Guidelines
The Creative Learning Program aims to increase access for students and teachers to engage in enriched learning through arts processes and experiences.
The Creativity for Schools Program offers funding to support projects and programs connecting Western Australian creatives with schools.
The Creativity for Schools – Residency Category supports activities using arts-based practice to engage students in their learning, beyond arts curriculum areas, with an artist in residence. Projects will support access, participation and overall engagement for students (K to 12) in transformative creative learning experiences and will develop educators in utilising creative pedagogy across curriculum areas and beyond. The residency category centres around bringing artists and students together, thereby empowering students, fostering their creativity and positively impacting their overall learning experiences at school.
The Creative Learning Program recognises that the following 5 program objectives are interdependent:
Your application must align with the primary objective and, where relevant, the supporting objectives.
To increase the competitiveness of your application, it is recommended that your residency demonstrates alignment with four (4) of the key program priorities.
Applications are open to:
*Must be currently residing in Western Australia with a Western Australian address.
If you are considering submitting an administered or auspiced grant application, you must contact us before commencing your application.
Applications to this funding category are assessed by an external peer assessment panel. The key dates calendar has application opening and closing dates, activity start dates, draft review deadlines and notification dates.
All times are in AWST (for Perth, Western Australia).
You are encouraged to submit your application before your submission date to ensure you have plenty of time to allow for technical or eligibility resubmission issues.
Processing of grant payments to successful applicants will not start until after the grant contract is signed and returned. Depending on the activity start date, we cannot guarantee notification and/or availability of grant funds before the activity begins.
Eligible applicants can apply for up to $20,000 in funding for projects working with a school for approximately 25 days of artist engagement.
This program may fund up to 80% of your activity costs. You must demonstrate at least 20% income (either in-kind or cash), or your application will be ineligible.
Creativity for Schools — Residency grants support creative practitioners working in a residency context within schools across Western Australia for a duration of approximately 25 days (this can be spread over multiple terms).
The project must be an artist in residence activity which allows an artist/s to carry out creative work at a school. The artist will work closely with the school community (students, teachers and leadership) to deliver a program that creatively and actively engages students in their learning.
Please note: activity applied for should demonstrate cross-curricular alignment beyond arts based learning areas (music, dance, drama, visual arts, media arts). For further information please refer to the School Curriculum and Standards Authority.
*To ensure a fair and equitable distribution of funds the Panel may prioritise new applicants and/or programs within a 12-month period.
** For these projects to be competitive, the beautification must be a secondary outcome; the primary focus of this program is to support projects engaging an artist to work with students and teachers to embed creativity and arts beyond arts learning areas. You are strongly encouraged to explore creative learning activities other than school beautification.
You will make your application ineligible if you:
You may submit one (1) application for either Collaboration or Residency category per Creativity for Schools funding round. Please note you may only receive two (2) successful applications in a 12-month period.
To ensure a fair and equitable distribution of funds the Panel may prioritise new applicants and/or programs within a 12-month period.
Creative practitioners may only be the lead artist on 1 application per Creativity for Schools (Collaboration or Residency) funding round.
Your project must be completed within 12 months of receiving the funds.
Please apply using the Online Grants web portal.
More information on how to apply can be found in the application manual.
We strongly suggest speaking to a Creative Learning Project Officer prior to commencing your application.
There are 4 components of a grant application:
Each plays a significant and distinct role in creating a whole picture about your activity.
Your answers to the core application questions should give assessors a concise overview of your activity. Each question has a 1500-character limit. You can extract a copy of your draft application in Online Grants at any stage to share with others for their feedback.
Respond to the following questions with reference to the assessment criteria, program objectives and relevant key program priorities:
Outline what you plan to do and describe the artistic concept of the project. Include the year level/s you will be engaging with and how the creative ideas meet the needs and aspirations of the school. Describe the creative processes and how the residency engages the school community.
Describe how this residency engages students creatively in their learning, which curriculum areas the project aligns to and if/how this extends beyond the arts. Include a brief outline of what professional learning opportunities will be made available for teachers and/or school leadership, including any formal and/or informal learning.
