THE WINDMILL TRUST SCHOLARSHIP FOR REGIONAL NSW ARTISTS

Applications for the Windmill Trust Scholarship are now closed. Applicants will be advised on the status of their applications in August 2026.

Established in 1997 in memory of the artist Penny Meagher, the emphasis of the Windmill Trust Scholarship is to support visual artists from regional NSW to take up career development and/or presentation opportunities for their work.

The Windmill Trust Scholarship supports artists in various career aspects, including independent artistic research or practice, professional development, exhibiting and presenting work in new ways. Financial support encompasses studio rental, materials or labour costs, framing, space rental, promotion, artists’ fees, freight, installation, and documentation.

FUNDING AVAILABLE

One individual or group will be awarded up to $10,000.

This scholarship provides assistance towards the cost of:
• Exhibiting work, including space rental, artist fees, travel, documentation.
• Professional development and education.
• Independent artistic research or practice including studio fees, residencies and travel.

APPLICATION DATES

Applications for Windmill Trust Scholarship for Regional NSW Artists will open online via JotForm, Monday 11 May 2026, 9.00 am and close Monday 13 July 2026, midnight AEST.

This round is for projects taking place from September 2026 onwards.

ELIGIBILITY

Applicants must be the visual art, craft or design practitioner/s undertaking the project.
Applicants must be a resident of NSW and have lived more than 70km from the Sydney GPO for a minimum of five years continuously.

For detailed information regarding eligibility, please see the 2026 Windmill Trust Scholarship for Regional NSW Artist Terms and Conditions.

ONLINE Q&A WORKSHOPS FOR APPLICANTS

RANSW will run two online Q&A workshops for applicants to the Windmill Trust Scholarship to answer any of your questions regarding eligibility, the application form, budget or support materials, and provide grant writing support to artists wanting to apply.

Workshop 1 (Introduction to the Windmill Trust Scholarship): Friday 22 May, 11am via Teams

Workshop 2 (Troubleshoot your application): Friday 3 July, 11am via Teams

ENQUIRES

Any enquiries please contact the RANSW Funding and Development Manager.

Phone: 02 9270 2500

Email: funding@regionalartsnsw.com.au

PAST RECIPIENTS

Since its inception, the Windmill Trust Scholarship has provided over $160,000 in funding to support the artistic practices and professional development of regional artists. It plays a critical role in elevating the innovative work and practice emerging from the regions.

For a full list of previous winners please visit the Windmill Trust Scholarship Website.

2025: Shan Turner Carroll

Shan Turner-Carroll is a Queer, Australian artist of Burmese descent, currently based in his hometown Lovedale, on the lands of the Wonnarua people. Through photography, sculpture, installation and performance, Turner-Carroll explores the interaction between the human and non-human world, making work that can ‘…sing to snakes, signal with extra-terrestrials, and barter with islands, rivers, and oceans.’

Turner-Carroll was awarded the 2025 Windmill Trust Scholarship to develop a new body of work during a one-month residency at Canberra Glass Works in April 2026. The resulting glass sculptures will be installed alongside existing work for a solo exhibition at Newcastle Art Gallery (NAG), from September 2026. This will be Turner- Caroll’s first institutional exhibition with NAG and will consider the implications of the resurgence of global interest in space travel and experimental forms of communication.

A handmade shelter sits in a grassy clearing surrounded by bushland. The structure is pieced together from branches, logs, and recycled building materials like doors and window frames. A leafy tree grows out of the roof's center and a fallen log rests in the foreground. Tall grass and dense forest edge the scene. Shan Turner-Carroll, “Edge Of The Garden”, 2021. Mixed media, photography.

Learn more about the work of Shan Turner-Carroll here: shanturnercarroll.com

2024: Karla Dickens

Karla Dickens is a Wiradjuri woman living and working in Goonellabah, on Bundjalung country in New South Wales. She is a multidisciplinary artist who interrogates aspects of the nation’s history, providing provocative reflections on Australian culture as well as exploring religion, race, sexuality, the environment and motherhood. A graduate from the National Arts School, she has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally, with works represented in a number of significant public collections.

The Windmill Trust Scholarship enabled Karla to create new works for an exhibition at Wollongong Art gallery, 15 March – 1 June 2025. Curated by Daniel Mudie Cunningham, Rise and Fall is a powerful new installation which responds to the climate catastrophe that struck Karla Dickens’ hometown of Lismore during the devastating floods of February 2022. Through sculpture, photography, and video, Rise and Fall reimagines mermaid mythologies with a post-apocalyptic twist, reflecting the urgent need for survival, change, and shared responsibility in a world on the brink.

Karla Dickens, Rise and fall (exhibition view), Wollongong Art Gallery. Winner of the 2024 Windmill Trust Scholarship.