Program guidelines
The program supports the development and growth of a vibrant sector that promotes the participation and active engagement of Western Australian communities in high quality arts and cultural experiences.
This program supports individuals and groups to deliver projects that involve artists or creatives who maintain professional arts and creative practices.
The 3 categories are:
To decide which category is most suitable for you, refer to the category objectives.
The key dates calendar has opening and closing dates, activity start dates and draft review deadlines.
Please apply using the Online Grants web portal.
More information about how to apply can be found in the application manual.
Individuals and groups (unincorporated bodies/partnerships) that deliver arts projects are welcome to apply to this program however:
To be successful, your application should align to one or more of these objectives.
Eligible activities may include, but are not limited to:
Your application will be ineligible if you:
Eligible applicants can apply for funding between $5000 and $80,000.
This program may fund up to 80% of your activity costs. You must demonstrate at least 20% income, or your application will be ineligible.
Your funding request will be the difference between your expenditure minus your income in your application budget.
The key dates calendar has application opening, closing and activity start dates.
You are encouraged to submit your application before the closing date to ensure you have plenty of time to allow for technical or eligibility/resubmission issues. All times are in AWST (for Perth, Western Australia).
Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application approximately 12 weeks after the closing date.
Processing of grant payments to successful applicants will not start until after the grant contract is signed and returned. Depending on the activity start date, we cannot guarantee notification and/or availability of grant funds before the activity begins.
You can apply 2 times in total to the Arts Projects for Organisations and Projects for Individuals programs (per financial year, per applicant). This includes ineligible and/or unsuccessful applications.
Applications to other grant programs at DLGSC, such as regionally focussed grant programs and the Contemporary Music Fund grant program, do not count towards the 2 application limit.
Only one application can be submitted per program submission or closing date.
Your project must be completed within 12 months of receiving the funds.
More information on how to apply can be found in the application manual.
There are 4 components of a grant application:
Each plays a significant and distinct role in creating a whole picture about your activity.
Your answers to the core application questions should give assessors an overview of your activity. Each question has a 1500-character limit. If you need more information on how to prepare your application, please read the application manual.
You can extract a copy of your draft application in Online Grants at any stage to share with others for their feedback.
Please ensure your activity meets the most current COVID-19 health guidelines.
Describe your planned activity. Outline your ideas, what is involved, who you will be working with and how they will contribute. Explain the creative, artistic or cultural relevance or significance of the activity, both for yourself and the relevant sector of the community
Explain the importance of undertaking this activity at this time. Demonstrate the relevance, timeliness and impact of the activity in the context of your individual practice, other WA practitioners, WA communities or for your group or partnership.
If this activity involves a repeat attendance at an event you must show how this proposal builds upon the outcomes of that previous activity.
If your activity includes travel out of WA, you must describe the national significance of the event or opportunity you need to attend or participate in, and you must demonstrate that the activity will have a long-term impact for the artists or arts workers engaged.
List the direct outcomes you hope to achieve from your activity. These may include developing your skills, producing a new work or body of work, accessing promotional or networking opportunities, reaching new audiences or markets, or engaging with specific communities. Where relevant, you should include outcomes and benefits for the participants and audiences for your activity.
Describe in detail the stages or steps in planning, developing and implementing your activity. Include as many specific details that are essential to the success of your activity. If your activity engages with Aboriginal content or community, clear evidence of Aboriginal agency and consultation must be provided in your support material.
Provide a timeline outlining what will happen at each stage of your activity. The timeline should begin and finish with the activity start and end dates you entered at the beginning of your application.
Outline the methods, processes or tools you will use to measure and report your progress towards, and/or achievement of the activity outcomes you outlined in question 3. Consider how you will know whether you achieved your proposed outcomes.
Marketing includes audience and sector engagement, promotion and distribution strategies. Describe the different methods you will employ to market your activity or distribute your product to your desired audience, client, consumer or peer group. Activities that do not include a clear public outcome should still include some plan for documentation, engagement of peers and promotion of your practice. If relevant, you can include a marketing plan with your support materials.
