Queensland Arts Project Fund Round 2 recipients announced

A pipeline of new and ambitious creative works from 35 Queensland-based individuals, organisations and groups will be supported as part of Round 2 of the Queensland Arts Project Fund.

$1,321,492 will support a broad range of activities and art forms, including visual arts, theatre, dance, music, cabaret, writing and artist workshops.

The Fund is delivered through three streams: a general stream providing up to $70,000 for projects, an individuals stream providing up to $20,000, and two-year matched funding of up to $150,000 for exceptional large-scale projects.

Additional funding of up to $10,000 has been made available to applicants through the Fund to support access needs of artists and audiences with disability.

Recipients in Round 2 of the Queensland Arts Project Fund are:

• JUTE Theatre Company - $80,000 including $10,000 in access support for the final creative development of Three Dresses based on Wanda Gibson’s award-winning picture book, with the world premiere of this production planned for presentation at Bulmba-ja, Cairns in June 2027.
• Red Chair - $78,218 including $9,739 in access support to develop and deliver PLAYLIST in Nambour. Over eight months, local artists will collaborate with residents to gather stories, songs, and community artefacts, to create a 70-minute immersive multi-arts production.
• Real and Diverse Ensemble - $77,214 including $7,214 in access support to develop and deliver Pirates of the High Trees, an original Queensland story, inspired by classic pirate tales and themes of climate and environmental change. The show will premiere at QPAC’s Cremorne Theatre in November 2026.
• Noosa Shire Council - $70,000 to develop and deliver Floating Land, Noosa’s premier biennial cultural event. The 2027 program will feature 12 installation and performance artists creating works specific to Noosa’s unique natural environments.
• Counterpilot - $70,000 to create an interactive on-stage dating show, pairing real humans with virtual AI beings. This final creative development will include a world premiere, two regional presentations, and arts market pitching, to build future touring opportunities.
• Mr Clint Harvey - $70,000 to support Moveable Type Studio, a mobile printing studio touring to five regional Queensland communities, offering hands-on workshops, school programs, public activations and professional development events.
• Selve - $70,000 to support To Be Continued II: Walmadany to California, a residency series spanning the Gold Coast, Broome, and Los Angeles. It will culminate in the recording of First Nations-led rock band Selve’s third album at LA’s iconic Sunset Sound Studios with renowned producer Nick Launay.
• New North Artist Run Initiative – $68,832 for Apparent Light, a two-night public art event at Peregian Beach Village. The project features 13 Queensland artists activating public spaces through light and projection-based installations, performances, and programs, offering audiences a unique art-after-dark experience.
• Briefs Factory International Pty Ltd - $119,784 over two years to develop and deliver The Whizz Kid, a new large-scale mainstage production combining circus, burlesque, drag, and physical theatre.
• Southern Cross Soloists - $60,316 for Songs of Mabuyag, a collaboration with Torres Strait Islander artists and cultural custodians to develop an all-ages work celebrating the songs and stories of Mabuyag Island in the Torres Strait.
• Ms Jenny Wynter - $50,227 to develop and deliver It Takes a Retirement Village, a new musical theatre comedy, which celebrates senior citizens and challenges stereotypes of retirement homes.
• Ms Lisa Fa’alafi - $42,170 to develop and deliver Aunty Spills the Koko, a genre-defying Pasifika performance that blends ceremony, humour, and cultural reclamation.  The community-led development will  create a new tour-ready work, culminating in a showing for national and international presenters.
• Sunshine Coast Creative Alliance - $37,850 to support two regional Queensland-based artists to undertake six-month residencies as part of R|Residency: Queensland Ecologies in 2027. The artists will explore the local environment while leveraging advanced technologies to develop and present new work.
• Claire Marshall Projects - $29,700 to develop and deliver Unseen—An Invisible Journey in Hot Pink, a new work blending dance, video, and location-specific performance to explore gendered invisibility in everyday spaces.
