Arts and Culture Fund

The Arts and Cultural Fund is helping to support what creatives do with small financial boosts. The fund will help creative practitioners develop great work, grow their creative practice, and contribute to the local creative atmosphere, which helps the whole community.

Baw Baw Shire Council knows that the arts make our lives fuller. They are an important part of Council’s long-term vision, with the Creative Communities Strategy 2023 – 2029 stating that our artists "create change in the world, bring joy into our hearts, educate us and fuel our desire for connection and understanding."

We are looking for applications that can achieve one or more of the goals below: 

1. The application helps to grow creative projects in the community. 
2. The application helps to develop the local arts community. 
3. The application gives the wider community the chance to experience and/or participate in the arts. 
4. The application creates opportunities for creative practitioners to work together with others on creative projects, including other local creatives and/or residents and/or local community groups.

This fund aims to help creatives in their work, focusing on their professional development and building on their creative work. It also achieves a key goal set out in the Baw Baw Creative Communities Strategy 2023 – 2029, which is to “Explore the opportunity to implement a new community arts grant scheme that supports innovative practices and programs”.

The fund will support projects which achieve one or more of the following criteria: 

1. The project delivers creative projects or initiatives that contribute to the goals in Baw Baw Shire Council’s Creative Communities Strategy.
2. The project boosts the professional development or practice of creative practitioners and groups who reside and/or undertake their work primarily within the municipal boundary of Baw Baw Shire.
3. The project shows broad community benefits.
4. The project builds on the creative industry of the Baw Baw Shire area and demonstrates clear benefit to the local creative sector.

Drayton.C, Haughton.J, McLennan.J, Van Dyk Hamilton. R, Three Kurnai Women sculpture, Drouin Civic Park, 2023.

• Eligible applicants can apply for a monetary grant of up to $2,000.
  • While you can apply for any amount of money up to $2,000, please do not apply for more than the actual cost of your project (e.g. if your project is expected to cost $1,500, you must apply for $1,500 and not for $2,000).
• Grants may only be awarded to each recipient once per funding year (each funding year is made up of two rounds, Round 1 and Round 2, and comprises a 12-month period). For example, if Alice receives a grant in Round 1 she cannot apply for another grant in Round 2 of that same funding year.

Please be aware: if you are successful, you may not be given the entire amount of money that you requested. The amount given is at the discretion of the assessment panel. 

To be eligible to receive a grant from the Arts & Culture Fund, you must:

1. Be a resident of Baw Baw Shire looking to build you professional development in the creative industries, and/or a creative practitioner whose creative practice is primarily located in Baw Baw Shire, or an organisation or community group partnering with a Baw Baw Shire creative practitioner to develop a creative project that will boost the creative practitioner’s work and have broad benefit to the Baw Baw Shire community. 
2. Have your project located and delivered within Baw Baw Shire.
3. Comply with Victorian Child Safe Standards.
4. Hold and maintain Public Liability Insurance that covers at least $20,000,000 (unless your project will not be 'in public' in any way).

Please note that the fund strongly encourages applications that serve youth and/or the First Nations community.

Applicants under 18 years of age are welcome to apply, but they must have proof of consent from a parent or guardian. Council Officers will need to confirm this consent in person with a parent or guardian if the application is successful.

Please apply for Round 2 applications by using the Application Form. Applications open on January 5th, 2026.

You may also like to access the full Applicant Guide(PDF, 876KB) or the Help Guide for Applicants.

We will be running an online information session for applicants at 5:30pm on January 14th, 2026. If you would like to attend this information session, please register here. 

Are you planning to apply and have some questions? If so, you are welcome to email Ephiny Gale, Acting Arts & Culture Coordinator, and she will get in touch.

Caminiti.J, Corymbia Dreaming, Drouin Civic Park, 2022.