Calling artists, contemporary musicians and superstars of the international stage, a quick reminder that the next round of closing dates for our grants programs are fast approaching.

Monday 5 March 2012 - Community Partnerships: Supports creative collaborations between professional artists, arts companies, and Victorian communities.

Tuesday 13 March 2012 - Contemporary and Live Music Development: Support for Victorian contemporary musicians to create and tour new music, and support for programs and activities that contribute to the overall strengthening and development of the Victorian music scene.

Thursday 15 March 2012 - International: Supports Victorian artists and arts organisations to build their international profile, networks and employment opportunities through export, touring and cultural exchange activity.

Arts Victoria program staff are available to discuss your applications but as closing dates approach they can be inundated, so the earlier you get in touch, the better. Contact details can be found in the ‘Contact’ tab of the webpage for each program.

The Australia Council for the Arts has called for applications for its new Indigenous Music Theatre Initiative, a program that will support Indigenous musicians and theatre makers to create and present innovative new music theatre works.

Applications will be accepted from individual Indigenous artists, as well as groups and organisations which include Indigenous key personnel with creative control.

Funding of up to $30,000 is available towards any singular or multiple stages of development, including creative development of a new work, a second stage development and presentation of a new work.

Applications close 12 March 2012.

» Read more

Image: Deborah Cheetham's Pecan Summer

The annual Australian Business Arts Foundation (AbaF) awards celebrate and honour successful and innovative relationships between arts, business and donors.

If you have a successful business-arts partnership, volunteering placement or giving program, this could be your year to win!

With nominations for the 2012 awards opening soon, AbaF is hosting a free briefing session for potential applicants to hear about the recent changes to the Award categories, the application process and to gain tips from recent winners.

The briefing will include:

• Insider hints from Victorian judge Lisa Watts of Midsumma Festival and The Conversation Media Group, on how to write a winning nomination, and
• Presentations by Lyndall King of Powercor and Jennifer Tighe of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, winners of the 2011 Victorian and National QantasLink Regional Award.

It will also provide an opportunity to mingle with peers from the business, arts and philanthropic sectors, all interested in nominating for the Awards.

Date:           Tuesday 20 March 2012
Time:          9:30 - 10:30am. Refreshments and networking to follow
Venue:        KPMG Theatrette, 147 Collins Street Melbourne

Places are free but registration is essential by Tuesday 14 March 2012.

» Further information and registration details

Image: Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

The State Library of Victoria’s 2012-13 Creative Fellowships program is now open for applications. The program is open to artists and scholars who are undertaking projects that will use the Library’s extensive collection in new and innovative ways.

A range of scholarships are on offer this year

State Library of Victoria Creative Fellowships
Fellowships for periods of three, six and 12 months with grants ranging from $12,500 for three months to $50,000 for 12 months. Research projects can be in any area of the Library's collections and are open to all Australian residents. Applicants may practice in any artform, or study in discipline or subject, and can be from individuals or collaborative partnerships.
Applications close: Friday 23 March 2012.
Further information and application details.

The Redmond Barry Fellowship
A fellowship worth up to $20,000 and including a residency of three to six months, awarded to scholars and writers to facilitate research and the production of works of literature that use the collections of the Library and the University of Melbourne.
Applications close Friday 27 April 2012.
Further information and application details.

The Berry Family Fellowship
A grant of $12,500 for a project exploring an aspect of the social history of Melbourne or Victoria, based on the State Library collections.
Applications close Friday 23 March 2012.
Further information and application details.

The Georges Mora Foundation Fellowship
This fellowship, awarded to a visual artist, will be offered for six months with a grant of up to $20,000. Applications close Friday 27 April 2012.
Further information and application details.

General Fellowship inquiries should be directed to:
Gail Schmidt, State Library of Victoria T: 03 8664 7335 E: fellows@slv.vic.gov.au or visit the SLV website for more information.

Melbourne Zoo is calling on artists and designers to be part of a mass public art art project in celebration of the Zoo’s 150th birthday year.

Mali in the City will see the creation of 50 life-sized models of the Zoo’s Asian Elephant calf, Mali. Artists and groups will work to bring a model to life and from mid-August the designed and decorated pachyderms will go ‘on parade’ across Melbourne.

Professional artists, enthusiastic amateurs, artist groups, set designers, photographers, graphic designers and everyone in between are invited to apply. Submissions across all artforms are welcome. Upon completion, each artist will be paid an honorarium of $1,000.

Artists must register their interest with Zoos Victoria by emailing lpethick@zoo.org.au then submit a concept design in by 5pm, Friday 6 April 2012.

» Find out more

Artists with refugee backgrounds are invited to apply for AMES and Multicultural Arts Victoria’s Heartlands Refugee Fine Art Prize. The prize is open to refugee artists who have arrived in Australia since 1970.

A total prize pool of over $15,000 is up for grabs including a $5,000 first prize which also includes a solo exhibition and artist in residence opportunity.

Entries close Friday 20 April 2012.

Shortlisted and winning works will be showcased at fortyfivedownstairs in Flinders Lane, Melbourne from 6 – 16 June 2012 in the lead up to Refugee Week and then at the Walker Street Gallery in Dandenong from 5 – 28 July 2012 as part of the Emerge Festival.

For more information contact T: 9188 3681, E: fiesta@multiculturalarts.com.au or visit the Multicultural Arts Victoria website.

CASTANET, a network of Victorian arts organisations, artists and government agencies that support community arts and cultural development, invites artists to be part of a unique professional development forum focused on art in community settings.

The forum, which will be held in Melbourne, is open to artists practicing across all artforms. It will be an opportunity for artists to explore what they do, why they do it and why it matters.

The forum will consist of four workshops delivered by leading community arts practitioners Dave Kelman, Jude Anderson, Görkem Acaroğlu and Ian Pidd. They will explore:

• Reflective practice. Interrogating and understanding community arts practice at a deeper level
• What makes community arts a profession? What makes it art?
• What do you mean access? Are the arts really accessible to all community groups?
• When it all goes pear shaped! Stories of when projects don't go according to plan.  

The forum will feature a special keynote address from Berlin-based group Rimini Protokoll, leaders of the theatre movement Reality Trend, who have an extensive history in producing award-winning theatre works with communities in cities across the globe.

» Further information and registration details

Registrations are open for the Making Culture Count conference, two days of debate and discussion about how we measure and report on the value of culture.

Lead by leading thinkers, the conference will be an opportunity to examine culture from an international and a local perspective and explore various approaches to monitoring, evaluating, planning, advocating, predicting, and simply understanding cultural change.

Participants will gain an understanding of the different measurement tools and an insight into how to use data to evaluate the impact of their work.

2 - 4 May 2012, University of Melbourne
Early bird rates apply until Friday 6 April 2012

• Full conference $390, concession (full-time students, artists and others on low incomes) $240
• One-day full, $250, concession $160

» Find out more or register