PLAYING AUSTRALIA: REGIONAL PERFORMING ARTS TOURING FUND

The Regional Performing Arts Touring program supports performing arts to reach regional and remote communities across Australia. Grants are available to support the net touring costs associated with a national tour. There is no limit on the amount that can be requested.

Applicants are strongly encouraged to speak with an Australia Council Grants Officer before applying to this fund.

Closing dates

The Australia Council offers three grant rounds each year for Playing Australia. In 2017 the grant rounds will close on:

  • Tuesday 7 February for projects starting after 1 May 2017
  • Tuesday 6 June for projects starting after 1 September 2017
  • Tuesday 3 October for projects starting after 1 January 2018.
Who can apply

We accept applications from individuals and organisations.

Who can't apply

You can't apply for a grant if:

  • you received a grant, or administered a grant, from the Australia Council in the past and that grant has not been satisfactorily acquitted
  • you owe money to the Australia Council.
What you can apply for

You can apply for:

  • interstate net touring costs, including freight, transport, accommodation and travel allowances outside of your home state
  • a contribution towards tour coordination expenses.
What you can’t apply for

You can’t apply for the following activity:

  • projects where the performers and artistic personnel are not paid at Award rates
  • projects that are to tour an international production
  • touring projects that only include capital city or metropolitan presentations
  • touring projects that do not include three or more interstate locations
  • touring projects that only include presentations in schools
  • tour dates that have already taken place
  • projects with a budget in surplus.
Peer assessment

Your application will be assessed by a panel of peers. The peers will be representative of a range of areas relevant to performing arts touring, including:

  • regional audience engagement and presentation
  • performing arts production
  • tour coordination and management.
Assessment criteria

Peers will assess your application against the following four criteria.

  • Region
  • The regional and remote coverage proposed by the itinerary.
  • Quality
  • the artists and the arts workers involved the project
  • the quality of proposed work
  • the calibre of the company, including demonstrated evidence of good organisational planning, governance and management.
  • Engagement
  • the plans to develop audiences and/or meet audience demand in the proposed locations
  • experiences offered to regional and remote communities – including audience attendance and where appropriate other participation activities, such as workshops and master classes
  • appropriate levels of engagement and partnerships developed with presenters to achieve audience goals.
  • Viability
  • evidence of a realistic and accurate budget
  • the logic of the itinerary and the impact it has on the touring budget
  • appropriate level of support from other sources
  • capacity to deliver the project.
Your application

Applications for Playing Australia: Regional Performing Arts Touring Fund must be submitted viaAustralia Council Online. You must submit the fourEssential Support Materials with your online application using the templates provided below. You may also submit the listed optional support material. Be sure to read the FAQs below before submitting your application.

  • apply only for the costs outlined under ‘What you can apply for’, above
  • use the file names provided when naming and submitting files with your application
  • the online application has a total size limit of 75MB. Video files must be provided as a URL
  • only the Essential Support Materials and specified optional materials can be submitted with your application. No other support material will be accepted
  • to search for the relevant ARIA codes, please download thisform.
Essential Support Materials

All four documents must be submitted with your online application:

  1. Application Form(click here to download Word document)
    - must be submitted in PDF format
    - please name and submit your file with the title ‘1. Application Form’.
  2. Itinerary and Budget Form(click here to download Excel document)
    - must be submitted in Excel format only
    - please name and submit your file with the title ‘2. Itinerary and Budget Form’.
  3. Presenter Confirmation Forms(click here to download Word document)
    - presenter Confirmation Forms must be compiled and submitted in the one PDF document
    - please name and submit your file with the title ‘3. Presenter Confirmation Forms’.
  4. Production excerpt
    A video of up to five minutes of the production you plan to tour must be submitted. For companies proposing to tour works yet to be produced, a video of a past example of the company’s work should be submitted. For music works, a sound recording is acceptable. Files must be in one of the following formats: mp3, mp4, wmv or mov.
    - video files must be provided as a URL link. Provide only one video URL link with your online application
    - audio files can be uploaded with your application or provided as a URL link.
  5. Working with Indigenous Arts
    If any of the Project activities involve working with Indigenous communities please provide letters of support from those communities.
    There are five Indigenous protocol guides for working with Indigenous Arts (song, media arts, performing, visual arts and writing) available on our websitehere.
    • All letters of support must be submitted in one PDF document
    Please name and submit your file with the title ‘5. Letters of support’
Optional support material

When submitting an application the following documentation may be uploaded as optional support material.

  • reviews relating to the production (if applicable). Maximum 3 pages submitted as one PDF
  • brief biographical information on principal personnel (if applicable). Maximum 3 pages as one PDF.

No other optional support material will be accepted. Do not submit additional supporting material that is not listed in the Essential and Optional categories.

