Funding, grants and sponsorship

Funding is available to individual artists and arts organisations—in areas such as music, dance, theatre, writing, visual arts, craft and design.

For individuals

• Individuals Fund - Professional and career development for individual artists and cultural workers - emerging and established.
• Projects and Programs Funds - Projects or programs of arts and cultural activities by an individual, organisation or collective.

For organisations

• Organisations Fund - For outstanding arts and cultural organisations.
• Super Star Fund - Investment in performing arts productions that feature internationally renowned artists.
• Playing Queensland Fund - support for touring.
• Projects and Programs Funds - Projects or programs of arts and cultural activities by an individual, organisation or collective.
• Backing Indigenous Arts - Bringing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander arts and cultures of Queensland to the world.

Other funding programs

• Regional Arts Development Fund (RADF) - a partnership between the Queensland Government and regional councils to support local arts and culture.
• Creative Sparks - a joint initiative of Brisbane City Council and Arts Queensland.
• Australia Council for the Arts is the Australian Government’s arts funding and advisory body. 

For young people

• The $8 million Creative Young Stars Program will encourage, support and celebrate creative, cultural, academic and community achievement throughout Australia by students and young people.
• The Lord Mayor’s Young and Emerging Artists Fellowships supports young and emerging Brisbane artists and arts workers aged 17–30.  The program aims to develop artists who wish to join national or international training and programs by participating in training programs, mentorship or structured experience.

Tips for grant applications

• Read the grant guidelines before you start your application.Any government funding body has to use a fair and transparent process to assess applications. 

  • The guidelines set out the process and criteria for assessment. Follow the process and answer the criteria to make your application more competitive.

• Show the demand, community need and public benefit of your project.

  • Government grants consist of public money.
  • Give objective evidence that there is public demand for, or benefit from, your project to increase your chance of success.

• Be clear about the nature of your project.

  • If we can’t form a clear picture of what you plan to achieve, it will reduce your chance of success.
  • Have a person not involved in the project read your application before it is submitted and make sure they understand the project.

• Be concise and make your application stand out.

  • Avoid acronyms.
  • Spell check and grammar check your application.
  • Your application will be one of many—if you write it well, you will make our assessment easier.
• Demonstrate the outputs, outcomes and impact of your project.
  • Outputs—the statistics like number of shows, tickets sold etc.
  • Impact—the legacy and changes to lives and communities. Think about how you will measure and evaluate the project. Consider whether the methods are rigorous and will stand up to scrutiny. Government agencies need to report on how they have invested funding. The outcomes and data need to be credible.