Australia Council told TMNit will review its strategic plan over the coming months and take into account the Government’s new National Program.

The March grants are:

– Development grants for individuals and groups valued at between $5,000 and $25,000
– Arts project grants for individuals and groups valued at between $10,000 and $50,000
– Arts project grants for organisations valued at between $10,000 and $150,000
– Development grants of up to $25,000 and project grants of up to $50,000 for individuals and groups for Artists with Disability