Creative Futures Fund
Us And All Of This by Liesel Zink. Photo by Mark Gambino
A pre-recorded webinar information session with Executive Director Arts Investment Alice Nash and Director Project Investment Pip Wittenoom, will be available in early July.
About the Fund
The Creative Futures Fund is an initiative of the National Cultural Policy – Revive: a place for every story, a story for every place referenced in the Policy as “Works of Scale”.
The Fund will support the creation and sharing of Australian stories, and new ways for people to engage with them.
The Fund is not a traditional grant program. It is a new way for Creative Australia to invest to support artistic works that build partnerships, drive engagement, and attract other sources of revenue and investment.
We are seeking great ideas that are genuinely innovative and unexpected. This includes new works and projects that may leverage existing intellectual property. The investment available is significant, but scalable depending on your ambition and context. We want to know what that investment will help you do, that might not otherwise be possible.
The fund will only support stories that are uniquely Australian, for example the intellectual property must be majority owned by Australian creatives, be an Australian concept, with subject matter relevant to contemporary Australia.
We will ask you to articulate what engagement means to you, your context and your artform – who you are planning to reach and connect with through this new work and how you plan to do this.
The Fund will be adaptive, responsive, and flexible to meet the needs of the sector. This investment will support all art forms and may change its emphasis over time.
In the first year of the Fund (2024/25) we will prioritise applications:
- from organisations that demonstrate genuine and robust partnerships with artists and creative workers of calibre
- that demonstrate how Creative Australia’s investment will leverage other sources of income
- that leverage existing Australian work and intellectual property, capitalising on previous investments
- that create new connections and partnerships in and outside the creative industries, and the public, commercial and private sectors
- that support genuine innovation for artists, audiences, and communities.
For updates on the Creative Futures Fund, sign up here.
In this first cycle of the investment in 2024/25, two streams of investment will be offered to Australian organisations only. Organisations must be legally constituted and registered or created by law. Sole traders, unincorporated groups, and partnerships cannot apply.
Applications will be prioritised for those organisations who are genuinely working in partnership with a range of collaborators and artistic individuals.
- Development Investment: This stream will support the development of new ideas, the adaptation of existing works, and/or allow you to test the market. Individual investments of between $50,000 – $250,000 will be negotiated
- Delivery Investment: This stream will support the delivery of new works, including adaptation, building partnerships, securing co-investment, realising and sharing the work, and achieving impact. Individual investments of between $250,000 – $1,500,000 will be negotiated.
Please note that this is not a pipeline fund. Support for the Development Phase does not necessarily indicate ongoing support for the Delivery Phase in later rounds.
Applications to both investment streams will be accepted and assessed in two stages – an initial Expression of Interest, with a small number of organisations invited to submit a full application.
In selecting the final cohort of recipients, Creative Australia will curate a portfolio of creative works that may be varied in art form, geography, level of investment, outcome type and risk.
Creative Australia will negotiate bespoke investment agreements with successful applicants, reflecting the context of each application. This will include the level and scheduling of investment, special conditions, and financial / non-financial deliverables.
| Activity | Dates |
| Stage 1: Expressions of Interest open | June 2024 |
| Stage 1: Expressions of Interest close | 6 August 2024 |
| Stage 1: Notifications of outcomes and invitations to Stage 2 | October 2024 |
| Stage 2: Full Application round opens (invitation only) | October 2024 |
| Stage 2: Full Application round closes | 3 December 2024 |
| Stage 2: Notification of outcomes | February 2025 |
Key Dates
The next closing dates are:
- Tuesday 6 August 2024, 3pm AEST for Expressions of Interest
- Tuesday 3 December 2024, 3pm AEDT for full applications (invitation only)
Please note: Are you registering to use our Application Management System for the first time? Make sure you register well before the closing date. It can take up to two business days to process your registration.
Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application within 12 weeks after the closing date.
Contact
creativefuturesfund@creative.gov.au
If you need advice about applying, contact Artists Services
Phone: 02 9215 9000
Toll-free: 1800 226 912
NRS: 1800 555 677 | Visit the NRS
Email: enquiries@creative.gov.au