Apply for our artist support grant
We provide support for professional practicing artists to continue to live and practice in Sydney.
In progress
- Applications now open
- Applications close 4pm, Tuesday 1 September
- This category is open once a year – applicants are notified of the outcome of their application in November
- Funding available from 1 January 2027
Creative grants information session: video recording
We held an online creative grants information session on Tuesday 21 July. It covered the new grants program, what’s changed and the opportunities for artists, creatives and cultural organisations.
Discuss your project or idea
The grants team is here to help. 15-minute time slots available, 14 July to 31 August.
About this category
Our artist support category aims to rebuild our creative workforce.
It supports professional practicing artists from priority communities to continue to live and practice in Sydney.
Open for applications once a year, the program funds 40 successful applicants across a range of artforms and at different stages of their careers.
The funding is to support any aspect of creative practice as well as cost of living and costs of producing new work.
The artist support funding is part of our creative grants program. View the program funding priorities.
Funding available
Cash funding of $25,000 per person, for one year.
Help with grants in your language
Need help with information about our grants in other languages?
Eligibility
To be eligible, you must be:
✔️ working as a professional practicing artist
✔️ living in Greater Sydney
✔️ 18 years or older (at the time of application)
✔️ a citizen or permanent resident of Australia.
You must also:
✔️ contribute to or be connected to the creative and cultural network in the City of Sydney local area
✔️ meet our general eligibility requirements.
Additional exclusions
In addition to our general exclusions, we cannot fund applicants who are also:
❌ current recipients of the creative live and work spaces, accommodation or short-term empty properties grants
❌ artists who have received artist support funding in the past 12 months from the City of Sydney.
Who can apply
You can apply as a:
- sole trader
- individual auspiced by an eligible not-for-profit organisation.
Eligible artists include:
- Aboriginal cultural practitioners
- actors and directors
- community cultural development artists
- composers, songwriters and arrangers
- craft practitioners
- dancers and choreographers
- musicians and singers
- visual artists
- writers.
Individuals may access this grant program by partnering with an eligible organisation. Read our auspicing guide to see if it’s an option for you.
HOSSEI is a multidisciplinary Australian artist with Persian, Turkish and Russian ancestry, exhibiting work across Western Sydney and beyond. — Image: Abril Felman / City of Sydney
Assessment criteria
Before you apply
How to apply
Applications for our grants programs must be completed online.
Before you apply, we recommend you:
- review our step-by-step guide for grants applicants
- check out our grant application resources.
Applications close 4pm, Tuesday 1 September.
Glossary
Greater Sydney
Greater Sydney is the metropolitan area of the city of Sydney, including surrounding regions. Its populations regularly socialise, shop or work in Sydney, but live in the city’s suburbs or in the small towns and rural areas surrounding the city.
Greater Sydney stretches across southern and western areas in an arc to the Central Coast. It includes the Southern Highlands, Blue Mountains and Northern Beaches.
Priority communities
Communities that may experience heightened inequality and barriers to social, economic, cultural, political and environmental resources, services and support, including:
- Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- people on low incomes
- people renting including social housing residents
- people experiencing homelessness
- people with disability
- people with lived experience of a mental health and/or chronic condition
- people over 65
- young people and children under 5
- new immigrants, non-citizens and refugees
- people with English as a second language
- people of diverse sexualities and genders
- women and girls.
Professional practicing artist
A professional practicing artist is defined as meeting one or more of the following criteria:
- In the past 3 to 5 years has had an artistic achievement in their art form, such as:
- a work of creative fiction or imagination accepted for publication by a recognised publishing outlet or performed by a professional stage, radio, television or film company, where a fee or royalties was received
- a work or works shown or performed at a professional gallery or exhibition, or published by a recognised publishing outlet, or received a major public or private commission
- an original composition, other than advertising jingles or other commercial music, performed under professional circumstances, either live, broadcast, recorded or filmed
- a professional engagement as a director or dramatic actor or performer with a professional stage, television or film company
- a professional engagement as a choreographer, dancer, musician or singer in a professional capacity
- contributed to the development of a major community arts project, or played an important part in encouraging members of the community to create works of art, or a substantial artistic role in a festival or other important community arts event
- has been engaged in the past 5 years in creating a serious and substantial body of work in their art form
- has undertaken full-time training in their art form or in the past 3 to 5 years has received a grant to work in their art form through a public or private grant.