You are required to provide relevant project outputs. An output is a specific measurable thing that is generated by your project. This information will be considered as part of your application and provide further clarity about your project for the assessor. The outputs also provide important data for the department for research, analysis and advocacy purposes.
You only need to provide outputs for the categories and items relevant to your project.
If your application is successful, you will be required to report against your planned project outputs in your acquittal report.
Refer to the application manual for an explanation of the project output questions.
Please contact us if you have any questions.
The financial information in your budget helps to demonstrate that all elements of your activity have been considered, thoroughly researched and costed. A good budget also provides confidence for the DLGSC that your activity will be a sound investment for the State of Western Australia.
You should indicate which expenditure items you want the DLGSC to support. List those items in the ‘Additional Notes’ section of the application budget page.
Your budget should not contain any costs that fall before your provided activity start date.
If you are registered for GST you should not include GST in the budget figures. All amounts should be in Australian dollars.
Your funding request is the difference between your expenditure minus your income. To ensure this amount is calculated accurately, seek quotes for all expenditure items (whether or not you intend to include these as support material) and include all costs associated with the activity, even if they are supplied in-kind.
Many activities will include in-kind contributions in the form of offering something for free or at a discount. More information on in-kind expenditure and income as well as an example of how to demonstrate your in-kind support follows this section.
For each expenditure or income item you add to the budget, use the notes area alongside the item to explain how that item relates to the delivery of your activity and how the cost was calculated.
Expenditure items can vary significantly from one activity to another. Any legitimate expense that is eligible may be included in the budget.
Do not duplicate costs in the budget form. For example, if you receive a quote for advertising which includes design, do not add an additional item for design. Simply use ‘advertising’ as the expenditure item, and add a note explaining that the cost includes design.
Make sure you check the list for ineligible items.
Expenses related to the management and administration of the activity. For example telephone/internet, insurance, postage and stationery. Eligible expenditure items in this category may also include audit costs and accessibility costs (expenditure associated with making your activity accessible to participants or audiences with a disability).
Costs associated with marketing to your target audience. For example information, promotion and audience engagement activities, advertising, graphic design, merchandise photography, videography, public relations and production of marketing collateral.
Costs related to the remount, production and delivery of the activity or its deliverables, including the costs of presentation and exhibition. Eligible items may include venue hire, lighting hire, set construction, manufacturing costs, recording fees, rehearsal space hire, props and audio-visual costs.
Expenditure in this category should include salaries, fees and allowances for all key personnel, with separate components itemised in the budget notes.
We support appropriate rates of pay for all people involved in your activity. Refer to the following websites for information on industry standard payment rates:
If these standards do not apply to your activity then you must outline how reasonable rates have been calculated. For long-term activities, it may be appropriate to pay artists a rate based on a yearly salary for a similar kind of work. If this is the case, you need to clearly explain the rationale for the pay rate in your budget notes.
All rates should be relative to level of experience.
Please note that organisations, such as Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, predominantly provide information on minimum base rates for employees engaged on a full-time, part-time or casual basis. Rates for artists and arts workers engaged as contractors will include a loading to cover the costs of being self-employed. Full-time, part-time and casual rates do not factor in these costs and should not be used when engaging contractors.
Costs associated with transporting people, equipment or goods. Eligible items may include fares (taxi, airplane, bus etc.), tolls, land or air freight, and vehicle hire.
This program does not fund 100% of your activity costs so you must demonstrate at least 20% income, which may include in-kind support, or your application will be ineligible.
May include ticket sales, product sales, performance fees, royalties, artwork and/or merchandise sales. For performances, this amount should factor in the number of performances, average ticket price and projected venue capacity.
List any income received through sponsorship from corporate bodies or businesses. Income received through government sponsorship should be included in the relevant government income category.
May include contributions from fundraising, crowdfunding, donations, gifts and bequests.
All grants and sponsorship being sought from local government, State Government, Australian government, the Australia Council, and other government sources must be included, whether or not this support has been confirmed. If your application is to be assessed by a peer assessment panel, we will attempt to confirm the status of any pending funding applications directly with the funding body prior to the panel assessment. Do not include department grant funds being requested as part of this application.
