VISIONS OF AUSTRALIA: REGIONAL EXHIBITION TOURING FUND

The Regional Exhibition Touring program supports Australian cultural material to reach regional and remote communities across Australia. Grants are available to support the costs to develop and tour exhibitions of cultural material that has historic, scientific, design, social or artistic significance. 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

In 2015, applications to the Regional Exhibition Touring program close on:

2 June (activities commencingfrom1 September)

1 September (activities commencingfrom1December)

1 December (activities commencingfrom1 March 2016)

Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application approximately 12 weeks after the closing date.

Who can apply

We accept applications from 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:

Development: costs of planning for the exhibition to tour. This includes research and design.

Touring: the costs to produce the exhibition and the costs to transport, install and dismantle the exhibition.

What you can’t apply for

You can’t apply for the following activity:

  • core staff and administrative costs
  • tours that only include capital city or metropolitan presentations
  • tours that do not include 3 or more interstate locations
  • exhibitions with content that is either predominantly international or not part of an Australian Institution’s collection
  • commercial exhibitions with the main purpose of promoting the sale of work
  • 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 exhibition touring, including:

  • regional audience engagement and presentation
  • curatorial and exhibition development
  • 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.
  • For development applications, the approach to making the exhibition accessible for regional touring.
  • Quality
  • The quality of the exhibition.
  • The calibre of the organisation 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 exhibition visitation and where appropriate other participation activities such as artists/curator talks and workshops.
  • Appropriate levels of engagement and partnerships developed with presenters to achieve audience goals.
  • Viability
  • Evidence of a realistic and accurate budget.
  • For touring applications, 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, and a sound project timeline for development applications.
Your application

Applications for Visions of Australia: Regional Touring Fund must be submitted viaAustralia Council Online. You must submit the five Essential SupportMaterials with your online application using the templates provided below. You may also submit the listed optional support material. Be sure to read the FAQs 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.
  • There are optional support materials for both Touring and Development applications. Only the specified optional materials can be provided. No other support material will be accepted.
Essential Support Materials

There are different forms for Development Applications and Touring Applications under this program. Please use the Essential Support Material documents relevant to your application.

Development Application - Essential Support Material

Use these forms when applying for the costs of developing your exhibition to tour. This includes research and design. You must complete and submit all five Essential Support Materials 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. Presenters List and Budget Form(click here to downloadExcel document).
    - Must be submitted in Excel format.
    - Please name and submit your file with the title '2. Presenters List and Budget Form'.
  3. Presenter EOI Forms(click here to download word document).
    - Must be submitted as one PDF combining all confirmation forms into the one PDF document.
    - Please name and submit your file with the title '3. Presenter EOI Forms'.
  4. Sample Exhibition Content
    You can provide EITHER a powerpoint presentation using the template below OR a five minute video file.
    a) POWERPOINT FILE (click here to download PowerPoint template).
    Upload your completed PowerPoint file with your application, or provide as a URL.OR
    b) VIDEO FILE. For exhibitions with 3D objects, provide a URL link to a video of up to five minutes.
    Videos must be in one of the following formats: mp3, mp4, wmv or mov.
    - Please name and submit your file with the title '4. Sample Exhibition Content.
  5. Quotes for all items of expenditure over $10,000
    - Must be submitted as one PDF combining all quotes into one PDF document.
    - Please name and submit your file with the title '5. Expenditure Quotes.
Touring Application - Essential Support Material

Use these forms when applying to produce the exhibition and the costs to transport, install and dismantle the exhibition. You must complete and submit all five Essential Support Materials 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 file)
    - 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 file)
    - 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. Sample Exhibition Content
    You can provide EITHER a powerpoint presentation using the template below OR a five minute video file.
    a) POWERPOINT FILE (click here to download PowerPoint template).
    Upload your completed PowerPoint file with your application, or provide as a URL.OR
    b) VIDEO FILE. For exhibitions with 3D objects, provide a URL link to a video of up to five minutes.
    Videos must be in one of the following formats: mp3, mp4, wmv or mov.
    Please name and submit your file with the title '4. Sample Exhibition Content.'
  5. Quotes for all items of expenditure over $10,000
    - Must be submitted as one PDF combining all quotes into one PDF document.
    - Please name and submit your file with the title '5. Expenditure Quotes.
Optional Support Materials

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

  • Brief biographical information on principal personnel (if applicable). Maximum 3 pages as one PDF.
  • Press clippings, web links relating to the cultural material proposed in the exhibition tour. 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 the Visions of Australia: Regional Exhibition Touring 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 exhibition dates. Breaks in the middle of a consecutive schedule of locations are possible if there is a compelling reason and the impact on the funding request is minimal.
  2. What types of exhibitions are supported?
    The fund supports many types of touring of exhibitions including those with cultural material of historic, scientific, design, social or artistic significance. Exhibitions featuring the work of contemporary visual or craft artists are also eligible. Exhibitions can include moving image and multimedia, however exhibition content which is predominately film is not eligible. Commercial exhibitions (e.g. exhibitions with the main purpose of promoting the sale of work) are also not eligible.
  3. 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, please use the database available here:
  4. 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 metro locations. However, applicants should keep in mind the purpose of the program is to support regional and remote access.
  5. What can't I use the funds for?
    This fund is designed to support the additional costs for delivering a tour. For development applications the intent is to support elements that will assist an exhibition to tour. In keeping with the purpose of the funds the following costs are not eligible:
    - Running costs: core salaries, administration and management costs
    - Audit fees
    - Purchase or commissioning of new works
  6. Should I be buying or hiring equipment?
    Both buying and hiring equipment for the presentation of an exhibition is eligible. Applicants are encouraged to choose the most cost effective option. The Notes to Budget section of the Application form should be used to explain how you arrived at deciding whether buying or hiring equipment is the best option.
  7. 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.

A print friendly MS Word file can be accessedhere.