Creative Futures Fund Backs Bold New Projects
Drone storytelling above desert skies, older Australians strutting catwalks, and puppets from the Pilbara roaming our capital cities – these are among the highlights of a significant new investment program from Creative Australia.
The Creative Futures Fund supports extraordinary works that push boundaries and bring distinctly Australian stories to audiences across Australia and around the world. It will invest $7.8 million this year to support 20 ambitious, large-scale creative projects, spanning every state and territory.
An initiative of the Australian Government’s National Cultural Policy Revive, the Creative Futures Fund supports the creation and sharing of Australian stories, and new ways for people to engage with them.
Executive Director Arts Investment Alice Nash said:
“This is an investment in imagination. It will support the telling of unique Australian stories that cross generations, industries, and borders, while remaining deeply local.”
A key aim of the Fund is to leverage cross-sector partnerships to deliver ambitious works. The projects will intersect with fields from education, sport, science, agriculture, tourism and fashion through partnerships and collaborations.
Director of the Creative Futures Fund, Wendy Martin, said:
“This extraordinary collection of work will take audiences on imaginative journeys under the sea with sharks, onto football fields and into the wild, wonderful world of roller derby. Collaborations between artists and scientists will investigate Hobart as gateway to Antarctica and explore the Murray Darling River system as a life force that runs through our country. This first round of projects offers a glimpse of what is possible through investment in our creative future.”
Among the highlights:
The investment will support:
In its first investment round, the Creative Futures Fund offered two funding streams to support ambitious Australian work, Delivery and Development. 14 organisations received Development investment to explore new ideas, adapt existing works, and test market potential, while six organisations received Delivery investment to realise bold new works, build partnerships and co-investment and deliver lasting impact.
Via the Consortium of Australian State Theatres (CAST) and other organisations that form part of the National Performing Arts Partnership Framework, the Creative Futures Fund will also invest in a three-day gathering, later this year, of subsidised and commercial theatre producers to support the development of ambitious new theatre and cross sector collaboration.