If you are making a cash contribution, or someone is providing cash to the activity, list this item as a cash contribution or similar. Include any other income source that does not fit within any of the above categories and provide enough detail to identify the income source.
Some expenses may be offered to you for free or at a discount. This might be borrowed equipment, the use of a rehearsal space, donated or discounted goods or services, volunteers (including you), negotiated discounted fees and allowances. Anything given to your project at no expense to you is considered in-kind.
All in-kind items must be included as a budget item under the in-kind expenditure category. The corresponding recognition of in-kind income is created automatically in your online application, and you do not need to enter any in-kind income budget items. The total in-kind expenditure must always equal the total in-kind income.
If, for example, you are hiring a venue, which would normally charge $2000, and you have successfully negotiated an $800 (40%) discount, you would include venue hire fee as a budget item under the expenditure category of $1200 and $800 under the in-kind expenditure category.
This section of the budget provides an opportunity for you to detail any additional information you feel may help to clarify items within your budget. For example, for fees and salaries you can indicate in this section how you calculated your amount.
You should use this section to indicate which expenditure items you want the department to support.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) considers any grant payment to be taxable income for the purposes of your annual income tax return. You are encouraged to discuss your tax implications with your tax agent or the ATO prior to applying for a grant.
If you are registered for GST you must show your expenditure items exclusive of the GST component. For example, you have been quoted $550 including GST for lighting hire. In your expenditure budget you would only show lighting hire of $500. If your activity is funded, the department payment will include a 10% GST component to cover those items on which GST is payable.
If you are not registered for GST you must show your expenditure items inclusive of the GST component. For example, you have been quoted $550 including GST for lighting hire. In your expenditure budget you would show lighting hire of $550.
If your activity is funded, the department payment will include the GST component for those items on which GST is payable.
Support material is crucial to a successful application and is essential for assessors to fully gauge the value of your activity. It is highly recommended you pay close attention to the support material you choose and make sure it offers the best support for your application.
It should help demonstrate the 4 assessment criteria: quality, reach, good planning and financial responsibility as well as the objectives of the category you are applying to.
Please note:
Maximum 20 A4 pages of text, in PDF or Word format. Preferably in one single document. (maximum file size 5 MB. All text must be legible at 100%). Note: weblinks are not accepted.
*Can include multiple screenshots of emails and quotes. We suggest taking a screenshot of the essential information and pasting up to 4 per A4 page so they are still legible when viewed at 100%.
Note: weblinks are not accepted.
Examples of previous work or activities.
Maximum 4 links to audio and video content not exceeding 12 minutes combined listening or viewing time.
Audio and/or video files must be uploaded to file streaming sites like Vimeo, YouTube, Bandcamp or SoundCloud that do not require a log-in to access. Do not use Spotify.
You can find instructions on how to use these sites at the following links:
First time applicants to this program may request a draft review. Check the key dates calendar for the draft review deadline date. You are strongly encouraged to make this request well before the review deadline to give staff enough time to provide feedback as well as time to update your application on receipt of this review.
Contact onlinegrantsupportca@dlgsc.wa.gov.au if you require assistance requesting a draft review in Online Grants.
Applications to this funding program are assessed by peer assessment panel(s). A high volume of applications may require multiple peer panels for assessment.
All applications are assessed against 4 criteria:
Each has a subset of dimensions and weightings which can be found below.
More information about the dimensions and definitions, which have been developed by artists and creatives representing their sector, can be found in the application manual.
You are not expected to address all dimensions and definitions, only those most relevant to your application.
Your activity must meet at least one of objectives of the category to be successful. Assessors will consider your application against the relevant dimensions and definitions and allocate a weighted score for each of the four criteria.
See the application manual for more information about how your application will be assessed.
Final approval of successful applications depends on available budget and approval by the Minister or delegated authority.
Weighting 35%
Quality refers to the level of artistic and cultural significance of the activity. Quality may be demonstrated by, but not limited to; examples of previous work, sector support, timeliness of the work and a strong history in your area of practice. It may also be demonstrated through the skills and experience of the people involved in the activity, and the alignment of those skills and experience to deliver the project.
