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Objectives
North Sydney Council’s 2024 Creative Grants Program supports creative projects and initiatives that can be presented in the North Sydney local government area and preferably presented during spring 2024 as part of a northern Sydney region spotlight on arts and culture. The objectives are to:
- increase access and community participation in arts, culture, and creativity
- provide opportunities for local artists to present larger-scale projects
- tell diverse stories authentic to the North Sydney community
- foster skills development of local artists, creative workers, or creative not-for-profit organisations across all art disciplines
Key dates
- Applications open Friday 1 March 2024
- Applications close 11.59pm AEST Monday 22 April 2024
- Notification to applicants mid May 2024
- Distribution of funding early June 2024
- Projects delivered from July to December 2024
Grant amounts
Applicants can apply for grants of up to $4,000, with a total of $10,000 being awarded.
Before applying, prospective applicants should read:
Project eligibility guidelines
Applicant eligibility guidelines
Assessment criteria
Funding is available for projects that:
- can be presented in the North Sydney local government area during spring 2024 as part of a northern Sydney region spotlight on arts and culture. Projects cannot be presented or planned to be presented elsewhere in the Sydney metropolitan region before September 2024.
- are open to the public to attend, view and/or participate
Types of activities funded include:
- research, rehearsal, production and/or presentation of new work across all art forms
- arts and cultural exhibitions, performances, events, programs, and collaborations that benefit the North Sydney community
- projects or aspects of projects not already funded or presented
Presentation venues
Applicants are required to specify a presentation venue for the proposed projects. Projects may be proposed for privately run spaces, or applicants may nominate Council’s venues or public domain/open spaces.
- If the project is proposed for presentation in a privately run space, you will need to provide evidence of support from the relevant venue with your application. Applicants are required to include venue costs (if any) in their budget.
- If the project is proposed for a Council venue, or open space, applicants may nominate one or more of the following Council venues (that has space suitable to your presentation):
- North Sydney Council community centres
- Hutley Hall
- library and museums
- The Coal Loader
- Ted Mack Civic Park
- Brett Whiteley Place
- other Council-owned venues
Ineligible projects and activities
- projects that are presented outside the North Sydney local government area
- projects that are not open to the public to attend
- projects that contravene one or more Council policy
- normal operation of regular activations such as gatherings, markets, or sport
- online activities, unless an in-person activation is not possible
- for-profit projects
Applicant eligibility
Eligible applicants
- Individual artists/creatives who reside or work in the North Sydney local government area (LGA)*; or
- Small to medium not-for-profit arts/creative organisations or groups located in the North Sydney LGA
- Aged over 18 years and be an Australian citizen or permanent resident
- Have no outstanding acquittals or debts owed to North Sydney Council
- Individual artists/creatives who are presenting stories and history related to the North Sydney LGA
*Where an applicant does not reside or work in the North Sydney LGA and meets all other eligibility requirements, they will be considered eligible if the application demonstrates a tangible connection to, and benefits for, the North Sydney community.
Ineligible applicants
- For-profit organisations or businesses
- State or local government organisations
- Political parties
- Non-arts individuals, groups or organisations
- Applicants that have outstanding acquittals for previous grants from North Sydney Council
- Current employees of North Sydney Council
- Applicants employed by North Sydney Council within the last 6 months
General exclusions
The grants program does not support
- Projects that have already occurred (no retrospective funding) or have been previously presented
- Recovering costs of items and materials already purchased
- Projects already funded by North Sydney Council's Small Grants program
- Fundraising, awards, or competition prize money
- Infrastructure projects that require development consent
- Capital works, maintenance, or improvements
- Multiple applicants submitting applications for the same project
- Day-to-day office supplies, insurance, rent, utilities, or ongoing wages unrelated to the project
Assessment criteria
Applications will be assessed against the funding objectives and the following criteria:
Rationale criteria
- Demonstrated need for the project
- The reason/s for undertaking the project
Impact criteria
- Benefits delivered to the North Sydney community
- Sharing of diverse stories authentic to the North Sydney community
- Expected project outcomes
- Collaborations or partnerships that extend and enrich outcomes
- Importance to the applicants' practice and/or career development
Financial criteria
- A realistic budget with all income and expenditure identified
- How the funds will be spent
- Capacity to manage funds
Capacity criteria
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Provision of examples of the applicant's previous artistic and/or cultural practice to demonstrate you have the experience and/or expertise to deliver the project
How to apply
Before applying review the grant program objectives, eligibility and assessment criteria.
Applications must be submitted using the online form. Once started, the online form progress cannot be saved and will time out after 30 minutes. To help you prepare your application, listed below are:
- The questions on the form. We recommend you prepare longer responses in a Word document, so that you can cut and paste into the online form.
- The items that need to be uploaded as attachments. We suggest preparing these before you start the form.
Application form questions
- the applicant/s name, address and contact details
- a project name (50 words max)
- description of the reason for undertaking the project, for example why this project is important to your practice/career development and/or the North Sydney community (300 words max)
- the expected project outcomes (300 words max)
- description of how the project benefits the North Sydney community (300 words max)
- details of any project collaborators (if any) (300 words max)
- When will you deliver your project? Provide start and end dates (must be between July and December 2024)
- Nomination of the proposed presentation venue:
- For projects proposed for privately run spaces, you will need to upload evidence of support from the relevant venue with your application, or
- Applicants may nominate Council’s venues or public domain/open spaces
- Tell us if your project will delivered by an Aboriginal-led organisation, team or individual and if so provide details. Read Creative Australia's First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property Protocols.
- Tell us if your project contains Aboriginal cultural themes and if so detail how you will work with local Aboriginal community members to develop and deliver your project. Read Creative Australia's First Nations Cultural and Intellectual Property Protocols.
- Tell us the amount of funding you are requesting (up to $4,000)
Items to be uploaded as attachments
- a detailed budget that itemises the estimated cost of your project including (but not limited to) fees for artists, equipment or venue hire, material costs and costs offset by income (eg ticketing). Quotes where appropriate should be included.
- a project schedule or timeline that details project plan towards presentation
- supporting material that demonstrates that you have experience and or expertise to deliver the proposed project. This should include:
- your current artist CV
- examples of other similar projects that you have completed
- other examples of your previous artistic and/or cultural practice
- supporting material can be supplied in in any one or more of the following formats:
- up to three URLs to specific web pages. Ensure all URLs are entered correctly, unbroken and publicly available. If password protected, supply the password.
- a maximum of 5 pages of text and or images in a single document in PDF format. The selection panel will review a maximum of 5 pages only.
- a URL link to a video reel on a video sharing platform (such as YouTube, Vimeo or similar) of no longer than 3 minutes duration. The selection panel will review a maximum of 3 minutes of video.
- if this is an application for the development of new work, pending initial outcomes of your project development, specify what additional resources and costs will be required to present the work