Australia Council is encouraging for Playing Australia -Arts Touring Fund

Deadline: 2-Mar-21

The Australia Council for the Arts is encouraging for its Playing Australia – Regional Performing Arts Touring Fund to support performing arts to reach regional and remote communities across Australia.

Grants are available to support the net touring and other designated costs associated with tours. There is no limit on the amount that can be requested.

Playing Australia is open to applications for funding with some adjustments to the guidelines accounting for COVID-19 conditions. These adjustments take account of:

current extenuating circumstances for producers and presenters, allowing for flexibility within tours;
additional costs which may be required for the safe delivery of tours;
potential for state border closures and varying conditions between states and regions;
ongoing financial implications of COVID-19.

Eligibility Criteria

Who can apply?
- The council accepts applications from individuals and organizations.
Who can’t apply?
- Applicants can’t apply for a grant if:
  - received a grant, or administered a grant, from the Australia Council in the past and that grant has not been satisfactorily acquitted;
  - owe money to the Australia Council.
What applicants can apply for?
- Regional touring will be occurring in a very different operating environment due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This grant program encourages applicants to consider creative ways in which work can be brought to audiences and communities at this difficult time.
- The following adjustments to eligible costs will be in place for the October 2020 and March 2021 closing dates.
Applicants can apply for:
- inter-state and/or intra-state touring costs, including freight, transport, accommodation and travel allowances;
- a contribution towards tour coordination expenses;
- costs associated with re-mounting a work, to be used to demonstrably reduce the performance fee for a presenter or venue;
- a contribution towards costs associated with COVID Safe delivery of touring. These may be costs of the presenter or costs of the touring party and may include:
  - additional cleaning or staffing costs within venues;
  - touring costs for understudies or additional crew in the touring party;
  - costs for Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) or other safety equipment.
What applicants can’t apply for?
- projects for which the performers and artistic personnel are not paid at award rates;
- projects that are to tour an international production;
- touring projects that only include capital city or metropolitan presentations;
- touring projects that only include presentations in schools;
- tour dates that have already taken place;
- projects with a budget in surplus.

Assessment Criteria

Peers will assess your application against the following four criteria:

Region
- The regional and remote coverage proposed by the itinerary taking into account COVID-19 conditions. Shorter tours which target a particular state or region are appropriate in light of current COVID-19 conditions.
Quality
- the artists and the arts workers involved in the project;
- the quality of proposed work;
- the caliber of the individual or organization, including demonstrated evidence of good planning, governance and management.
Engagement
- experiences offered to regional and remote communities – including audience attendance and where appropriate other participation activities, such as workshops and master classes, digital offerings;
- appropriate levels of engagement and partnerships developed with presenters to achieve audience goals within COVID-19 conditions;
- the impact on audiences in the proposed locations considering COVID-19 conditions – how the activity responds to a need or contributes to COVID-19 recovery.
Viability
- evidence of a realistic and well-planned budget;
- evidence of home state of applicant;
- given the limitations of COVID-19, the chosen itinerary is the most efficient and logical trajectory for the tour which take into account the different COVID-19 restrictions in each state and territory;
- the itinerary takes into account the overall well-being of the touring party whilst on the road;
- appropriate level of support from other sources;
- capacity to deliver the project;
- appropriate COVID Safe protocols in place for touring party, venues and audiences;
- appropriate consideration of mitigation strategies if the touring environment changes due to restrictions for COVID-19 within state or territory jurisdictions.