Weighting 25%
Reach refers to the level of impact the activity is likely to have. Reach may be demonstrated by including information for; networking opportunities, relevant marketing and promotional strategies, number of participants and the potential increase in audience or markets.
Weighting 20%
Good planning refers to the level of consideration which has been given to practically undertaking the activity. Good Planning can be demonstrated by, but not limited to; carefully considered preparation, confirmation of key personnel, a realistic timeline and achievable outcomes, documented research and/or consultation, and a process of evaluation.
Financial responsibility refers to the sound management of the budget. Financial responsibility can be demonstrated by but is not limited to; efficient use of resources, reasonable expenses and an accurate and comprehensive budget. Other sources of income have been considered and included where appropriate and the activity goes some way towards self-sufficiency.
If your application is successful you will be required to fill in an acquittal report when your activity has finished. An acquittal report details your activity and how you spent the grant. The acquittal report will be available for you to access in Online Grants, via the Edit/View Report button or Reports tab on the Home page, once a copy of your signed funding agreement has been received.
Your acquittal report must be submitted within 90 days of the activity completion date as specified in your funding agreement.
You will need to answer the following questions:
The acquittal report will also include your activity budget and you will be required to enter all the actual figures against each budget item and add any additional items not in the original budget. Variations between budget and actual figures are acceptable; however, you must provide an explanation for large variations in the Notes for that item. As you enter actual figures, the activity profit/loss will be automatically updated and displayed at the top of the Financial Information page.
Support Material: You must upload relevant documents, images and/or videos that substantiate the delivery of the activity and that may demonstrate the impact and outcomes achieved.
Consider including receipts for your major expenditure items, any reviews or feedback from attendees or stakeholders, examples of your work, photographs or video documenting the process or presentation, evidence of box office or sales where relevant, examples of any promotional material produced, and any evaluation related documents.
As a rough guide please refer to these formats and limits for your acquittal report support materials:
Do not use zipped files, or file sharing services such as Dropbox, OneDrive or Google Drive to submit your support materials, or any streaming services that require a log-in to access, such as Spotify.
You may use links to websites as acquittal report support material where relevant, for example if you were funded to create or update your website.
Refer back to your application’s activity outcomes for guidance in selecting suitable material.
If possible, please provide your support material in one PDF document for text and one document for images. Please note there is a 5MB size limit for documents. Audio and video material must be supplied as separate URL links directly in the Online Grants portal.
The funding acquittal report also includes the option to provide feedback to help us to continually review and improve the service we provide.
Project officers are available via telephone and email to answer queries about applications and suitability of activities to specific programs.
If you need extra assistance due to disability, language barriers or any other factor that may disadvantage you in completing your application, please contact us.
The advice provided by project officers does not guarantee the success of your application.
Due to the high number of applications received, each funding round is highly competitive.
All applications are considered on their own merits and against the assessment criteria and program objectives.
For assistance using Online Grants or to report any related technical issues, contact the Online Grants Support Team: onlinegrantsupportca@dlgsc.wa.gov.au
For enquiries relating to this funding program, including advice or assistance with your application, contact a project officer:Telephone 61 8 6552 7400Toll Free (Country WA callers only) 1800 634 541Email grantsprogramsca@dlgsc.wa.gov.au
The department is committed to supporting applicants with disability. Information can be provided in alternative formats (large print, electronic or Braille) upon request.
If you require special assistance in preparing your application, please call 61 8 6552 7400 or toll free for regional WA callers on 1800 634 541.
Family, friends, mentors and/or carers can attend meetings with you.
If you are deaf, or have a hearing or speech impairment, contact us through one of the following:
For interpreting assistance in languages other than English, telephone the Translation and Interpreting Service on 13 14 50 and ask for a connection to 6552 7400 or 1800 634 541.
Toll Free (Country WA callers only): 1800 634 541.
Email the project officers: grantsprogramsca@dlgsc.wa.gov.au