What happens when an arts organisation is given the resources to think big? Not simply the time and money to make the work but to make it bigger and better – to find new partners, reach wider audiences and imagine what the project could become?
That is the proposition behind Creative Australia’s Creative Futures Fund. It supports ambitious Australian stories across artforms, locations and communities, helping arts organisations develop creative partnerships, reach new audiences and attract further investment.
The Creative Futures Fund has two streams: one providing development investments of between $150,000 and $250,000; and the second for delivery investments of $250,000 to $1.5 million. Three recent delivery projects, ranging from Brisbane to Tasmania, and from theatre and sport to the oceans and orchestral music, demonstrate some of the different ways creative ambition can translate into cultural, artistic and community impact.
Creative Futures Fund – quick links
Bringing art and sport together
When Strong is the New Pretty has its world premiere at Brisbane Festival this month, it will bring to the stage the largely untold story of the women who challenged the status-quo to create the AFLW.
Written by Suzie Miller, the play explores persistence, community and the Australian ethos of a ‘fair go’. Brisbane Festival is co-producing the work with Sydney Theatre Company and Trish Wadley Productions.
ArtsHub: Strong is the New Pretty is about more than women kicking goals
For Brisbane Festival Artistic Director Ebony Bott, the meeting of theatre and sport is central to the project’s potential.
‘Audiences rarely think in terms of artforms or sectors, they think about experiences and stories that move them,’ she says. ‘Strong is the New Pretty invites theatre audiences and football audiences into the same room and gives them something to barrack for together.’
Investment from the Creative Futures Fund helped make it happen.
‘The fund was critical to realising the work at the scale of its ambition,’ says Bott. ‘Developing a major new Australian play requires time, artistic rigour and considerable resources.’
The funding has also allowed the project to extend beyond the stage. In Brisbane, hundreds of school students will experience the production, with the programming also creating space for conversations exploring the connections between art and sport, and topics like leadership, resilience, teamwork and pathways for young people.
‘For many young girls in the audience, a professional women’s football league has always existed. I’m excited for them to discover how recently that future was fought for, and how quickly determined people can change what seems impossible,’ says Bott.
Strong is the New Pretty demonstrates what can happen when a story crosses the boundaries of its artform. Theatre offers a connection to sporting and social history, while the story of the AFLW can spark conversations about leadership, gender and possibility.
Changing the way we see sharks
Erth is a puppetry theatre company based in Sydney. For Artistic Director Scott Wright, the origins of the company’s production Shark Dive are personal.
‘When I was a kid, I went through a period where I would only swim in the ocean if I was wearing jeans,’ he says. ‘The logic of my thinking was that if I was wearing jeans, sharks wouldn’t bite me.’
Years later, Wright wanted to challenge the fear and hysteria that often surrounds sharks.
‘They are magnificent, graceful and highly evolved creatures that are a vital part of the ocean ecosystem. I thought that if I could give people a wildlife experience, without actually involving the wildlife, then perspectives could be shifted.’
The original Shark Dive was an immersive experience. Erth then began developing it as a stage show, with interest from international markets. The Creative Futures Fund changed what they thought was possible. ‘It all changed dramatically when we received the funding,’ says Wright.
Instead of developing the work around the constraints of available income, Erth was able to invest in research, design and experimentation.
‘We could look at the project overall, with room in the timeline for musing and consideration, enabling us to make an authentic work without having to stop and start based on the constraints of income and savings,’ he says.
That opportunity to work creatively while reducing financial risk was invaluable, Wright says. ‘It allowed us to take a risk, because let’s face it, sharks are a hot topic, by removing some of the risk when it came to financing.’
Erth’s Head of Design Steve Howarth fully appreciates the opportunity to revisit the work. ‘Our previous incarnation of Erth’s Shark Dive was a great start,’ he says. ‘But we knew there was obvious scope for improvement.’
Howarth adds, ‘To take what we learned and further develop the visuals, the technical and the theatrical aspects, is an incredible gift.’
The process has also created professional development opportunities for Erth’s artists while enhancing the technical expertise of its workshop.
At the centre of it all is a life-sized shark. It’s realistic, but not designed to frighten. ‘Unlike other filmic representations, this version is not designed to be feared, but respected,’ says Howarth. ‘Focusing on an outcome that showcases its strength and grace inverts the dominant paradigm about sharks.’
Reawakening songs and culture
In Lutruwita/Tasmania, Songs of Ceremony demonstrates another kind of ambition, bringing together orchestral music, Palawa culture, language, education, place and community.
Palawa singer and songwriter Dewayne Everettsmith is collaborating with the Tasmanian Symphony Orchestra on a culturally significant music project in the palawa kani language. The major project encompasses an album, concerts and touring, public and community performances, and educational resources.
For Caroline Sharpen, Chief Executive of the TSO, Songs of Ceremony is ‘one of the most important projects in the orchestra’s 78-year history’.
She adds, ‘Hearing these songs come together has just been a profoundly moving experience for all of us. We have no doubt this is a project of national significance, and a very important story for Lutruwita/Tasmania around the world.’
Its impact extends beyond a concert or recording. Through performance, touring and education, the project creates opportunities for the songs and language to reach different communities and generations.
‘We are thrilled that Creative Australia recognises the national importance of this unique project,’ adds Sharpen.
For Songs of Ceremony, the creative ambition was not about making something physically bigger. It was about exploring cultural knowledge, expanding artistic practice and sharing traditional language with a broader audience.
The opportunity to think bigger
These three recent projects demonstrate what significant investment in creative ambition can achieve. Strong is the New Pretty connects theatre-making with Australia’s sporting culture and young people’s education; Erth’s Shark Dive uses performance and design to challenge perceptions of the natural world; and Songs of Ceremony brings an orchestra into creative partnership with Palawa artists and language.
The Creative Futures Fund is designed to take projects beyond their initial presentation, fostering new audiences, partnerships, co-investment and longer-term benefits. It supports projects that have moved beyond an early-stage idea and are ready to develop or deliver work with significant ambition and audience impact.
All three projects share an emphasis on learning, understanding and sharing experiences and perspectives, demonstrating how the investment in creativity can generate value long after the initial funding.
Bott advises applicants to begin with their ambition. ‘The strength of this fund is that it allows artists and organisations to think with genuine scale and ambition. Start with the boldest version of the idea and be very clear about why this story matters now,’ she says.
That is really what the Creative Futures Fund offers. It’s not just the opportunity to make a new work, but to ask what it could become if you had the time, resources and partnerships to think bigger.
