In 2024, the Trust joined Sidney Myer's longstanding and prestigious Creative Fellowships program. The Trust will award two Ian Potter Creative Fellows annually, with the same value, criteria and structure as the Sidney Myer Creative Fellowships.
The Creative Fellowships provide grants of $200,000 over two years ($100,000 each year) to individual Australian artists, creatives and cultural leaders.
Specific outcomes for the Fellowships are not required. Fellows can spend their grants as they see fit.
To qualify for a Creative Fellowship, an individual artist must be nominated by a third-party individual. This third-party nominator must be an Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident and cannot be a member of the nominee’s family.
Nominations are welcome for artists, creators and cultural leaders across the entire spectrum of the arts and humanities.
In the online nomination form, applicants must also include:
All nominations must be submitted through Sidney Myer Fund's SmartyGrants portal.
Specifically, this talent and courage relate to the nominee's creative practice (commonly illustrated through artistic challenges, daring innovation, breaking new ground, and redefining the possible) and not to surmounting hardships.
Nominations that are recommended by the industry advisory panel form the basis of a shortlist from which Sidney Myer Fund’s Arts & Culture Committee then recommends recipients to the boards of The Ian Potter Cultural Trust and Sidney Myer Fund.