Overview

Myer Family Philanthropy is synonymous with the Arts in Australia. The tradition of giving to enrich cultural life began with Sidney Myer, a passionate supporter of the arts.

In celebrating the life and cultural interests of Sidney Myer, a number of initiatives have been established over the past 75 years including the Sidney Myer Music Bowl and the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards.

We believe that there is a strong connection between the arts, the humanities and a healthy community. The Sidney Myer Fund continues to fund the arts, and seeks to play a critical role in upholding the integrity of the arts community within Australia.

The objectives of the Arts and Humanities program are:

• To ensure a strong and productive arts sector
• To enrich civic life through increasing understanding of and engagement with the Humanities.

Large Grants Program

The Sidney Myer Fund aims to assist the area of Arts and Humanities with its Large Grants Program through the following focus areas:

• Build capacity - imaginative programs to build organisational capacity
• New work - developing new content and innovative programming
• Humanities - projects that support the humanities, particularly those that contribute to a broad understanding of and engagement with the humanities.

Please note, we do not accept unsolicited applications to the Large Grants Program.

Small Grants Program

The priority areas for the Small Grants Program are:

• To build capacity of the individual through ensuring professional artists gain access to training, development and mentoring
• Develop new works by individual Australian artists and small to medium-sized organisations in the following areas:
        - Indigenous arts
        - Regional areas
        - Experimental and emerging art forms
• Humanities - projects that support the Humanities, particularly those that contribute to a broad understanding of and engagement with the Humanities.

The Arts and Humanities Small Grants Program has four closing dates each year. Please see the Application Process section for more information.

We are accepting Expressions of Interest for the Small Grants Program until 28 April 2010.