Image: Guwayu: for all time Installation Image (2024), view featuring works by Karla Dickens, Tony Albert and Danie Mellor, provided by: Previous RAF Projects NSW recipient Mudgee Arts Precinct.
MEDIA RELEASE
The Australian Government’s Regional Arts Fund will provide $610,000 to support 27 new projects in regional, rural, and remote New South Wales in 2025.
Australian Government Minister for the Arts, Tony Burke, congratulated the recipients and their contributions to Australia’s arts scene.
“The Regional Arts Fund helps to get projects off the ground and boosts employment opportunities for artists and arts workers in regional and remote areas of Australia.
“Regional Australia has a thriving and diverse arts ecosystem and this funding will help support artists and arts workers navigate it to maintain sustainable careers and reach their creative potential”
RANSW CEO, Dr Tracey Callinan OAM, commented: The demand for funding and the quality of successful applications in this year’s round of RAF projects demonstrates both the need for these projects and the impact that they have in regional communities.
The Regional Arts Fund is an Australian Government program that supports sustainable cultural development in regional and remote communities in Australia. The program is managed by Regional Arts Australia and administered in New South Wales by Regional Arts NSW.
Full descriptions of projects and recipients follow.
Regional Arts Fund Project Grants – 2024-25 Recipients.
Alana Blackburn, Armidale NSW
Stories of Place
$12,400.00
Stories of Place: A multi-authored presentation, sharing fresh words from regional authors set among newly composed music. This innovative project brings together the talents of regional musicians and literary authors from New England NSW to develop and present an original musical work. By providing a creative platform for local voices and histories, this collaboration aims to enrich the cultural landscape with diverse expressions. The project seeks to broaden audience engagement through an accessible and immersive music experience, featuring site-specific performances that connect deeply with the community’s heritage and identity. This initiative will celebrate and elevate local culture, making it a vibrant part of the broader cultural dialogue.
Jade Naidu, Woolgoolga NSW
Threads – A New Australian Musical
$30,000.00
Written by local writer/producer Jade Naidu, ‘Threads’ is a new Australian musical with a twofold story. It tells the story of the rich culture of Coffs Harbour’s local community and culture through the analogy of plants and trees with an underlying moral; the importance of community connection and the effects of deforestation and ecological warfare. ‘Threads’ will ensure our diverse audiences feel represented and seen within the community by experiencing the multiple cultures and diversities onstage. Through this artistic platform, audiences and participants will develop a deeper connection and understanding of our local culture and environment and broaden their activity in the arts and cultural sector.
Almiraj Sufi & Islamic Study Centre Inc., Broken Hill NSW
Almiraj Sufi Centre presents Sufi Oz with Barkindji/Malyangapa songman Leroy Johnson in Concert – “Wide Desert Listening”
$28,690.00
‘Wide Desert Listening’ is an interdisciplinary arts project designed to celebrate and explore the rich cultural heritage of Broken Hill. Bringing together First Nation songs of Country with devotional qawwali music we pay homage to the connection between South Asian migrant and Indigenous histories during the exploration and colonization of the Australian interior. This project aims to bring together diverse cultural expressions and community groups to promote tolerance, social cohesion and understanding. Re-presenting, reinvigorating and reimagining the cultural heritage of Broken Hill, referencing sacred texts found at the oldest surviving cameleer-built mosque in Australia. This project is a key event of The Outback Sufi Conference in May 2025.
The Suburban Review, Parkes NSW
A home for regional stories
$20,000.00
The Suburban Review, publishing from Wiradjuri Country in the Central West of NSW, is offering door-opening publication opportunities to 28 regional artists and writers on our new online platform The Regional Review. Through the Jumpstart a Journal program, 16 emerging editors and publishers will be provided practical skills and industry insights, and empowering participants to support and promote other regional artists effectively. The project strengthens the regional cultural ecosystem by supporting the development of new talent and promoting the exchange of ideas between regional and urban communities. The Suburban Review shines a light on regional Australia’s talented writers and artists, and taps into ten years of publishing experience and established networks to break regional stories and story-tellers out into the broader cultural landscape—enhancing the depth, vibrancy, and diversity of that cultural landscape as a result.
