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Creative and Cultural Development Fund

Important information

  • Name: 2024 - 2025 Creative and Cultural Development Fund (previously called Arts Development Fund)
  • Status: Closed
  • Frequency: Multi year funding. Will be offered again in 2025
  • Amount: $3,000 - $10,000 per year for two years 
  • Previously successful recipients

Arts and Culture in Casey

Council’s Arts and Cultural Strategic Plan 2023 - 2027 aims to bring people, place and community together through creativity and stories and support local people, creative businesses, and groups to design and deliver their own works and arts and cultural programs.

Arts and Culture is critical to offering a vibrant, healthy, and connected community where the people who live, work in, and visit the City of Casey can immerse themselves in creative experiences, places, learning, and stories. Well-directed investment in Arts and Culture will help achieve Casey’s Community Vision and Strong Community Outcomes through:

  • improved well-being and sense of individual and community identity and connectedness through sharing our stories
  • increased opportunities for local artists and business to participate in and grow the local creative industry
  • development of social mobility and social capital through accessing opportunities in informal learning and participating in quality creative and cultural engagement.

Purpose of this grant

Council’s Creative and Cultural Development Fund supports arts groups, organisations and professional artists in the provision of a broad range of arts opportunities and activities that significantly benefit Casey residents. Council aims to:

  • champion arts and cultural practices and experiences in Casey where people feel culturally connected and included
  • elevate our community stories and develop a unique Casey identity
  • support the delivery of accessible arts initiatives which benefit the health and wellbeing of Casey residents
  • support accessible creative pathways for arts and culture in Casey to thrive. 

Who can apply for this grant

This funding is for:

  • arts organisations
  • community arts groups
  • professional artists and arts practitioners.

Professional Artist/Arts Practitioner definition (source Glossary | Creative Victoria)

  • has specialist training in their field (not necessarily in academic institutions)
  • is recognised by their peers (professional practitioners working in the art form area)
  • is committed to devoting significant time to artistic activity
  • has a history of professional public presentation.

This applies to those within Casey and from outside the municipality who want to deliver arts opportunities in Casey, for Casey residents.

Eligibility

To be eligible for the Creative and Cultural Development Fund, applicants must:

  • have the provision of arts activities as a primary focus (ie this funding is specifically for arts organisations, groups and professional artists/practitioners, not for community organisations that may run some arts activities)
  • provide (or intend to provide) arts activities within Casey boundaries for the benefit of the Casey community
  • be open and accessible to residents of Casey
  • be a legal constituted entity (e.g. sole trader, a co-operative, incorporated Association, Company or Trust)
  • or have an auspice agreement with a legally constituted entity who agree to receive and manage the funds
  • hold current public liability and professional indemnity insurance to cover any individuals, staff, volunteers, members and the general public, as appropriate (minimum $20,000,000).
     

Who cannot apply for this grant

  • Organisations that do not have the arts as a primary focus
  • For-profit businesses
  • Government agencies at local, state or federal level
  • Schools
  • Political parties/groups.

What we can fund

The Creative and Cultural Development Fund ($3,000 - $10,000 per year for two years) supports the delivery of arts opportunities and activities through a wide range of art forms such as:

  • Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultural practice
  • Community arts and cultural development
  • Dance
  • Emerging and experimental arts
  • Literature
  • Multi-art form
  • Music
  • Theatre and performing arts 
  • Visual art
  • Screen and film 
  • Digital arts.

Applications should be for projects or initiatives that either:

  • improve, develop or expand existing programs and activities 
  • offer new or innovative creative and cultural opportunities
  • build the professional capacity of local artists through new networks and pathways to creative practice. 

Activity/program costs and operational/administrative expenses related to the project or initiative can be funded.

What we cannot fund

We cannot accept applications for:

  • more than one application per applicant
  • activities and programs held outside the City of Casey
  • capital works including permanent structures or anything that increases the value of your facility
  • funding that we have approved under another grant for the same program or event in the same financial year
  • programs that only advocate religion or faith activities
  • projects that are due to happen (or have already happened) before we receive your application.

Ineligible costs include donations, travel, fundraising, alcohol.

