Create Funding selection is underway

July 4, 2017

The Career Fund judging panel met at the end of June to review about 60 applications to the May round of the Create Career Fund grants program, which is a stream of the Copyright Agency | Viscopy Cultural Fund.

The Create Career Fund supports mid-to-late career artists and authors by providing grants that allow the time to develop new work. Grants are allocated in $10,000, $15,000 or $20,000 amounts. The recipients will be announced in mid-July and are all considered by the judges to be leaders in their respective fields.

Whittling down the applications to just three recipients was a daunting task. Artist judge Marion Crawford says, “many of the projects we reviewed are at the cutting edge of their field and really push the boundaries of creative techniques and concepts. We were spoiled for choice!” Publisher Joel Naoum agreed, “seeing a project jump off the page is one of the joys of this role, and makes the selection process an engaging one.”

Notably, this round received a significantly high number of applications from Indigenous Australian creators. “There was a great diversity in the scope of the applicants’ practices,” said panellist and poet Jill Jones, “and we’ve selected three projects that show great potential to be career-defining work.”

The judges emphasised that what really helped applications stand out included comprehensive analysis of the idea, examples of works in progress, letters of commendation, and supporting documentation that demonstrated the life cycle of the project.

Cultural Fund and Reading Australia Officer Nicola Evans, says “The Create Fund provides assured support for creators offering the financial freedom to really commit time and focus to their established projects. Having strong evidence of what the project looks like and aims to achieve is vital in our decision-making process. We are really thrilled to be offering this support to our selected recipients for the May round of Create.”

The next round for the Create Career Fund opens in late August.

Ignite Fund accepting applications now

The Ignite Career Fund which supports skills development for individuals working in the publishing and visual art sectors is open for application until 17 August.

Grants of up to $5,000 are offered to successful applicants from a total pool of $25,000. Read more here.

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