Provide a summary of the key milestones in your activity planning and delivery, the key stages of the activity and who will be responsible. Please outline your plans for marketing and promotion of the activity.
Outline the benefits for the school (students, teachers, leadership, wider school community) participating in the residency. Why have the artist and school chosen to partner to deliver this activity? How did the artist and school connect on this project? Provide a brief outline of the artist’s practice including any relevant experience working with students and teachers.
Outline the creative processes used to engage students in their learning. Outline which areas of the curriculum your activity aligns with, and how the use of creative processes will impact engagement across learning areas. Consider your activity and how it supports critical and creative thinking, personal and social capability, ethical understanding and/or intercultural understanding.
Outline the methods, processes or tools you will use to measure and report your progress towards and/or achievement of the activity outcomes you outlined in Question 2. Consider how you will know whether you achieved your proposed outcomes. These may be tangible creative outcomes or processes. Outline how you intend to measure and/or document activity. Outline how you will share the learnings with the wider education/creative learning community.
Please note: it is not a requirement of the program to have a creative outcome at the end of the residency.
You are required to provide relevant project outputs. An output is a specific measurable thing that is generated by your project. This information will be considered as part of your application and provide further clarity about your project for the assessor. The outputs also provide important data for DLGSC for research, analysis and advocacy purposes.
You only need to provide outputs for the categories and items relevant to your project.
If your application is successful, you will be required to report against your planned project outputs in your acquittal report.
Please contact a Creative Learning Project Officer if you have any questions.
The financial information in your budget helps to demonstrate that all elements of your activity have been considered, thoroughly researched and costed. A good budget also provides confidence for the department that your activity will be a sound investment for the State of Western Australia.
All amounts should be in Australian dollars.
Your funding request is the difference between your expenditure minus your income. To ensure this amount is calculated accurately, seek quotes for all expenditure items (whether or not you intend to include these as support material) and include all costs associated with the activity, even if they are supplied in-kind.
For each expenditure or income item you add to the budget, use the notes area alongside the item to explain how it relates to the delivery of your activity and how the cost was calculated. If relevant, include a breakdown or itemisation of costs.
Expenditure items can vary significantly from one activity to another. Any legitimate expense that is eligible can be included in the budget.
Do not duplicate costs in the budget form. For example, if you receive a quote for advertising which includes design, do not add an additional item for design. Simply use ‘advertising’ as the expenditure item and add a note explaining that the cost includes design.
This program may fund up to 80% of your activity costs. You must demonstrate at least 20% income (in-kind or cash) or your application will be ineligible.
Make sure you check the What can't I apply for list for ineligible items.
Expenses related to the management and administration of the activity, for example telephone/internet, insurance, postage and stationery.
Costs associated with marketing including promotion, graphic design, photography, videography and production of marketing collateral.
Costs related to the remount, production and delivery of the activity or its deliverable. Eligible items may include materials, props, resources.
Expenditure in this category should include salaries, fees and allowances for all key personnel, with separate components itemised in the budget notes. We support appropriate rates of pay for all people involved in your activity. Refer to the following websites for information on industry standard payment rates:
If these standards do not apply to your activity, you must outline how reasonable rates have been calculated. For long-term activities, it may be appropriate to pay artists a rate based on a yearly salary for a similar kind of work. If this is the case, you need to clearly explain the rationale for the pay rate in your budget notes.
All rates should be relative to level of experience.
Please note that organisations, such as the Media, Entertainment and Arts Alliance, predominantly provide information on minimum base rates for employees engaged on a full-time, part-time or casual basis. Rates for artists and arts workers engaged as contractors will include a loading to cover the costs of being self-employed. Full-time, part-time and casual rates do not factor in these costs and should not be used when engaging contractors.
Costs associated with transporting people, equipment or goods. Eligible items may include fares (bus etc.), tolls, land or air freight and vehicle hire.
This program does not fund 100% of your activity costs. You must demonstrate at least 20% income (in-kind or cash) or your application will be deemed ineligible.
