Apply for our artist support grant

Grants team

If you have any questions, we’re here to help.

: 02 9265 9333
: [email protected]

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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.

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.

Person sitting at a desk with computer monitors, calendar posters on the wall, and a white cat standing by their feet in a home office. — 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

- Confirm you’re eligible – each grants program has its own eligibility requirements, and you must also meet the City of Sydney’s general eligibility criteria
- Review our application tips and grants resources
- Gather supporting documents – such as quotes, letters from community members and partners, and any other materials that strengthen your application
- Applying for a grant takes time and preparation. Our step-by-step guide shows you what to do before you submit your application.
Accessible application options are available.

Applicants with disability, or from diverse cultural and language backgrounds, or Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander applicants may apply in alternative formats, including verbal applications.

Accessible applications are assessed in the same way as all other applications.

Get in touch early and allow extra time for us to provide this support.

To find out more or to access this support, call us on 02 9265 9333 or email [email protected].

You can also contact us through the National Relay Service. You’ll need to provide our phone number: 02 9265 9333.

Eligibility and exclusions

Applicants must:
- be an individual or legal entity, or have an auspice willing to enter into a contract with the City of Sydney
- operate in the City of Sydney local area or demonstrate significant benefits to our communities
- meet the specific eligibility criteria for the grant program you’re applying for
- comply with the City of Sydney’s ethics framework
- have an active Australian Business Number (ABN) if you’re applying as a business
- have satisfactorily completed any previous City of Sydney grants projects
- be free of any debts owed to the City of Sydney.
For the economic, social and community, creative and environmental programs, you can apply for 3 projects in total.

If you work with an auspice, we encourage you to choose an organisation relevant to your sector so they can support the development of your proposal.

We welcome applications from social enterprises, community groups and individuals. To apply, you must be a legal entity.
We don’t provide grants to applicants or projects that:
- duplicate existing services or programs
- have already occurred
- breach the City of Sydney’s ethics framework or policies
- didn’t comply with their contractual obligations for previous grants
- didn’t complete a previous grants project satisfactorily
- appear to be associated with a previous recipient or grants project that didn’t comply with their contractual obligations or complete the grants project satisfactorily
- could be perceived as benefiting a political party.
Grants can’t include:
- general donations to charities, which are covered by our support for charities policy
-  funding for operational costs or overheads for the core business of an organisation
- funding for City of Sydney fees, including development applications, outdoor venue hire, health inspection fees, health approvals, street closures and other approvals or charges beyond what is specified in the grant programs
- design, printing and distribution services or cleansing and waste services already supplied by the City of Sydney.
City of Sydney employees:
- may not apply for, or benefit from, a grant directly
- should not write letters of support for grant applications.
For environmental grants, an owners corporation can still receive funding even if one of its lot owners works for the City of Sydney. This is allowed as long as the employee:
- does not own most of the lots (not a majority owner)
- has no involvement in preparing the grant application or in the grant assessment process.

How to apply

This category opens for applications again in July 2027.

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.

Join our grants newsletter to find out about upcoming opportunities for funding and support.

Sign up now

Your questions answered about artist support

We’ve answered some common questions about our artist support category.

If your question isn’t covered on this page, email your question to [email protected].

Attaching a budget is optional. All artist support grants will be a fixed amount of $25,000 to put towards your creative practice. We do like to know what you intend to spend the grant on, and attaching a budget might help you communicate that.

Artist support budgets should include the types of expenses associated with your practice like materials, equipment, studio hire, paying your collaborators, and your own costs of living.

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.