Through their Country Arts Support Program (CASP), South East Arts has announced $34,000 in funding to artists and arts organisations in the south east. The funding will support 16 individual artists with $1,000 Creative and Professional Development grants and seven arts organisations with up to $3,000 for Small Projects in the Bega Valley, Eurobodalla and Snowy Monaro.
“CASP funding of $17,000 from Create NSW is provided annually for the Regional Arts Organisations like us to run a small grants round,” explained Andrew Gray Executive Director of South East Arts.
“This year, we decided to draw on our public fund to match this amount and increase the number of artists and arts organisations who would benefit from a financial boost. This was made possible purely through generous tax deductible donations to our fund by members of the public.”
A diverse range of small projects are to be supported by CASP in this round, including arts organisations Fling Physical Theatre, Stonewave Taiko, Theatre Onset and Candelo Arts Society. The funding boost has enabled South East Arts to also offer individual artist grants to assist with creative and professional development opportunities. This could be anything from the purchase of art materials and equipment to the costs of training, recording and graphic design.
“In 2020 we provided micro grants to artists to help them recover from the impacts of the bushfires and Covid, so we felt it was important in this CASP round to again offer similar grants to individuals. The smallest and strangest things can make a real difference to someone’s arts practice – take Suzie Bleach and Andy Townsend of Wapengo for example, who will be putting their grant towards a crane to enable them to easily manoeuvre their large sculptural pieces.” said Andrew Gray
A second round of Country Arts Support Program funding will be run later in 2022 for projects that take place in 2023. This will establish the regular annual timing of CASP.