May include ticket sales, product sales, performance fees. For performances, this amount should factor in the number of performances, average ticket price and projected venue capacity.
List any income received through sponsorship from corporate bodies or businesses. Income received through government funding should be included in the relevant government income category.
May include contributions from fundraising such as crowdfunding, donations and gifts.
All grants and funding being sought from Local, State and Federal government, the Australia Council and other government sources must be included, whether or not this support has been confirmed.
If you are making a cash contribution, or someone is providing cash to the activity, list this item as a ‘cash contribution’ or similar. Include any other income source that does not fit within any of the above categories and provide enough detail to identify the income source.
Some expenses may be offered to you for free or at a discount. This might be borrowed equipment, the use of a rehearsal space, donated or discounted goods or services, relief teachers, negotiated discounted fees and allowances. Anything given to your project at no expense to you is considered in-kind.
All in-kind expenditure must be included as a budget item under the in-kind expenditure category. The corresponding recognition of in-kind income is created automatically in your online application, and you do not need to enter any in-kind income budget items. The total in-kind expenditure must always equal the total in-kind income.
If, for example, you are hiring a venue, which would normally charge $2000, and you have successfully negotiated an $800 (40%) discount, you would include venue hire fee as a budget item under the Expenditure category of $1200 and $800 under the in-kind expenditure category
Support material is crucial to a successful application and is essential for assessors to fully gauge the value of your activity. It is highly recommended you pay close attention to the support material you choose and make sure it offers the best support for your application.
It should help demonstrate the 4 assessment criteria: quality, reach, good planning and financial responsibility as well as the objectives of the category you are applying to.
There are 3 mandatory units of support material for the Creativity for Schools — Residency Program. You must submit both units. Please note that mandatory support materials will not count towards your support material.
This should be completed by the creative practitioner.
Please note:
Maximum 10 A4 pages of text, in PDF or Word format. Preferably in one single document. (maximum file size 5 MB. All text must be legible at 100%). Note: weblinks are not accepted.
Examples of material:
*Can include multiple screenshots of emails and quotes. We suggest taking a screenshot of the essential information and pasting up to 4 per A4 page so they are still legible when viewed at 100%.
Maximum 4 links to audio and video content not exceeding 12 minutes combined listening or viewing time.
Audio and/or video files must be uploaded to file streaming sites like Vimeo, YouTube, Bandcamp or SoundCloud that do not require a log-in to access. Do not use Spotify.
You can find instructions on how to use these sites at the following links:;
Applications to this funding program are assessed by an external peer assessment panel. There are 4 components to a grant application: core application questions, financial information, project targets and support material. Each plays a significant and distinct role in creating a whole picture about your activity and tells a story about what you want to do.
All applications are assessed against the 4 criteria:
Each has a weighting and a subset of dimensions with definitions. More information about the dimensions and definitions, which have been developed by artists and creatives representing their sector, can be found in the application manual.
Assessors will consider your application against the relevant dimensions and definitions and allocate a weighted score for each of the 4 criteria.
Imagination, authenticity, originality, cross-curricular alignment, inquisitiveness, excellence, captivation, relevance, innovation, challenge and rigour.
Quality refers to the level of artistic and cultural significance of the activity. Quality may be demonstrated by, but is not limited to, examples of previous work, letters of support and timeliness of the work. You must consider the program concept and how it relates to the primary objective and key program priorities. Quality may also be demonstrated through the skills and experience of the people involved in the activity, and the alignment of those skills and experience to deliver the project.
Diversity, platform, collaboration, leverage, number, growth and depth.
Reach refers to the level of impact the activity is likely to have. Reach may be demonstrated by including information such as the number of participants and depth of engagement, detail as to the extension into the wider school community and beyond, and legacy of the activity.
Realistic, achievable, considered, demonstrated research and/or consultation, evaluation and co-design.
Good planning refers to the level of consideration which has been given to practically undertaking the activity. Good planning can be demonstrated by, but is not limited to, carefully considered preparation, confirmation of key personnel, a realistic timeline and achievable outcomes, documented research and/or consultation, and a process of evaluation.
