Image: Inspiring Indigenous COOEE at The Arts Centre Cootamundra as part of the Festival of Turtles Project

Are you an artist looking to level up your creative practice in 2025? Are you a group, collective or company with a bold creative project in the works?

CASP is an annual grant program managed by Eastern Riverina Arts. Applications for CASP 2025 will open on 16th December 2024.

Streams

There are two streams available through the Eastern Riverina Arts Country Arts Support Program in 2025:

  • For Individuals, max $750 – for professional development or the realisation/presentation of an ambitious artistic outcome, or

  • For Projects, max $3000 – for original creative projects and collaborations that meet the eligibility criteria (outlined below).

Objectives

Eastern Riverina Arts is committed to achieving the following objectives through the CASP program:

  • Support the development of ambitious and original creative outputs, projects and collaborations across the ERA service region.

  • Utilise CASP as an opportunity to develop artist and organisational capabilities.

  • Support artists and projects across a broad sweep of the Eastern Riverina Arts service region.

How do I apply?

Applications are submitted through smartygrants using the link below (once applications are open). If you have any questions regarding your application please contact Eastern Riverina Arts.

Applications to the Eastern Riverina Arts CASP annual grants program will be assessed based on their ability to address the funding objectives and eligibility criteria outlined on this page.

Important Dates

Applications Open: Monday 16th December 2024 at 9:00am

Applications Close: Monday 3rd February 2025 at 9:00am

Projects commence anytime after 1st April 2025

Projects finalised and acquittals due by 28th February 2026

Funding Pool

The 2025 Funding Pool is $17,000

Eligibility

 

For Individuals

To be eligible to apply as an individual (up to $750), you must:

  • reside within one of the Local Government Areas supported by Eastern Riverina Arts

  • Have an ABN (It’s simple to apply, you can do so here)

  • Have an active (free) profile on CreativeRiverina.com

  • Your proposed creative activity must substantially take place within the Eastern Riverina Arts region, or in the case of professional development, it must support an outcome that will take place in our region.

For Projects

To be eligible to apply as a project or collaboration, you must:

  • Be an incorporated entity, or

  • Be a group, partnership or company whose project can be auspiced by an incorporated entity (note: Eastern Riverina Arts cannot auspice CASP proposals), or

  • Be a 355 Committee or volunteer-run facility of Local Government.

  • The proposed creative activity must substantially take place within the Eastern Riverina Arts region or it must support an outcome that will take place in our region.

 

A requirement of application to CASP is that you have a one-on-one discussion about your project with staff from Eastern Riverina Arts.

 Info Session

Below is the CASP info session from 2022, note the funding guidelines have changed slightly as reflected on this page.

What is CASP?

The Country Arts Support Program (CASP) is an annual small grants program funded by Create NSW and managed locally by Eastern Riverina Arts. It is guided by Create NSW’s Arts and Cultural Funding Program’s three major objectives:

  • Grow creative leadership and programming excellence in NSW

  • Strengthen NSW arts and cultural activity that drives community and social benefits

  • Showcase NSW as a leader for strategic arts and cultural governance and strong financial management.

Create NSW’s objective for this program is to support community arts and cultural development in regional NSW through small grants that:

  • Assist locally determined community arts and cultural activities

  • Increase opportunities for regionally based groups to access a diverse range of arts programs

  • Enable communities to explore and express their cultural identities

FAQ’s

 

  • No. As an individual you can apply for up to $750 for professional development or the realisation/presentation of an ambitious artistic outcome. If you would like to apply for up to $3000 for a project, you will need to apply as a 355 Committee of Local Government or a collaboration between a group, partnership or company and your project must be auspiced by an incorporated entity (note: Eastern Riverina Arts can not auspice CASP proposals.).

  • Creative Riverina is an online directory for artists and creatives in the Eastern Riverina region. Having a profile on Creative Riverina connects you to a diverse creative community and makes you and your artistic practice or services easy for people to find. To apply for CASP you must have a Creative Riverina profile - this tells us who you are, what you do, and provides us with examples of your work.

  • No. You can still submit your application if your listing is awaiting approval. If you have any issues creating your listing, please don’t hesitate to contact us.

  • Yes

  • CASP recipients will be sent a link to an acquittal form prior to the conclusion of their project. The acquittal form will ask you to report on the outcomes of your project. We strongly recommend you keep good records throughout your project, which would typically include:

    • proof of expenditures (eg receipts and invoices from your project),

    • details of audience or participant numbers,

    • copies of any marketing materials you produce (or screenshots of socialmedia posts) that demonstrate your acknowledgement of the funding source,

    • a selection of photographs of your process and outcomes.

  • Eastern Riverina Arts cannot auspice CASP grants, however there is a list of auspicing organisations on our website that you can get in touch with.

  • You must have an ABN to apply for the CASP grant. We have added this requirement as a way of encouraging artists to take this step in setting themselves up as a business. Creating one is simple and can be done online here.

  • If your group or collective does not have an ABN, one of your group members will need to provide their ABN during the application process.

  • No

  • No. You can find a list of organisations who are willing to auspice CASP grants below.

  • There are a few things we don't fund, and these include:

    • Prize money or gifts

    • Expenses which are already covered by an organisation's existing funding (eg existing worker salaries)

    • Illegal activities

    • Works or projects of an offensive nature

    Talk to us about what you're proposing and we can help you to navigate this.

Auspicing Organisations

Below is a list of organisations who may be able to auspice your project:

How to acknowledge Eastern Riverina Arts

"This project is supported by the Country Arts Support Program, administered by Eastern Riverina Arts on behalf of the NSW Government"

Acquitting your 2024 CASP grant

In order to complete your 2024 CASP acquittal please use the links below.

If you are acquitting project funding (up to $3000) please use the budget spreadsheet provided. If your CASP grant was auspiced please attach a financial report provided by your Nominated Funds Administrator.