The Australia Council for the Arts has announced the first round of grant recipients for 2019, for project and career development. The $5.8 million cash pool will support 192 projects – 114 individuals, 30 groups and 48 organisations from a pool of 1347 applications. In addition to the projects that received funding, a further 203 projects totalling up to $6.9 million were assessed by peers as being of high merit and worthy of support. “We continue to receive a high volume of high-quality applications across all areas of arts practice,” said Frank Panucci, the Australia Council’s Executive Director of Grants and Engagement.

Aura Go. Photo © Keith Saunders

The latest round sees a continued trend of strong First Nations-led projects funded through all areas of arts practice while female-identified artists also continue to fare well receiving 59 percent of funding to individual artists in this round, the Australia Council said.

Major grants went to organisations – the Peggy Glanville Hicks Trust was awarded $100,000 to support the successful Prelude artist residency program in 2020, and Melbourne Electronic Sound Studios received $75,000 towards its 2019 Program that includes creative development, workshops, concerts, public access and residencies. While...