• Institute of Modern Art - $29,300 to develop and deliver Platform 2027, the annual commissioning program supporting emerging Queensland artists to advance their careers nationally and internationally.
• Ms Karen Roberts - $28,112 including $9,000 in access support to deliver Come Into My World, a series of singing workshops for the disability community at Multicap Eight Mile Plains, leading to the creation of a new performance work, PIECES, in 2027.
• Vulcana Womens Circus Inc (trading as Vulcana Circus) - $24,160 to deliver Cashless & Care-Free, a promenade performance at Vulcana Arts Hub, activating indoor and outdoor spaces, and exploring the unseen, unpaid labour of care.
• Miss Gina Tay Limpus - $23,632 to support the creation of Red Almodóvar a physical theatre work by Gina Tay Limpus and Rodrigo Calderón, culminating in a two-day preview season at Studio1.
• Miss Niala Lewis - $23,067 including $3,115 in access support, for the creative development of Flowers, a contemporary performance that celebrates diversity and shares the stories of Michael Doust, the 2025 winner of the Matilda Award for Best Emerging Artist, who is also non-verbal and a wheel-chair user.
• Ms Adelaide Lukin - $20,650 including $1,450 in access support to develop and deliver an absurdist comedy by Magandjin playwright Ada Lukin. Directed by Indiah Morris, the production will debut at MELT 2026, amplifying LGBTQIA+ storytelling and supporting local artists.
• Ms Holly Anderson - $20,000 to support a new solo exhibition featuring 25 new works at the Institute of Modern Art.
• Ms Bianca Tainsh - $20,000 to design and develop Terra Culture – newpublic art Terra-biome installations exploring interspecies connections.
• Mr Joseph Burgess - $20,000 to develop and deliver Sonotextility, a project exploring the interplay of sound and textile in human culture through live carpet-making performances in Queensland and interstate galleries.
• Mr Jacob Watton - $19,989 to develop and deliver The Nasty Things We Do To Each Other, a contemporary dance-theatre work exploring infidelity, queer identity, and intimacy through a blend of spoken text and choreography.
• Miss Erin O’Rourke - $19,951 to redevelop and expand her short dance work Tug into a full length work. Creative development will take place in Meanjin/Brisbane, with Queensland artists, incorporating community research with local women in sport, and shared with potential presenters.
• Ms Boneta-Marie Mabo - $19,789 to support Colonial Threads: Next Chapter, a creative development project expanding Colonial Threads into a new body of work that examines global systems behind the incarceration of Aboriginal children, using material-based installations, printmaking, and sculpture.
• Mr Siyavash Doostkhah - $19,655 to develop and deliver Running with Wild Horses, a multi-arts performance exploring themes of displacement, belonging, and social harmony through intercultural collaboration.
• Mr Ross Manning - $19,626 to deliver Double Logic, a major new sculptural work featuring large boulders and custom dichroic glass that will debut at Grafton Regional Gallery and be exhibited in Brisbane.
• Ms Sue Ryan - $18,650 to support Imprint, a research and development project for an immersive exhibition at NorthSite Gallery in Cairns.
• Mr Giles Ryder - $17,800 to develop and deliver Fractured Galaxy, a large-scale immersive installation blending neon, reflective materials, and sound to create light-driven spatial environments.
• Miss Jazz Zedekhai - $13,275 to develop and deliver Make Me Better Ma, a new one-woman autobiographical dramedy by Queensland artist Jazz Zhao exploring the struggles of Chinese children raised by ‘overbearing Tiger Mothers’.
• Mr Heinz Riegler - $12,300 to develop and deliver In the Name Of, an artistic research project exploring archival traces of violence during the Austrian Resistance through family and state records. The project will culminate in a new installation at the Institute of Modern Art, accompanied by public programs across Queensland.
• Mr Lucas Scheffel - $9,870 to develop Ned Kelly: First Blood, a new 64-page graphic novel.
• Ms Tamika Grant-Iramu - $8,955 to deliver Common Ground, a collaborative exhibition by Brisbane artists, Tamika Grant-Iramu and Renee Kire that reimagines and challenges traditional notions of industrial design.
  
• Queensland Jazz and Improvised Music Limited - $8,400 to develop and deliver Queensland Stories: The Dying Art of Discourse, a new large-scale jazz work by Rafael Karlen, created with the Unladylike Big Band and premiering at the Brisbane International Jazz Festival.