Queensland Arts Project Fund

The Queensland Arts Project Fund is administered by Arts Queensland, Department of Education, across three streams for eligible projects.

• General stream: up to $70,000 for projects up to one year
• Individuals: up to $20,000 for projects up to one year
• Two-year project grants: up to $150,000 for exceptional large-scale two-year projects with matched funding (at least 30% cash investment).
  

Project length:

• Projects up to one year, to be completed by 30 November 2027
• Projects up to two years, to be completed by 30 November 2028.
  

Eligible activities

The Fund supports applications across a broad range of activities and artform including visual arts, craft and design; performing arts; classical and contemporary music; fashion, textiles and design; writing; and multi-arts.

Eligible activities include:

• Creative development of new work (i.e. brand new work or significantly different interpretations of existing work).
  
• Production, presentation, exhibition and distribution of new work (including new exhibitions of existing work).
  
• Collaboration with a nationally or internationally significant artist or company in the development or presentation of new work.

In accordance with the First Nations Fashion and Textiles Plan 2024-2026, Aboriginal or Torres Strait Islander artists with fashion and textiles projects can also apply to the Fund for the eligible activities above.

Additional support for access costs

You can apply for up to an additional $10,000 for costs related to the inclusion and participation of people with disability or who are d/Deaf. This funding can be used to assist individuals with disability or who are d/Deaf to participate in the project as artists, performers, arts workers, collaborators etc; or for audiences or participants with disability or who are d/Deaf to access and engage with your activities.

Eligible costs must relate to the project, not an applicant’s general operations, and not be already funded under NDIS.

See our FAQs for examples of different types of access costs the funding will support.

Ineligible costs

• Non-arts activities: Activities that are not related to the arts, cultural or creative industries. For this Fund, applications for film, screen and games will be considered ineligible. Funding for screen-related activities can be found on the Screen Queensland’s website.
• Costs covered by other funding: project costs specifically covered by other funding including other Arts Queensland or Queensland Government grants, philanthropic funding, local, State, or Federal government grant funding or service contracts or NDIS funding in relation to access costs.
  
• Business costs: core operating costs including rent and utilities, business start-up costs, debts and loans repayments, contingency, agents’ fees, or management fees. This includes expenses associated with core staff involved in funded activities including fees or wages, travel, accommodation and living-away-from-home allowances.
  
• Infrastructure: purchase, planning or maintenance of infrastructure, including fit outs.
  
• Equipment: equipment or software purchases or digital upgrades over $3,000 (excluding GST).
  
• Retrospective funding: funding for activities that have already taken place or for goods and services contracted or purchased prior to your funding being confirmed.
  
• Competitions, awards and private tuition: fundraising activities, awards, competitions, eisteddfods, prizes, private tuition or accredited courses and cost associated with participating in them.
  

Refer to the table below for eligibility criteria if applying as an individual or as a group or organisation.

You will not be eligible to apply if you:

• Request 100% of the project’s costs from Arts Queensland.
• Are an Arts Statutory Body, Arts Owned Company or State Government agency (state schools are not considered State Government agencies for the purposes of this Fund).
• Are applying for activities that are the primary responsibility of another Queensland Government department or agency.
• Are a current Arts Queensland employee or former employee who ceased employment less than six months before applying.
• Are an employee of an Arts Statutory Body, Arts Owned Company and/or the Department of Education unless the application is unrelated to your role.
• Are an educational institution seeking funding for core business.

What is auspicing and who can be auspiced?

An auspice body takes responsibility for all legal and financial obligations, including how the grant funding is spent and ensuring the funded activity is completed and acquitted in time. For this Fund, auspice bodies must submit the application on behalf of the applicant and complete the certification on the application form. They are not considered to be the applicant.

You can be auspiced if you:

• Do not have an ABN or bank account
• Are seeking to increase your grant writing and administration skills by working with the auspice body
• Are unable to meet your obligations under the funding deed without the support of an auspice body.

Reasonable auspice fees are eligible for Arts Queensland funding. Please include information about the services the auspice body will supply and how they have been costed.

Still not sure if you are eligible?

Please get in touch with Arts Queensland to discuss.

Notes:

2. Applications cannot be submitted in an applicant's own name and through an Auspice Body in the same round. Auspicing bodies may apply on behalf of multiple applicants in the same round.

Community expectations relating to Queensland Government funding

The Queensland Government has made a commitment to enhance community safety through the introduction of a suite of changes focused on terrorist symbols and phrases including through the Fighting Antisemitism and Keeping Guns out of the Hands of Terrorists and Criminals Amendment Bill 2026.

Accordingly, in its administration of public monies, as an agency of the Queensland Government Arts Queensland will not support applicants or activities that do not represent an appropriate use of public money. This could include promoting behaviour or speech that is hateful, insulting or that promotes racism or religious intolerance, or that is contrary to Anti-Discrimination or hate speech laws. Arts Queensland will also consider any financial and operational risks in allocating funding and managing funding agreements.

To undertake these due diligence processes, Arts Queensland will consider publicly available information.

The Queensland Government acknowledges the unique role the arts can play in considering different points of view, the exchange of ideas and commentary on contemporary issues.

Please see the Queensland Arts Project Fund FAQs for examples of further guidance on considerations in determining whether an applicant is suitable to receive public funding.

Eligible applications will be assessed against the following criteria:

High quality

• The strength and clarity of the creative idea or concept for the project.
• The skills and experience of the artists and arts workers involved in the project.
• You have collaborators and partners involved in the project that will help you to deliver great outcomes.

Strong impact

• The project creates employment and career development opportunities for Queensland artists, creatives and arts workers.
• The potential for the project to build markets and reputation for Queensland arts and cultures.
• The project has clear benefits and relevance for Queensland audiences and communities.
• Additional access funding: funding requested is clearly aligned to project impacts, and the targeted artists, participants and audiences.
  

