Creative Sparks Grants Program
The Creative Sparks Grants Program is an arts and cultural grants program that assists artists and not-for-profit community arts, historical and cultural organisations to create and present work.
The purpose of the program is to create jobs, aid economic growth, attract tourism and improve social cohesion by supporting the creative and cultural sector in Brisbane. Through strategic investments, the program aims to build capacity and resilience of the sector to contribute to the liveability and vibrancy of Brisbane.
The grant program aims to:
- assist artists, arts workers, cultural workers, creative producers and Brisbane not-for-profit community arts, historical and cultural organisations to test, develop, and realise ideas for local products, markets, partnerships, and new work to build the city’s creative capacity and enable creative enterprises to grow and prosper
- support a range of diverse and accessible arts experiences to grow arts audiences and participation;
- foster opportunities for the creation and promotion of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Island/er’ artistic endeavours;
- empower the Brisbane creative industry in their recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic and to develop resilience to confidently regenerate by creating employment opportunities for local artists and arts workers.
Council strongly encourages Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander artists, artists who identify as having a disability, identify as being culturally and linguistically diverse, or who are LGBTIQA+, and/or who are under 25 to apply.
Applications for the Creative Sparks Grants Program are closed.
Funding
Applicants may apply for up to $10,000 per application for the creation and presentation of projects that are shared with the public (either online or at a venue/location within the Brisbane local government area).
The Creative Sparks Fund is managed by Council in partnership with the Queensland Government through Arts Queensland.
2023-24 funding round dates
Applications are closed. Applicants will be notified of the outcome of their application by mid-April 2024.
Eligibility
An applicant must:
- be an individual professional artist, arts worker, cultural worker, creative producer residing in the Brisbane Local Government Area (LGA) OR
- be a not-for-profit community arts, historical and cultural organisations based in the Brisbane LGA
- be a permanent resident or Australian citizen
- be 17 years of age or over at the time of submitting an application
- have an Australian Business Number (ABN) or be auspiced by an incorporated Auspice Organisation that is based in the Brisbane LGA
- have an accessible public outcome that occurs within the Brisbane LGA between 16 April 2024 and 18 February 2025
- have other sources of funding as the program will not support 100 per cent of the proposed activity or project costs.
- hold appropriate insurance (s) (including Workers Compensation, Public Liability, Volunteers Insurance and others) to cover artists and their work.
An incorporated Auspice organisations can only support a maximum of two applications per grant round.
Applicants can only submit one application for either this grant or the Lord Mayor’s Creative Fellowships and must not have any overdue Council grant acquittals or outstanding debts with Council.
Applicants applying as an organisation must employ Brisbane independent artists and arts workers to deliver new projects.
Acquittal reports for successful applicants
If your application is successful, you will be required to complete an online acquittal form within eight weeks of the stated project completion date.
Grant recipients with overdue acquittal reports are not eligible to apply for other Council grants.
If you believe you or your organisation may have an outstanding report from a previous grant funded project, phone Council on 07 3403 8888 and ask to speak to the Grants Unit for advice.
Grant recipient stories
Brisbane City Council has produced this video where a recipient of the Creative Sparks Grants Program talks about their journey and experience applying for and receiving a Council grant and how that grant has helped their organisation.
Video transcript
Video transcript
Creative Sparks Grant Recipient Story – Dead Puppet Society
Hi my name is Nicholas Payne and I’m the Executive Producer of Dead Puppet Society and with our Brisbane City Council Creative Sparks Grant we produced a new theatre production called Ishmael, which was an adaptation of Moby Dick but set in space and making use of live video cameras and puppetry and miniature models to tell this story and the work premiered at Brisbane Festival in partnership with QPAC last year.
One of the things we really wanted to achieve with this project is to create a really innovative exciting theatre production but that was a little bit smaller in scale and could be more tourable across Australia.
We received a Brisbane City Council Creative Sparks Grant to create this production, Ishmael, and that was really helpful because we basically needed all types of different funding sources to make this project happen.
The seed funding for this project meant that we could pay all of our creatives, and our cast award rates for production which is something that Puppet Society always adheres to and it also assisted with providing additional materials to create all of the puppets involved in the show.
Ishmael was a really important production in Dead Puppet Society’s life. We’re always trying to push the boundaries, create really exciting brand new theatre work and Ishmael is a work that premiered here in Brisbane but will have a really long life ahead of it.
More information
For more information, read the grant guidelines and the creative and history grant application tips and view a recording of the Creative Grants 2023 information session webinar.