Who can apply 

Legally constituted organisations only may apply.  

A consortium of organisations may apply, but the application must be submitted and contracted through one lead member of the consortium. 

Who can’t apply 

You can’t apply to this fund if: 

• you have an overdue report for another Creative Australia grant
• you owe money to Creative Australia 
• you are an individual or a group
• your organisation is in receipt of investment through the National Performing Arts Partnership Framework  

What can be applied for 

Proposals must focus on audience development in regional and remote communities aligned with national touring activity. 

Some examples may include: 

• A consortia of presenters working together to provide linked-up opportunities for their communities, touring work they have commissioned or programmed between them, and delivering shared audience development strategies.
• A presenting organisation delivering a comprehensive audience development strategy for their local region which benefits national touring work.
• A producing organisation touring their work annually to the same network of presenters with a targeted audience development strategy for those communities. 

Applicants may apply for delivery costs associated with the proposed audience development strategy and activities. 

This may include: 

• staffing costs
• specialist advice
• community engagement activity
• delivery of bespoke marketing strategies
• seed funding for new work focused on regional and remote audiences
• other costs relevant to your activity 

Where your application proposes an audience development strategy as part of a multi-year program of touring activity, applicants may include:  

• payment of fees and salaries for artists and touring party
• costs associated with remounting or rehearsing a work
• production costs associated with touring the work or delivering the activity
• touring costs including freight, transport, accommodation and travel allowances
• tour co-ordination
• costs associated with reducing the environmental impact of your tour
• costs associated with supporting the wellbeing of the touring company. 

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.  

NPAPF organisations are ineligible to apply but may be the beneficiary of the audience development activity e.g. they may work with presenters receiving support via this program and be engaged in audience development activity alongside their touring activity.  

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. presentation or delivery activities using Auslan, translation to other languages, captioning, audio description, temporary building adjustments, and materials in other formats). 

If you are working with d/Deaf people or people with disability in your application, 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 us to discuss your specific needs. 

What can’t be applied for 

You can’t apply for: 

• proposals that do not involve or benefit Australian practicing artists, creative workers or audiences
• proposals that do not have a clearly defined arts component
• activity that has already taken place
• proposals which do not have an audience development outcome
• proposals which do not benefit audiences in regional and remote communities
• proposals that have already been funded by Creative Australia
• activities engaging with First Nations content, artists and communities that do not adhere to our First Nations Cultural & Intellectual Property Protocols. 

Your application must comply with the following Protocols. We may contact you to request 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

All applications involving First Nations artists, communities or subject matter must adhere to these Protocols, provide evidence of this in their application and support material. More information on the First Nations Protocols is available here.

Commonwealth Child Safe Framework

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

Industry advisors with diverse and relevant experience will assess the applications against the assessment criteria listed below. They will make recommendations for Creative Australia to consider when making the final investment decisions.  For more information on this process please review how we assess applications  

Industry Advisors will assess your application against the following four criteria. They may consider the points below each criterion. You do not need to respond to every bullet point listed. 

Quality 

• quality of the audience development strategy, activities and proposed outcomes
• experience and track record of the applicant and team assembled to deliver the proposal  

Viability 

• The calibre and role of the organisation or the consortium, including demonstrated evidence of good planning, governance, management as well as relevance and timeliness of proposed activity
• the calibre and track record of your organisation, partners, and collaborators, particularly in the context of development and delivery of successful audience engagement activity
• financial stability of your organisation and evidence of good financial planning
• appropriate payments to participating artists, arts professionals, collaborators, participants, or cultural consultants
• diversity and scale of income and co-funding, including earned income, grants, sponsorship and in-kind contributions
• whether your work is supported by meaningful evaluation
• the safety and wellbeing of people involved in the project
• evidence of appropriate consultation and engagement with participants, audiences or communities 

Where relevant to your proposal: 

• evidence that the Protocols for First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property in the Arts have been adhered to
• evidence that you have considered and addressed any access issues associated with your project
• evidence of an environmental impact plan which may include cost-benefits. 

Equity 

• The regional and remote impact of the proposal.
• Evidence of your relationships and conversations with partners and communities, to support the regional reach of the activity.
• Evidence of how the proposed activity will engage new and diverse audiences
• A commitment to creating positive change which reflects the current contemporary Australian arts and culture sector. 

