Ian Potter Creative Fellowships

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.

Who can apply

To be eligible for a Creative Fellowship, an applicant must:

  • Be a minimum of 18 years old.
  • Be an Australian citizen or Permanent Resident of Australia.
  • Be at least seven years into their creative practice.
  • Primarily reside in Australia for the two years of their Fellowship.
  • Be nominated by a third-party individual (who is not a member of their family). Applicants to the program may not self-nominate.

Nomination process

To apply for a Creative Fellowship, applicants must be nominated by a third-party individual.

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:

  • No more than five items of support material. This includes audio and/or visual files, support letters, and an artist CV of no more than two pages.
  • Two referees who are not the nominator.

All nominations must be submitted through Sidney Myer Fund's SmartyGrants portal

Selection process

Nominations are reviewed by a national panel of industry advisors with consideration to two criteria: 

  • Outstanding talent
  • Exceptional courage 

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.

Nominations open

Nominations are now open and will close on Thursday, 17 August at 11.59PM AEST.
For more information, visit the Sidney Myer Fund website below.