Regional Community Arts Program FAQs

1. What is meant in the guidelines by the reference that the Fund will support ‘core program delivery’?
 
‘Core program delivery’ relates to an organisation’s public-facing activity that engages audiences/attendees and participants with activities that are central to the mission or purpose of the organisation, rather than one-off activities that change from year to year.

Some examples are:

• If your organisation runs an annual community arts festival but sometimes delivers a Christmas market, then the festival would be your core program and the Christmas market would not; or
  
• A community choir that meets weekly and always performs three times a year would consider all that activity to be core program.
  

2. How much detail is required in the application in relation to planned activity for 2026 and 2027?
 
Sufficient detail should be provided to enable assessors to understand what the activity is, who it is for, when it will happen and any key delivery partners supporting the activity as a minimum. This information enables you to demonstrate the quality of your program and how collaborators and partners contribute to you achieving great outcomes.

Please note the application form says your planned activity document should not be more than four pages in length.

3. Do all events in the 2026 and 2027 forward program need to be confirmed?
 
All events do not need to be confirmed. However, your application will be stronger if you can demonstrate the likelihood that most of your program will be able to go ahead as planned.

4. If my organisation applies to both streams and is recommended for both streams, how is it decided which funding will be awarded? Can the organisation indicate a preference or will Arts Queensland make this decision?
 
The organisation will deicide which funding it wishes to accept.

1. What is meant by a detailed vs a high-level budget in the Core Funding stream?
 
For detailed and high-level budgets required, you should provide sufficient information to enable peers to see how your budget aligns with the activity plans and to also understand how the budget supports arts sector employment.

For example, in your detailed budget you may like to include income from the different workshops that you may run as different budget lines and then separately list your individual sponsors or grants from different programs. However, within your high-level budget you might combine your workshop income and provide on one line, and then separately combine your sponsorship income as a further income line and then list all grant income as another combined line in the budget.

Please ensure any wages for core staff are included as a separate expenditure line to fees, salaries and wages that you may pay to support project delivery.

If it’s easier, you can supply both your 2026 and 2027 budget as a detailed budget using the same template.  Upload your budget as an Excel document.

Arts Queensland has not provided a template for the budgets. This is to reduce the administrative burden on applicants by enabling the use of any budget templates that are already used to manage the organisation’s finances.

2. What specific costs would be eligible as ‘contributing to the costs of volunteer involvement in the group?
 
These eligible costs include those that assessors can identify as directly related to volunteer involvement in your organisation. This could include the cost of a volunteer manager or co-ordinator, catering or transport for volunteers, t-shirts that identify people as volunteers in a festival, or advertising to recruit volunteers.

3. Can we include the in-kind value of volunteer time, and other in-kind costs as part of our budget?
 
Yes, you can include these in-kind costs within your budget. The Project stream budget includes an in-kind section for these costs, and you should enter the different types and value of in-kind support you receive on different budget lines.

If you are applying to the Core Funding stream you can include in-kind in your budget, but it is recommended that you keep it separate from income and expenditure and that you break the in-kind support down to include its different sources. Remember, in-kind costs will ultimately balance, with an equal income and expenditure value ultimately delivering a ‘net zero’ cost.

In both streams, please provide details on how you have calculated the value of volunteer time.

4. The Fund Guidelines state that applications must not request 100% of project or core operating costs. Can in-kind contributions be the only co-investment or does there need to be cash co-investment secured to fulfil the eligibility criteria?

In-kind contribution is counted for the purposes of eligibility; however your application will be more competitive if you have cash income as well.

1. Are multicultural organisations whose core focus is delivering arts and cultural events or festivals eligible for funding?

If you are applying as an organisation you must demonstrate you have an arts focus as well as being community-led. If a multicultural organisation can’t demonstrate that the majority of its activity is strongly focussed on arts-led activation or engagement, then it would not be eligible.

2. Can I use my own personal ABN to apply on behalf of a Group if it doesn’t have an ABN? If so, am I applying as an individual or as a group?

For the Project Funding stream in this instance, within the applicant details section you should select that you are applying as a group/collective/artist run initiative. The application form will then direct you to select ‘individual’ in the applicant name section. Your name should match the name on your ABN. However, the form will direct you to fill in information about your group.

If your group doesn’t have its own ABN and a formal governance structure, you will not be eligible to apply to the Core Funding stream of the Program.

Individuals are not eligible to apply to either stream of this fund if applying for themselves only.

3. My organisation delivers activities across many artforms including film making and appreciation. Are we eligible to apply?

The primary focus of your community-led arts group or organisation should not be film, TV or games related activities. However, a community arts group that had a film club as part of a wider range of arts activities would be eligible to apply.
 
4. If we are a new community group that has been around less than two years, would we be eligible to apply for core funding?

You would not be eligible for Core Funding, but you could apply for project funding if you meet all other eligibility requirements for that stream.
 
5. My organisation has upcoming reports due under current Arts Queensland grants – do I need to complete this reporting before I submit my application?

You must submit all reporting by the contracted due date to be eligible to apply. If you have overdue reporting or have not provided any additional information requested by Arts Queensland in relation to the reports you have submitted, you will be ineligible to apply.

If you have any overdue reporting when you are notified of success you will need to complete this before your funding deed is issued and your first payment made
 
6. Can my organisation apply to this fund if we are already receiving project funding through other Arts Queensland funding streams?

Yes, you can apply if you have previously received or are currently receiving project funding from Arts Queensland. You cannot apply for funding if you will receive funding through the Organisations Fund 2026-2029 or BIA Indigenous Arts Centre Funding or any other multi-year funding program that supports core costs.

1. How many hours of work per week is the FTE calculation based on?

If you already have workers, you should use your organisation’s existing definition of full time. If your organisation doesn’t have a definition, then full time work is considered to be at least 35 hours paid work a week.

2. How do I calculate our FTEs in an organisation that engages lots of people to do a small amount of paid work?

You don’t need to enter a calculation for FTE into the application form itself. The guidelines state that Arts Queensland may prioritise applications from groups/organisations with one FTE or less.

To determine this, assessors will look at the section in the application form where you are asked for a headcount of paid employees in various categories. Full time and part-time should be self-explanatory. If your employees are project-based, then we would not consider that to count towards an FTE. If your organisation has lots of casual staff, we will consider your budget for staff costs. As a rule of thumb, a full-time minimum wage job on casual loading is $61,000, so we would divide the amount in the wages line of your accounts by 61,000 to calculate an FTE.