Regional Arts Fund Community Grants - APPLY NOW!

Circus, Crafts and textiles, Dance, Film, Literature, Music, Photography, Puppetry, Theatre, Visual Arts and the list continues...those are just a few of the possible projects that you could get funded in 2017 by the Regional Arts Fund Community Grants Program, which opens today.

The Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund (RAF) supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote Australia and meets the strategic priorities of supporting participation in, and access to, the arts and encouraging greater private sector support for the arts. The Regional Arts Fund is designed to benefit regional and remote arts practitioners, arts workers, audiences and communities.

The Cad Factory in Narrandera has been a successful applicant in the Western Riverina for the past two years and was able to score $40,000 in funding for their projects. In 2015 they used the funding to realize 'On Common Ground' - a community driven, site specific exploration of innovative contemporary textile practices and showcased traditional textile crafts of the region and sound art with a focus on their interaction with the land and environment. This year the Cad Factory runs a Residency Exchange program, which enables artistic exchange, the creation of new work, workshop opportunities, professional career development, skills exchange and community building opportunities between regional, city based and international artists. 

On Common Ground by the Cad Factory

  The objectives of the Regional Arts Fund are to support and promote participation in, and access to, Australia’s arts and culture in regional and remote Australia by:

• Encouraging and supporting sustainable economic, social and cultural development in regional communities.
• Developing partnerships and networks which leverage financial and/or in-kind support for specific projects and encourage ongoing collaboration.
• Developing audiences and broadening community engagement with the arts.
• Increasing employment and professional development opportunities for, and raise the profile of, regional and remote artists.

The Regional Arts Fund (RAF) Community Grants program is changing for the 2017 round. Here are a few things you need to know:

• Opening dates and closing dates have been moved forward in the year.
• RAF applications will only be accepted through the Regional Arts Australia secure online grants system, SmartyGrants.
• Guidelines have been reviewed and simplified.
• There is a NEW category Small Regional Festival Support.
• The Residencies and Mentorships category is no longer available.
• Multi-year funding is only available for two years and projects must be discussed with RANSW staff before applying.
• You will need to respond to a number of Australian Government questions for statistical collection that are common to all arts grants applicants administered by the Department of Communications and the Arts.

SmartyGrants is an online grants management system now being used by most government and non-government arts bodies. It might be a bit confronting the first time you use it, so make sure you leave plenty of time to get your application done. Read the RAF Community Grants NSW Guidelines 2017 carefully and discuss your project with RADO Derek Motion. We can help explain the new process.

Applications open: Monday 20 June, 2016
Applications close: 3:00pm AEST Monday 8 August, 2016

Read more: http://regionalartsnsw.com.au/grants/raf/#ixzz4CAunTQJu