Cultural Fund

2025 application closing dates Organisations Copyright Agency Partnerships Fellowships Publishing Fellowships Individuals Projects Supported Reading Australia

About the Cultural Fund

The Cultural Fund is the philanthropic arm of the Copyright Agency.

Each year we commit 1.5% of revenue raised from the use of our members’ work to support significant projects to benefit Australian writers, visual artists, publishers, and creative organisations.

Our aim is to ensure Australian writers and visual artists are better supported and paid appropriately for their creative endeavours. We encourage all applicants to pay appropriate industry rates to writers and artists.

The Cultural Fund’s priorities are:

• Fellowships and grants to support the creation of new work by writers and artists
• Audience development grants for Australian organisations for projects to increase readership and audiences for new work, writing and visual arts
• Sector development grants for Australian organisations for leadership projects in the writing, publishing, and visual arts sectors
• Publishing Fellowships for professionals in the Australian book publishing industry for career-enhancing opportunities
• Reading Australia encouraging the teaching of Australian literature in schools by creating and publishing freely-available resources for teachers, by teachers. There are now almost 300 resources to books by Australian writers mapped to the curriculum priorities for teachers to use in schools.

In addition, we offer a commission for a visual artist through the Copyright Agency Partnerships (CAP) initiative, in partnership with leading galleries in Australia, as well as partnering with five national writers’ festivals (capital city and one major regional writers’ festival who have been previously funded) through an invitation-only process to program Australian writers for specific panel sessions.

We encourage writers and visual artists to become members of the Copyright Agency. We regularly make payments to creators for the use of their work and there are many benefits from membership. Please find information on our website in our Payments for Writers page (here) or Payments to Visual Artists page (here). Alternatively, contact our Members Services division directly memberservices@copyright.com.au.

For specific grants information for organisations and individuals please refer to these links below:

Grants for Australian Organisations Grants for Individuals  

Cultural Fund Grants and Fellowships: closing dates for 2025