How successful grants are decided

Your application will be assessed on how well it meets one or more of the following criteria noting that consideration will also be given to the total funding available and the distribution of funding across the municipality and priority areas.

Criteria 1 - Benefit to the Casey community

  •  Increased opportunities for Casey residents to engage in arts, cultural, and creative activities.
  • Increased creative public offerings in Casey showcasing local artists.
  • Supports our community to feel safe, capable and valued in their cultural expression and practice. 
  • Supports feelings of community connectedness and identity. 
  • Provides low cost or free activities ensuring that financial hardship is not a barrier to participation.

Criteria 2 - Benefit to the applicant

  • Assists the applicant to offer new arts opportunities or activities.
  • Helps the applicant expand, improve or develop current creative and cultural activities in Casey.
  • Increases opportunities for the applicant to develop their creative practice in Casey. 
  • Supports reaching and growing new audiences for the applicant.
  • Enables local groups to connect and develop partnerships. 
  • Project alignment with organisation’s purpose and arts focused objectives.

Criteria 3 – Benefit to arts and culture in Casey

  • Provides activities within the municipality enabling residents to prioritise Casey as their destination of choice for arts and cultural activities.
  • Offers a diverse range of programs across Casey locations and venues.
  • Increases the diversity, accessibility and reach of creative and cultural opportunities offered in Casey.
  • Increases the range and number of arts opportunities that will be provided for Casey residents.

Criteria 4 - Capacity of the applicant to operate effectively, deliver the activities and manage the funding

  • Demonstrates the capacity to deliver successful arts and cultural development projects or programs.
  • Provides evidence of project plans including confirmation for any venue/s required
  • Provides detailed project budget that is realistic and well planned and provides value for money.
  • Details the applicant’s partnerships and plans for collaboration.
  • Provides evidence of organisational/group/committee structure and/or provides evidence of the individual artist/s history of professional public presentation (eg: professional resume). 

If your application is successful

  • We will notify you by email in December 2023.
  • You will be provided with a Funding and Service Agreement which will outline expectations and conditions for the two years of funding.
  • You will need to review our Grants Policy 
  • If you have any outstanding payments to Council, you will need to clear these before we can pay the grant.
  • If you have other Council grants, acquittal requirements will need to be satisfied before funds will be released.
  • Successful applicants can expect their funds in early 2024, once Funding and Service Agreements have been signed and other necessary documents provided. 

If your application is unsuccessful

An email will be sent to all unsuccessful applicants explaining why the application was not successful. You should expect to hear from us in December 2023.

Auspice organisations

If you are planning for another organisation to manage/auspice your grant funds, you will need to find an organisation that is prepared to do this before you apply as we will ask for their details. If your application is successful, you will need to sign a simple agreement with the auspice organisation to confirm the responsibilities of each organisation.

 

Variations to grant applications 

If a program or event cannot go ahead as planned, or you wish to change your successful grant application, you will be asked to complete an ‘Application Variation Request form’. This form must be submitted before the proposed change. Council officers under delegation will assess then approve or decline this request based on how closely the alternative program/project/event aligns

Tell us how your grant was used

After you have completed your project, you must tell us how you spent the grant money and what the outcomes of the project were. This is known as an acquittal process. An acquittal report will be required at the end of each year of funding.

Find out more about the acquittal process.

Timeline

Date Details

9:00 am
Monday 25, September 2023

Applications for funding open
6:30 pm - 8.00 pm
Tuesday 26, September 2023      
Online Information Session

5:00 pm
Friday 27 October 2023 

Applications close.  Strictly no access to online applications after 5.00 pm.
November 2023 Applications are processed to determine eligibility and Creative and Cultural Development Fund assessment panel consider applications 
Mid-December 2023 Applicants are notified of the outcome of their application.
January 2024 Funding Agreements distributed and funds dispersed.

Contact us

Community Grants Officers are available to answer questions about the grant.

Please phone (03) 9705 5200 or email [email protected]

For further questions about arts in Casey including suitable arts venues including Bunjil Place, please contact Council’s Arts Development officer on 9705 5200 or email [email protected].

 

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