Value, comprehensive budget, financial self-sufficiency.
Financial responsibility refers to the sound management of the budget. Financial responsibility can be demonstrated by, but is not limited to, efficient use of resources, reasonable expenses and an accurate and comprehensive budget, including use of budget notes. Other sources of income have been considered and included where appropriate and the activity goes some way towards self-sufficiency.
This section of the budget provides an opportunity for you to detail any additional information you feel may help clarify items within your budget. For example, for fees and salaries you can indicate in this section how you calculated your amount.
You should use this section to indicate which expenditure items you want DLGSC to support.
The Australian Taxation Office (ATO) considers any grant payment to be taxable income for the purposes of your annual income tax return. If you receive a grant you are encouraged to discuss your tax implications with your tax agent or the ATO.
If you are registered for GST, you must show your expenditure items exclusive of the GST component. For example, you have been quoted $550 including GST for lighting hire. In your expenditure budget you would only show lighting hire of $500.
If you are registered for GST and your activity is funded, the department payment will include a 10% GST component to cover those items on which GST is payable.
If you are not registered for GST, you must show your expenditure items inclusive of the GST component. For example, you have been quoted $550 including GST for lighting hire. In your expenditure budget you would show lighting hire of $550.
If you are not registered for GST and your activity is funded, the DLGSC payment will include the GST component for those items on which GST is payable.
If you are successful, you will be required to fill in an acquittal report when your activity has finished. An acquittal report details your activity and how you spent the grant. The acquittal report will be available for you to access in Online Grants once a copy of your signed funding agreement has been received.
Your acquittal report must be submitted within 90 days of the activity completion date as specified in the funding agreement.
You will need to attach relevant documents, images and videos that substantiate the delivery of the activity and that may demonstrate the impact and outcomes achieved.
The report will also include your activity budget and you will be required to enter all the actual figures against each budget item and add any additional items that were not in the original budget. Variations between budget and actual figures are acceptable, however you must provide an explanation for large variations in the notes for that item. As you enter actual figures, the activity profit/loss will be automatically updated and displayed at the top of the Financial Information page.
The funding acquittal report also includes the option to provide feedback to DLGSC to help us to continually review and improve the service we provide.
DLGSC takes into consideration various levels of disadvantage, including economic, social and/or geographic disadvantage.
Identifying economic and/or social disadvantage in line with the Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority (ACARA) considers the measure known as the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA). A school’s ICSEA indicates the average educational advantage of the school’s students and is calculated using information about a parent’s occupation and education, school geographical location and the proportion of Indigenous students.
In addition to social and economic disadvantage, areas of geographic disadvantage include:
Grants Officers are available via telephone and email to answer queries about applications and suitability of activities to specific programs.
If you need extra assistance due to disability, language barriers or any other factor that may disadvantage you in completing your application, please contact us.
The advice provided by Grants Officers does not guarantee the success of your application.
Due to the high number of applications received, each funding round is highly competitive.
All applications are considered on their own merits and against the assessment criteria and program objectives.
For assistance using Online Grants or to report any related technical issues, contact the Online Grants Support Team: onlinegrantsupportca@dlgsc.wa.gov.au
For enquires relating to this funding program, including advice or assistance with your application, contact a Grants Officer:
Telephone 61 8 6552 7400Toll Free (Country WA callers only) 1800 634 541Email grantsprogramsca@dlgsc.wa.gov.au
The department is committed to supporting applicants with disability. Information can be provided in alternative formats (large print, electronic or Braille) upon request.
If you require special assistance in preparing your application, please call 61 8 6552 7400 or toll free for regional WA callers on 1800 634 541.
Family, friends, mentors and/or carers can attend meetings with you.
If you are deaf or have a hearing or speech impairment, please contact us through one of the following:
For interpreting assistance in languages other than English, telephone the Translation and Interpreting Service on 13 14 50 and ask for a connection to 61 8 6552 7400 or 1800 634 541.
Toll Free (Country WA callers only): 1800 634 541Email the Grants Officers: creativelearning@dlgsc.wa.gov.au