FAQs
  1. What is a national tour?
    Under this fund a national tour is 3 or more locations outside of your home state. To be eligible the locations on a tour must have consecutive performances dates. In other words, the fund cannot support transferring the show to one location then returning to a home base before travelling again to a different location. A break in the middle of a consecutive schedule of locations is possible if there is a compelling reason and the impact on the funding request is minimal.
  1. What is a 'professional' production?
    A professional production is one where the performers and artistic personnel are paid at the appropriate recognised industry level.
  2. What is an 'Australian' production?
    To be eligible in this fund, the work needs to be produced by an Australian company, or produced by an artist or collective of artists who are Australian citizens or have permanent resident status in Australia. The content of the work, the writer, composer or choreographer are not required to be Australian. An eligible work could also include a percentage of international performers as part of an Australian co-production.
  3. What types of performing arts productions can I apply for?
    We welcome national touring applications from all forms of professionally produced live performance. Generally, applications request to tour one production. However a company can be supported to tour a repertoire of different works where there is a compelling reason and the impact on the funding request is minimal. The frequency of presentations for the different shows will need to be balanced throughout the itinerary in order to make a successful argument. For example substituting a different production for only one or two venues on a tour is not possible. The Australia Council also offers theContemporary Music Touring Program. So if you are interestedin touring music nationally please contact a Grants Officer to work out which grant is best for you.
  4. What locations are defined as regional and remote?
    This Australia Council, as do many government departments and agencies, uses the ARIA (Accessibility Remoteness Index of Australia) to determine the regional and remote classification for each town.The ARIA considers a range of factors, including distance to services, to group all locations in Australia into 5 ARIA Code areas.To find out if your project meets the eligible criteria (ie inclusion of venues with an ARIA rating of 1-4) and to be able to complete the ARIA code in your application form, you can begin a grant in the Australia Council’s online system. When you get to the ‘Outline your project’ section, the system will automatically look up the ARIA code once you enter the details of the state, town and postcode of the location you are searching for.Alternatively, download thisformto search for the relevant ARIA codes orcontact the Australia Councilto speak with a Grants Officer for assistance.
  5. Can I include metropolitan locations on my national tour?
    Yes, as long as you meet the eligibility requirement of including regional and or remote locations in your itinerary. Please note there is no quota or ratio required for regional and remote versus metropolitan locations. However, applicants must note that the purpose of the program is to support regional and remote access.
  6. Can the itinerary include other activities in addition to performances?
    Yes, your itinerary can include activities that offer additional opportunities for the community to engage with the performers or art. As the main focus of this fund is performances, additional activities should be scheduled in an efficient way within the itinerary.
  7. What can I use the funds for?
    There are two areas of eligible costs; interstate net touring costs and tour coordination fees. Applicants should research the net touring costs based on current prices and add a reasonable contingency to each item.
  8. What are net touring costs?
    Net Touring Costs are:
    - travel fares and transport costs for the touring party
    - relevant industrial award rates for travel allowances for the touring party
    - and freight costs for the set and production elements.
    The touring party is defined as the performers and crew required to stage the show. The creative team (e.g. Director, Designer or lighting Designer) are considered part of the touring party for the first venue on the tour. In addition, the Director/ Creator of the work can also be considered part of the touring party to attend a performance every 6 weeks of the tour. Travel costs and allowances for other staff associated with the production are not eligible costs under this fund.
    This fund provides support to cover travel allowances at the rate set by the appropriate industry award plus contingency for scheduled increases. Productions that pay above the award rate or have their own certified agreement will need to find alternative sources to cover the difference.
  9. What are tour coordination fees?
    The Tour Coordination Fees represents the cost of managing the tour logistics and travel bookings. This fund provides a contribution towards those costs at a set rate per venue. The rate is automatically provided in the budget form and all applicants are eligible to receive the tour coordination fee for venues outside of their home state.
  10. This project has different 'home states' so what do I consider interstate?
    Some projects might have performers based in various states or perhaps the tour is managed by a tour coordinator from a different state / territory.
    For the purposes of this fund one ‘home state’ needs to be nominated to calculate the interstate versus intrastate costs. Generally, the ‘home state’ will be the street address of the production company. However, all applicants with different state/ territory involvement should discuss with a Grants Officer to confirm the appropriate ‘home’ base for their application.
  11. What is required on a Presenter Confirmation Form?
    The Presenter Confirmation Form requires presenters to:
    - outline the fee and date arrangement for the presentation and
    - Identify the programming benefits for their community. The assessment panel will be looking for authentic programming statements that reflect the unique nature of each location as opposed to template responses. Clear, concise dot points are welcome for answering the programming statement.
  1. I am hiring the venue, do I need to submit a Presenter Confirmation Form?
    Yes. If you are hiring the venue you should list your Company as the presenter on the form and complete the Programming and Anticipated Audience sections of the form. A representative from the venue will then need to complete the Presentation details on page 2 and sign the form.