Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund: quick links
When multi-award-winning composer and producer Elise Reitze-Swensen had her first child, she was determined not to let parenthood impact on her creativity. ‘Being a new parent, I was very much aware that it’s a time where you can easily, I suppose, lose momentum,’ she tells ArtsHub.
Consequently, while she was on maternity leave, the Western Australian artist – who releases electronic music as Feels in collaboration with vocalist Rosie Taylor; who she also co-founded the not-for-profit community group Women of Music Production Perth (WOMPP) with in 2017 – decided to submit an Expression of Interest (EOI) to the Minderoo Foundation’s Artist Fund.
‘I applied and was very lucky to get through the rounds of application and be successful,’ says Reitze-Swensen, one of nine artists in the 2025 Minderoo Artist Fund cohort.
‘The funding that I received from the Minderoo Foundation has given me the time and capacity to create a new body of work, a 20-track electronic album on the theme of “matrescence” – the social, psychological and physical changes experienced during pregnancy, childbirth and new motherhood,’ she explains.
‘I suppose it explores the huge life transition that new mothers go through, and the album tells these stories from one of the most geographically isolated cities in the world, which is Perth, Western Australia.’
Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund: an opportunity for WA artists
The next round of the Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund is now open, closing on Thursday 25 September. Individual grants of $35,000 and Forrest Hall residencies to the value of $20,000 are available; mid-career Western Australian artists with bold ideas about creativity in their state are encouraged to submit an EOI – the first stage of the funding process.
The Artist Fund has supported dozens of WA artists since it commenced in 2020 and has become an integral opportunity for WA’s best artists at a critical time in an artistic career.
Minderoo Foundation’s Executive Director of Communities, Penny Dakin, describes the Artist Fund as ‘an exciting opportunity for WA artists’.
She continues: ‘We need resilient, professional and well-supported artists and arts organisations to contribute to vibrant and connected communities. When artists thrive, our communities thrive.’
Unlike some funding programs, the Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund places no limits on project scope or artform. Instead, it’s an opportunity for artists to test new ground and extend their practices. In Elise Reitze-Swensen’s case, her project Matrescence in Sound is highly collaborative.
‘When I started writing this album, I started with collaboration. There’s lots of different stories on this album, and some of them are told from me personally, and others are told from my collaborators,’ she says, going on to name each collaborator individually: Helen Shanahan, Claudio, Rachael Dease, Alice Humphries, Mei Saraswati, Ruer, Kristel-Lee Kickett and Anna Laverty (project mentor).
‘Collaboration was a really important part of the process because there are so many stories told on this album, of invisible labour, for instance, identity shifts, birth trauma, foundations of love, the power of your body, sleep deprivation. There’s been lots of different stories that have been explored, and I suppose starting with collaboration allowed me to see which sorts of stories [about motherhood] were potentially going unheard.’
The experience has been quite different to the way she creates music for Feels. ‘When I make music for Feels, it’s much more an exploration of existing compositional techniques – I explore a lot of dance music and a lot of pop music. It’s a lot more for fun, which is very much an enjoyable task for me. This album obviously was very enjoyable as well, but I think because it was so focused on the experience that I’d been through, personally, it’s probably the most honest work I’ve ever made … and I think it’s made me a much better collaborator, too,’ Reitze-Swensen says.
Strengthening the WA arts ecology and supporting mid-career artists
By directly supporting Western Australian artists, the Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund strengthens the state’s already rich arts ecology – allowing the Fund’s 2025 cohort to spread the financial support further, in Reitze-Swensen’s case among her collaborators. It’s also a strategic way to support mid-career artists, Dakin explains.
‘The Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund is an opportunity for mid-career artists to access support that will help them keep creating at a crucial time in their professional careers,’ she tells Artshub.
‘Minderoo has a significant arts funding strategy that benefits arts organisations and institutions like WAAPA, but we understand how important independent artists are to the community ecosystem.
‘We especially recognise that the mid-career stage can be a pivotal moment when many artists consider leaving the industry. We want to enable artists to keep creating and build creative careers in WA,’ Dakin says.
This is an aspect of the program which Reitze-Swensen is especially cognisant of and grateful for. ‘It’s come at a really crucial time for my career, personally. For some context, when I was pregnant in 2023 I feel I was … struggling to find time and energy to make new work that I was excited about, and that would also better my career. And so this funding has come a time which has been crucial, because I’m a mother, but also, because of this opportunity I’ve now been able to focus on my practice, and in doing so, better my skills, pushing my innovative boundary and making new work that I will hope propel my career further forward,’ she says.
The particular challenges of parenthood at this point in her career could have been a major hurdle for Reitze-Swensen, a situation which the grant has prevented.
‘It’s a time where maybe people are questioning whether they can continue [as artists] or not, because they may have other responsibilities, financial responsibilities, maybe they’re [now caring for their] parents as well. And just having the time to afford to actually better your skills and really move forward and continue that momentum is a really tricky time in your career,’ she explains, adding that she is grateful to have also received a family support payment from Minderoo Foundation in addition to the Artist Fund grant, which made this opportunity even more accessible to her as a new parent.
‘I also want to acknowledge that I have a very supportive partner who’s been, obviously, one of the reasons why I’ve been able to do this as well, because he’s taken a bit of a back step in his own career to support me to make this music,’ Reitze-Swensen says.
Applying to the Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund
Western Australian mid-career artists who are considering applying to the Artist Fund, including the Forrest Hall residencies, should begin with ‘a really clear concept or a clear goal of what you want to achieve through this funding – being able to articulate that is really important,’ says Reitze-Swensen.
She also recommends, ‘having a good timeline and being organised and understanding how the funding is going to be spent, and what other support you can kind of leverage from the people around you and your collaborators – the people that are already in your community.’
Most important of all is ensuring that one’s passion for the project applicants wish to create, should they be successful, is clearly evident.
‘If it’s something that they’re passionate about, let that passion shine through in their application, because I feel like that’s what people resonate with. I was very honest in my application, and very passionate about what I was applying for. I suppose I’d hoped that that would resonate with people, and it obviously did,’ Reitze-Swensen says.
Minderoo Foundation’s Penny Dakin is excited about the upcoming submissions that will be crossing her desk before long. ‘I can’t wait to see the ideas applicants will bring to the 2026 Artist Fund for consideration,’ she says.
‘With no limit on project scope or artform, this is an opportunity for you to test new ground and extend your practice,’ Dakin concludes.
Expressions of interest for the Minderoo Foundation Artist Fund are now open until 25 September. Visit the website for details.