North East Wiradjuri Company Ltd, Kandos NSW
Birrindaymarra
$6,248.00
A monthly Aboriginal cultural art experience for all in the Kandos/Rylstone district, held across 2025. A family-friendly space will be provided to learn about local Aboriginal art from local Aboriginal artists and encourage attendees to participate by creating using the techniques learned. At the end of the 12 sessions, an exhibition will be held of those wanting to show their creations. One session will be held on Country at Ganguddy with a kayak tour and cultural experience guide.
raise the heART, Possum Creek NSW
STRONG MOB – an Indigenous led Abodigital trauma recovery arts project
$15,000.00
STRONG MOB is an Indigenous-led professional community arts project that is a theatrical, digital and creative response to the wellbeing needs of regional Indigenous individuals and communities. The project is designed to tour small regional areas, playing in community halls and is led by a professional creative team supported by health professionals. The project will consist of a 60 minute contemporary theatre work featuring traditional art, stories, dance, live music, and multimedia projections; a pop up art exhibition; post-show wellbeing forums; and a community outreach program for a diverse cohort, delivering a suite of creative arts workshops and cultural activities.
Aboriginal Regional Arts Alliance (NSW) Aboriginal Corporation, Tamworth NSW
BlakView – A Professional Development Program for Art Writing and Criticality.
$29,199.00
BlakView is a hybrid program offering regional and remote NSW people the opportunity to increase their capacity through access to training and mentoring to become an art writer and critic. Strategically placed to 3 different regional arts board locations, this project will be offered to the whole of the arts sector with a particular focus on Aboriginal, CALD and Disability sectors from across regional and remote NSW.
South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA), Bega NSW
Tideland: Art + Word project
$10,000.00
‘Tideland: Art + Word’ is a new collaborative project between the South East Centre for Contemporary Art (SECCA), the Bega Valley Libraries, and the South Coast Writer’s Centre, that aims to explore a multidisciplinary interpretation of works from the SECCA art collection. The project will encourage regional writers through the practice of ‘Ekphrasis’ writing (poetry inspired by art) to creatively respond to artworks in the planned ‘Tideland’ exhibition from Feb – April 2025 at SECCA.
The Cad Factory, Sandigo NSW
Strengthening Regional Practices
$21,632.84
‘Strengthening Regional Practices’ is a suite of four professional development opportunities for six artists and seven arts workers that strengthens artistic practices, expands networks and enhances career trajectories. By working with peers and mentors to think, learn, and practice together, we are providing opportunities that deeply consider artistic working processes and outcomes.
Northern Rivers Performing Arts (NORPA), Lismore NSW
DINNER PARTY AT THE END OF THE WORLD (A Dinner Party)
$17,500.00
A Dinner Party is a large-scale community project built through community engagement process using multi-artform responses to a natural disaster in flood-ravaged Lismore. Eight Creative Leads, alongside community groups and collaborators, will develop creative responses to stimulus material and flood stories and come together in a large factory; as a creative take-over in the centre of Lismore. Through workshops, creative developments, training and rehearsals, each short work will undergo a safe and inclusive process. A notion of a dinner party at the end of the world aims to acknowledge the threat of climate change while celebrating our community’s spirit, bravery and resilience in the face of disaster.
Western Riverina Arts, Leeton NSW
Murrunbunmirra marramaldhaany
$11,000.00
Murrunbunmirra marramaldhaany is a Wiradyuri Language short script to be performed as a script reading. Wiradyuri creatives collaborate on script writing, script workshops and writer/actor workshops, resulting in an on-stage script reading with a full cast of Wiradyuri actors. Murrunbunmirra marramaldhaany will be livestreamed as a free language resource.
OpenField Arts Festival, Far Meadow NSW
OpenField Arts Festival 2025
$10,000.00
OpenField is a new biennial multidisciplinary arts festival to be held across four days in the small regional town of Berry NSW in June 2025. Free exhibitions in and around the town will showcase contemporary art in unique audience accessible non-museum venues, including halls and other community spaces. The festival will include performances, talks and live music alongside the exhibitions, adding interactive and engaging opportunities, while highlighting new and existing works by local and visiting artists, both emerging and established.
Tamworth Regional Gallery, Tamworth NSW
Overhead and Underneath
$28,796.20
Taking the time to look overhead or underneath your feet can be a centring experience. Responding to naturalistic observation, this project is comprised of an exhibition at the Tamworth Regionally Gallery; artist workshops and mediation/yoga sessions grounded in place; and a permanent installation/mural. We can all feel time poor, rushing to complete the next task. This exhibition reminds us to look, listen, observe, and respond. These artists work responds to our natural environment in a way that only deep observation and a direct response to place can provide.