Impact 

• capacity of proposed program to develop and engage new audiences
• proposed impact for the artists or communities
• evidence of significant experiences offered to communities, eg audience attendance and participation, workshops, master classes, online/digital offerings
• potential to discover and develop new markets, relationships or meet existing market demand 
• the extent to which the activity contributes to a sector that is accessible, inclusive and equitable.
• the capacity to strengthen skills and abilities of those involved 
• community engagement and ongoing sustainability of the audience engagement strategy
• how the activity delivers on regional and remote audience development, identify the targets and how this will be measured 

Applications must be submitted via Creative Australia’s Application Management System.  

If you are registering to use the 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. 

The application form will be available by the end of May.   

To assist with your planning, it will include the following questions and requirements: 

• a title for your proposal
• a summary of your project
• a brief description of the applicant, (organisation/s)
• information about your organisation’s/s’ track record and experience
• an outline of your proposal and what you want to do
• a timetable or itinerary for your activities
• a description of the anticipated outcomes your proposal delivers
• relevant support material  

You must provide the following support material: 

• your audience development strategy to support the delivery of your proposal
• a two-year budget using the excel template provided (download here or from within the application form and upload as support material)
• the latest audited financial accounts, or equivalent financial data. For organisations who report on a calendar year basis this should be for 2024; for organisations who report on a financial year basis this should be 2023/2024 

You may submit additional support material with your application. Industry Advisors may review this support material to help them gain a better sense of your proposal. 
 
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 three types of support material you may submit: 
 
1. Artistic support material 
This should include relevant, recent examples of your artistic work. 
 
Types of support material we accept: 
Our preferred method of receiving support material is via URLs (weblinks). 
You can provide up to three URLs that link to content that is relevant to your proposal. This may include video, audio, images, or written material. 

These URLs can include a total of: 

• minutes of video and/or audio recording
• 10 images
• 10 pages of written material (for example, excerpts of literary writing). 

Please note: Our industry advisors 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). 

2. 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 A4 pages in total. 

3. Letters of support 
Individuals, groups or organisations can write letters in support of your proposal. A support letter should explain how the project or activity will benefit you, other artists or arts professionals, audiences or 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 letters of support, with each letter not exceeding one A4 page. 

If your application is successful, we will provide you with a funding agreement that specifies the amount of investment we will provide, the payment schedule, milestones, deliverables, and any other conditions of investment.  

We will pay you per the payment schedule once you have accepted your agreement and any reports or deliverables you must provide us with have been approved. 

You may be asked to participate in evaluation activities with Creative Australia staff and external evaluators at various times throughout your project. 

Any activity which can demonstrate audience development in regional and remote communities aligned with national touring activity can be considered. You will need to make a case for the impact of your proposal on audience development to be competitive. 

Some examples may include: 

• A consortia of presenters working together to provide linked-up opportunities for their communities, touring work they have commissioned or programmed between them, and delivering shared audience development strategies.
• A presenting organisation delivering a comprehensive audience development strategy for their local region which benefits national touring work.
• A producing organisation touring their work annually to the same network of presenters with a targeted audience development strategy for those communities. 

If you are unsure whether your proposal is a good fit for this program, contact Creative Australia to discuss prior to starting your application. 

Yes, your proposal may be planned for less than three years but must be a minimum of two years to meet the criteria for the category. Please identify your annual request for investment in the application and attached budget.  

A consortium is a collaborative agreement where a group of organisations agree to work together with a common interest to deliver a particular service or outcome, via the collaboration there is a benefit to combining capabilities and resources across organisations. In this program we would consider a consortium to be a network of two or more organisations working together to deliver the proposal. How the organisations might collaborate or work together may look different across proposals depending on the nature of the activity proposed. The application must be submitted and contracted through one lead member of the consortium.  

Yes. This investment is designed to complement touring activity and build audience engagement in regional and remote communities. We expect there may be intersections with Playing Australia funded activity. 

This program is focussed on audience development in regional and remote communities aligned with national touring activity. Applicants must submit an audience development strategy to support the proposed activity. The focus of this program is to build audience engagement in regional and remote Australia to complement the investment in supporting work to tour to regional and remote Australia via the Playing Australia Project investment category.  