Sustainable value

• The project budget is viable and realistic, including contingency and appropriate fees for the professionals involved.
• The project has a strong and achievable delivery plan including understanding potential risks and their management.
• The project planning demonstrates best practice and appropriate cultural competencies in working with diverse communities.

Two-year project stream requirements

You must speak with Arts Queensland to discuss your project before applying.

Funding of up to $150,000 is available only for exceptional projects that demonstrate confirmed matched funding and outstanding quality with strong, measurable outcomes. The project can be funded through multiple stages of creative development but must have a finalised public presentation in Queensland within 2 years of the project start date.

You must also provide clear evidence of confirmed matched funding, with at least 30% of the total investment as cash from non-Arts Queensland sources. For example, if your total project budget value (including in-kind) is $300,000 then you can request $150,000 from Arts Queensland with matched funding of $150,000 comprised of a maximum of $40,000 in-kind and a minimum of $90,000 confirmed cash co-investment from other sources.

As well as demonstrating the project’s exceptional quality, strong impact and your plans to measure it, you will also have to provide additional support material that demonstrates your track record including:

• Demonstrate a track record in delivering projects of a similar size and scale with positive audience and critical response.
• Supply audited or certified financial statements or project budgets that show sound management of past grants/funds.
• Provide letters of support from past project partners demonstrating community or sector benefit.
• Share completed outcome reports, case studies or evaluations of previous projects showing success against objectives, and datasets or metrics showing how outcomes were measured.

Projects that are not able to meet these requirements are encouraged to apply for one year funding.

Support material

Support material helps to build your case for funding and provides evidence that your application meets the funding criteria. If you don’t supply all the compulsory support material, your application will not be assessed. If you don’t supply all the support material it is unlikely that your application will be recommended for funding.

Compulsory support material

You must include all the support material below to be eligible:

• CVs for key artists and arts workers (max 5 pages).
• Up to three examples of your work (if using video footage, no more than 3 minutes per video).
• Letters from financial, in-kind, presenting or community partners confirming involvement and reasons for supporting the project.
• Evaluation plan: how you are going to measure the success of your project.

Other support material that is compulsory if it is relevant to your application:

• If your proposal involves audiences and/or participants: include a marketing plan outlining how you are going to reach your audience/participants.
• Evidence of consultation with, and support from, communities or groups you are working with or telling the stories of. This is particularly relevant for projects working Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities, people with disability, or from culturally linguistically diverse background. It could also apply to working with young people, older people or LGBTIQA+ peoples. Please review the Queensland Arts Project Fund FAQs for practical examples.
• Appropriate consent and permissions if your work will involve other people’s Intellectual Property (IP) or Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property (ICIP). Examples of IP could  be sampling music or speech in the creation of new music work, or adapting a novel into a play. If other IP or ICIP is not known at the application stage (e.g. you will be doing a call out for submissions for an exhibition or a festival) you must include information about how you will manage IP and ICIP in the future.
• If you are an employee of any the following organisations you will need to provide a letter from an authorised officer in your organisation stating that the funded activity is outside your role and giving details of any financial or in-kind support the project will receive from the organisation:
  • Aboriginal Centre for Performing Arts, Brisbane Festival, Department of Education, QAGOMA, QMF, Queensland Museum, QPAC, Queensland Theatre, State Library of Queensland.
• If you are an education institution, you must provide a letter from an authorised officer in your organisation stating that the funded activity is outside core business.
• If you are an auspice body, provide evidence the application content, budget, and the auspice services have been approved by the artist/organisation on whose behalf the application has been submitted.

Recommended support material

• Letters of support from individuals and organisations who can speak to your skills and experience and/or the value of your proposed project.
• Supporting budget information showing any important calculations such as valuing in-kind support, breaking down artists fees or providing evidence of income estimation.
• Quotes for single project costs over $10,000.
• A Child Safety policy or framework if working with children or young people.

Step 1: Read key documents and information

This includes:

• These guidelines.
• General funding guidelines.
• Queensland’s Time to Shine strategy.
• The application form.

Step 2: Check eligibility

• Eligibility Criteria will guide you on whether you are eligible to apply.
  
• If you are in any doubt about whether you or your project are eligible, contact Arts Queensland.

Step 3: Apply for an Arts Queensland SmartyGrants applicant account (if you don’t have one already)

• You won’t be able to view or fill in the online form until you have an account. It’s a quick and simple process.
• If applying via SmartyGrants doesn’t meet your access needs, contact Arts Queensland to discuss other ways to apply.

Step 4: Prepare your application

• Gather your support material.
• Demonstrate how your project meets the purpose of this fund.
• Only request funding for activity or expenses that will occur after the activity start date and that directly relate to your project.
• If working with diverse communities, ensure your application outlines how you will address the needs of the community and how you will follow appropriate protocols when working with them.

Step 5: Submit your application by the due date

• Include all the compulsory support material (see Compulsory support material section for details).

Tips

• Give yourself plenty of time to gather your compulsory support material.
• If you don’t receive an email confirming your application has been received, please contact Arts Queensland.

Arts Queensland’s website provides resources for developing grant applications. We recommend you check these out if you are applying to the Fund for the first time.

While Arts Queensland staff can provide technical and general advice to potential applicants, including types of projects eligible for funding and advice on the application process, staff cannot help to develop the content of your application. To maintain a fair and equitable process, staff are unable to edit or correct any applications or provide advice on the content or decisions required within the application.

The Regional Arts Services Network (RASN), funded through Arts Queensland, provides support for artists and arts organisations. Applicants outside of the Brisbane Local Government Area requiring additional support to make an application should contact the services at Regional Arts Services Network (RASN).