Sculpture on the Farm Inc, Fosterton NSW
Sculpture on the Farm Dungog Biennale 2025
$30,000.00
The Sculpture on the Farm Dungog Biennale 2025 (SOF2025) continues the tradition of celebrating Australian sculpture in the rural community of Dungog, NSW. For the past eight years, this not-for-profit organisation has enriched the Dungog Shire by donating sculptures for public display, often reflecting Australian themes from playful kelpies to organic forms inspired by the bush. The 2025 Biennale will feature 150 sculptures by some of Australia’s most esteemed and innovative sculptors, with a focus on regionally based artists.
Arts OutWest, Mitchell NSW
“The fabric of ViV!” – Capacity Building through Costume, Textile Design and Construction with the disability community of Bathurst
$28,962.00
ViV! – is a children’s theatre (5-12yrs) show about an adventurous, tough and sassy girl who lives with disabilities and her little sister ‘Lil’. The show merges digital landscapes, puppetry and choreography with an original score played live. This grant will support community capacity building with the disability community in and around Bathurst, supporting Designer Katja Handt and Matthew Aberline – The Beautiful and Useful Studio, Bathurst textile artist Fiona Howle, and ‘The Compareos’ a group of young women with disabilities (18-25yrs) who perform in the show – to co-create costumes/set pieces and textiles interweaving their lived experience into the fabric of ViV! through a series of interactive workshops.
Outback Arts, Coonamble NSW
Outback Outloud Season 4 – Villages 2
$29,825.00
In the final series of Outback Outloud we explore small communities and the most remote places in Outback NSW. Outback Outloud is an innovative podcast and community skill development program that empowers people from extremely remote areas in NSW to tell and share their stories, especially those never before told.
Outback Theatre for Young People, Deniliquin NSW
‘Museum of the Missing’: a creative installation by young artists in Deniliquin
$26,000.00
‘Museum of the Missing’ can only be found by curious souls in a seemingly empty storefront on the main street of Deniliquin: an imaginative installation where young participants are the artists, curators and guides. When you peer through the darkened window you might see photographs of objects that have been missing for years, or a piece of writing about a missed opportunity. Further into the museum you could find a sculpture of that missing cat you heard about in the local paper or even a group of young people performing a scene about missing the bus to school that one fateful day. Young participants will work with local Deniliquin artists to catalogue what is missing – and by asking community members to do the same, will create a ‘Museum of the Missing’, a strange and bewildering new addition to the CBD of Deniliquin.
Slag Heap Projects, Broken Hill NSW
Marnpi Festival: Uncle Badger Bates with Slag Heap Projects
$29,278.00
Marnpi Festival is initiated and co-designed by senior Barkindji artist Uncle Badger Bates with Broken Hill artist-run initiative Slag Heap Projects. Spanning six-weeks, the festival presents concurrent solo exhibitions by Uncle Badger and emerging Ngiyampaa artist Anthony Hayward; an opening event including performances, music and community gathering; development of community gardens; and workshops for regional audiences. The Marnpi dreaming story underpins the conceptual vision for the festival: the connection structure of the festival is inspired by the flight of the wounded bronze-winged pigeon (marnpi) as it travelled from Flinders to Wilyakali, Barkandji and Malyangapa Country, and into Queensland, depositing distinctive rocks and minerals. Its journey is mirrored in western discoveries of mineral wealth, directly linked to the slag heap in Broken Hill.
Kristina Chan, Red Head NSW
FUTURE TIDES – community workshops and performances
$29,946.00
FUTURE TIDES brings together six highly experienced professional mid-career regional dance and music artists with a regional mentor, to create an exciting hub of exchange, practice and creativity. Through workshops, classes and talks, participants will take a deep dive into cultivating a creative practice together. These workshops culminate in public performances at the Manning Entertainment Centre (MEC) in Taree in July 2025.
Byron Community Centre, Byron Bay NSW
Produce and premiere the multidisciplinary theatre production ‘Displace I Call Home’ as the inaugural work of Byron Theatre Company.
$30,000.00
‘Displace I Call Home’ tells the story of Jacqui, a reclusive botanist facing a terminal diagnosis (played by Sally Davis). Refusing to succumb to her doctor’s prognosis and inspired by a mystical Lyrebird (Noa Rotem), Jacqui embarks on a journey to reconcile her past and reconnect with her estranged son. This captivating play, written by Bianca Sirianni, set under an immersive Jacaranda tree melds visual projections, physical theatre and ancestral soundscapes, delivering an evocative story about mortality, belonging and displacement with honesty and pitch-black humour. ‘Displace’ will debut in April 2025, the first production of the Byron Theatre Company.