As this program is to support audience development rather than touring activity the touring expectations of Playing Australia Project Investment do not apply, including:

• three or more locations outside of the home state of the proposed work
• a confirmed itinerary
• an itinerary which includes a majority (at least 60%) of regional or remote locations.

We can accept applications from a singular applicant undertaking audience development in their regional or remote area only; a consortium which spans multiple states and a consortium from within one state. The applicant must make the case for the regional and remote impact and audience development outcomes relative to their proposal. Confirmed partners strengthen your applications viability. Read the assessment criteria carefully as this will give you the best guide for what Industry Advisors will consider when assessing applications.

Yes. Your application for Project Investment may not request funding for the same costs funded by your Playing Australia Audience Development Multi-Year Investment, but touring activities associated with your audience development strategy may be supported by Playing Australia Project Investment. Please note that this is a competitive investment pool and additional support is not guaranteed.  

Yes. This investment is designed to complement touring activity and build audience engagement in regional and remote communities. We expect there may be intersections with NPAPF organisation touring work, some of which may be funded by Playing Australia. 

Yes, your itinerary can include activities that offer additional opportunities for the community to engage with the performers or art, which reflect the engagement strategy provided in your application. As the focus of this fund is performances, additional activities should be scheduled in an efficient way within the itinerary.

Depending on prevailing COVID-19 conditions  engagement strategies should consider COVIDSafe delivery requirements.

Your audience development strategy should provide a detailed plan for how you intend to engage and grow audiences. You can determine the best format for your strategy, but you could address the following key areas:

1. Where are you now?
2. Where do you need to get to?
3. How do you plan to get there?
4. How will you know if you’re getting there? 
   
   The strategy should communicate what success would look like and the steps you plan to take to achieve that goal, this might include:

• a description of the current environment and what you are hoping to achieve
• the activities or actions planned
• the rationale for why the plan is proposed
• the rationale for who will deliver the plan
• identification of key milestones

• identification of mechanisms to measure progress and track outcomes

  1. identification of contingencies to adapt to challenges or changes 

  2. any other relevant information 

This is a pilot program running from 2026-2028. A determination regarding the continuation of this Multi-Year investment will be made at a later date. 

Yes, we do. More information is available on our website,  Languages other than English. 

Our staff are available to assist you in understanding the purpose of the grant, application requirements and submitting your application. Creative Australia staff can assist over email, phone and video calls. We cannot review application drafts. 

Additional support can be discussed where needed. Where the additional support is beyond the scope of what staff can provide, we may recommend speaking to an appropriate organisation for further assistance.

If you are GST-registered when you receive a grant, we will pay the grant amount plus GST. The budget provided in your application should be excluded of GST. 

Yes. We expect that artists professionally employed or engaged in funded activities will be paid for their work in line with industry standards. Payment of artist fees should be reflected in your application budget. 

For more information, see our Payment of Artists page

Yes. Organisational administrative costs should be reasonable and directly related to project delivery. They should generally not exceed 10% of the total budget. If those costs are higher, your application may be less competitive. 

Enter the grant request in both the budget template and the application form.  

Yes. Childcare is a legitimate expense to include in your budget. 

We encourage our applicants to seek funding from other sources to cover the complete costs of the projects. While it does depend in the size of the grant request, we would expect that applicants with large requests would also secure funding from elsewhere to cover all costs associated with a large-scale project. 

Yes. Volunteer out of pocket expenses, such as telephone calls or petrol for travel are recognised as legitimate expenses and may be included in an applicant’s budget. 

Yes. In-kind support refers to resources, goods and services (for example, use of a venue, materials and people’s time) provided by yourself or others either free of charge or below market value. Detailing in-kind costs in the budget is important as it gives Industry Advisors a full understanding of the viability of your project and levels of support you are receiving. In-kind costs are also an expense so, when you save the application, any in-kind income you included will auto-populate to the expenses side of the budget. 

Yes, they can. If applying as a local government authority, please contact us to discuss support material requirements pertaining to audits. For example, where possible, audits will relate specifically to the organisation applying rather than a full audit of the Council.   

No, only organisations are eligible to apply under this investment fund.