Scott Baker, Bermagui NSW
Bioluminescence 2025
$26,940.00
Bioluminescence will deliver two workshops in Cobargo and Grenfell for young people in regional NSW who will develop site specific video mapping performances for their communities. Bioluminescence is a project designed by experienced vocational educator and artist Scott Baker that engages young people with their environment, teaches them technology and event management skills while facilitating community participation. The Cobargo Folk Festival and the Henry Lawson Festival in Grenfell have invited Bioluminescence to engage local young people from their community to co-create an element of their festivals. The three-day workshops see the participants use a variety of digital video technology to capture the local biodiversity and then edit it into content for use in their video projection mapping event. They learn projector technology, projection mapping techniques alongside foundational event management skills including workplace health and safety.
Milton Folk Jazz and Blues Festival, Milton NSW
Milton Folk, Jazz and Blues Festival
$10,915.10
The Milton Folk, Jazz and Blues festival is a three day, culturally immersive music festival set to take place in May 2025 and for many years to come. Sprawling through the streets of Milton NSW, shows will take place in many of the already established bars, cafes, and pubs, as well as the Milton Theatre and Village Green Park. Free of charge, this festival is accessible to all and provides an opportunity for the community to connect over culture and the arts.
Rebel Black, Lightning Ridge NSW
2025 Music in the Ridge Series – Open Mic and Visiting Artist Events
$18,756.00
Rebel Black will deliver a music series that supports live music, performance and skills development in a remote NSW community. This six-month program expands their capacity to stage and program a community engaged music program of performances and workshops at Tin Camp Studios Lightning Ridge.
Nambucca Valley Phoenix Limited, Bowraville NSW
Ability Arts Connect MNC 2025
$25,000.00
Ability Arts Connect brings together artists with lived experience of disability who live on the NSW Mid North Coast. The project supports artists, their carers and support organisations through a series of professional development talks, practical workshops and information sessions. The program is held across five different locations on the Mid North Coast in preparation for the exhibition and art prize to be held at Nambucca Valley Phoenix, in Bowraville NSW.
Lithgow Information & Neighbourhood Centre (LINC), Lithgow NSW
WEST: a Lithgow Information and Neighbourhood Centre and Milk Crate Theatre Creative Project
$25,250.00
Lithgow Information and Neighbourhood Centre (LINC) is partnering with Milk Crate Theatre (MCT) to deliver a creative project – WEST – for young people in Bowenfels, a community facing significant disadvantage. This program will offer free workshops focused on scriptwriting, filmmaking, performance, and production skills, led by community artist Renata Commisso and supported by a second local artist and a social worker. Over two 10-week series, participants will build skills, develop content, and work with professional artists to create and present their stories. Workshops will be held at LINC, with transport provided for Bowenfels youth. The project will culminate in a showcase event, celebrating participants’ achievements with their community.
Jessie Bell, North Albury NSW
In The Jungle – Sensory Theatre – On Tour
$28,661.86
‘In The Jungle’, presented by Ran Away Theatre is specifically developed for those who primarily experience their world through sensory interaction. The experience will take approximately 400 audience members and participants on a sensory journey. They will explore different components of a jungle including the rainforest, birds, big cats, the river and night. The audience will be offered different sensory experiences for each part of their journey, such as the play of light, water play, the textures of fauna and flora, jungle sounds, and tastes of exotic fruits. This will take place in an immersive set, with their preferences, comfort and communication at the forefront of their experience. The project is designed to be delivered to regional and rural community members who may not have been able to previously access theatre, and who have not had the opportunity to experience theatre developed explicitly for their needs and accessibility requirements.
Lismore City Council, Lismore NSW
Laneways of Lismore Arts – piloting a new arts micro-festival, LOLA
$30,000.00
LOLA is a pilot micro-festival, bringing audiences together to enjoy an exciting array of music, arts and creative experiences, live performance and street art in the heart of Lismore Laneways. Codesigned with Lismore’s arts organisations and businesses, LOLA celebrates the greatness and grit of Lismore’s arts and culture, builds social and economic benefits, and boosts capacity development and opportunities for creative industries in the Northern Rivers region.
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For more information about the Regional Arts Fund contact Regional Arts NSW at funding@regionalartsnsw.com.au or (02) 9270 2500.
For all media enquiries contact Adara Enthaler, Communications Manager, Regional Arts NSW at comms@regionalartsnsw.com.au or (02) 9270 2500