What is the Creative Learning Partnerships program?

Creative Learning Partnerships (CLP) provides grants to Victorian schools to engage an individual creative professional, a creative collective or a creative organisation for a school residency project.

Residencies can be undertaken face to face or via virtual communication platforms, or a hybrid of both. It provides students, teachers and creative professionals with diverse and challenging learning experiences that support deep learning across the curriculum from Foundation to Year 10 plus VCE Vocational Major and Victorian Pathways Certificate.

Who can apply?

You can apply if you’re a Victorian primary or secondary school, including government and non-government schools, and schools for students with special needs.

To increase access and equity, schools that received Creative Learning Partnerships funding between 2023 and 2025 are not eligible to apply for the Creative Learning Partnerships 2026 program.

What's on offer?

The Creative Learning Partnerships program offers schools:

  • Grants of $10,000 to engage a Victorian (or cross-border) creative professional to work with the school on a creative project for approximately 15-20 days

OR

  • Grants of $35,000 to engage a Victorian (or cross-border) creative collective or organisation to work with the school on a creative project for at least 20 days

What kind of project can we do?

Your project can cover any art form or creative discipline including, but not limited to, digital games development, fashion, filmmaking, performing arts, literature, visual arts, media arts, music and design.

Your school will receive funding to engage a creative professional or organisation to collaborate with you to design a tailored, curriculum aligned project that suits the needs of your school, your students, teachers and school community.

I’m a creative professional/artist, can I make an application?

No. Schools must be the applicant.

However, once a school and a creative individual, collective or organisation have decided to apply together, you can work on the draft application and budget tools along with your partner school.

The school Project Coordinator must register on the DJSIR Grant Portal to open an account in the school’s name and then copy and paste the draft into the online form.

Why do projects have to commence from term two and onwards?

Term one is often a very busy time for schools, with activities such as student orientation, planning and establishing school routines. Starting projects from term two onwards gives project teams more time to get organised and prepared.

Can my project start in term three or four?  What about more intensive timelines, or should it be slow and steady? 

You can apply to run your Creative Learning Partnership to a timeline that best suits your school and your creative partner. The only requirements are that projects do not start before term two, and that they run for approximately 15-20 days for projects with an individual creative partner, and at least 20 days for projects with a creative collective or organisation.

My school did a Creative Learning Partnerships project last year. Can we apply again in this current round?

Schools that received Creative Learning Partnership funding in the last three rounds (2025, 2024 or 2023) are not eligible to re-apply for this round. This is to open up this opportunity to more Victorian schools.  Schools may re-apply after the expiry of the three-year term.

If you’re not sure, a list of ineligible schools for the Creative Learning Partnership 2026 program can be found on this webpage.

Can a creative professional/artist who has participated in a Creative Learning Partnerships project in the past three years be a partner with a different school this round?

Yes.A creative professional/artist who has participated in a Creative Learning Partnerships project in the past three years be a partner with a different school this round.

Do creative partners have to be Victorian?

They must be based in Victoria or in a cross-border community.

I’m a creative professional/collective/organisation, can I partner with multiple schools in multiple applications? 

No.  A creative professional, collective or organisation cannot be involved in more than one Creative Learning Partnership project in a funding round.

I’m a teacher, can I apply for my school or does my Principal need to do it? 

Teachers can draft and submit the application, however, they must first obtain and confirm support from the Principal (mandatory) and School Council (if possible).

A declaration of support signed by the school Principal (mandatory), the President of the school council or equivalent (if possible), the school Project Coordinator (mandatory), and the creative partner (mandatory) must be submitted with your application.

How many students are recommended to take part in a project?

We recommend that schools identify a reasonable number of students to be involved in the project. Each school and project is different, and schools and creative partners are encouraged to work together to determine the best number of students for their context and project.

How much should we budget for the creative professional’s salary?

The primary purpose of the Creative Learning Partnership grant is to engage your creative partner/s, so your budget should prioritise creative professional or organisation/s fees.

We suggest that you ask your chosen partner/s what their rates are and negotiate a rate that everyone is comfortable with.

Creative professionals bring specialised skills and knowledge into your school and must be appropriately remunerated for their work.

Does the school need to contribute funds to the project too?

The school should also provide financial and in-kind support for project delivery costs within school resources and/or external fundraising, where possible.

The program may consider supporting the entire cost of a project only for those schools considered significantly disadvantaged as per the Index of Community Socio-Educational Advantage (ICSEA).

Our school does not have a creative partner – can Creative Victoria help us?

Schools and creatives are encouraged to find their own partners before applying.

However, if you don’t have a partner in mind, you can provide your details for Creative Victoria’s ‘networking list’ that may help connect schools and creative partners. Details will be circulated during the application open phase, however inclusion on the list does not guarantee a match. We recommended you also conduct an independent search for your perfect partner.

We recommend that you watch the Creative Learning Partnerships information video and read the program guidelines before contacting us to provide your details.

My school is not led by First Peoples but the activity we are undertaking involves First Peoples creative partners, community or Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property (ICIP).  What are the expected protocols?

Your school must demonstrate that it has appropriate protocols in place when working with First Peoples creative partners, content or communities.

Activity that does not demonstrate correct protocols will not be supported. For activity that includes ICIP there is an expectation that schools include, as appropriate, with their application:

What is Indigenous Cultural Intellectual Property (ICIP)?

ICIP may refer to artistic work, stories, languages, tangible and intangible cultural property, and contemporary and historical records. Please refer to the Arts Law ICIP webpage for more information.

Note: Before lodging your application, you are required to have read Creative Australia’s Protocols For Using First Nations Cultural And Intellectual Property In The Arts, in particular the checklist in pages 168 to 172 and ensure that your proposed activities and interactions meet these protocol requirements.

Can I apply for support to cover costs such as buses to attend creative events? 

Creative Learning Partnerships provides grants to support a school to engage a creative professional, collective or organisation to develop a creative learning project together. Your project budget must prioritise the fees for the creative partner/s, however a smaller proportion of grant funding can also cover costs directly related to the project, i.e. materials. Creative Learning Partnerships does not cover costs of buses to creative events/excursions related to the project.

Creative Learning Partnerships does not cover costs of buses to creative events/excursions unrelated to a Creative Learning Partnerships project.

What happens next if we are successful with our application?

If your funding application is successful, you’ll receive a funding agreement outlining the conditions for funding, payment information and reporting requirements.

See Information for current recipients

Our school would like to apply – how likely is it that we will be successful?  Should we enter commitments prior to receiving the funding outcome?

There’s high a level of demand for Creative Learning Partnerships funding, so we recommend that you plan for contingencies if your application is unsuccessful (e.g., other funding sources). Please don’t make commitments based on the assumption that you’ll receive funding until you’ve received written confirmation of your final funding outcome.

Who decides the outcome of the application, and will feedback on our application be available?

Funding recommendations are subject to approval by the Minister for Creative Industries.

Can I get feedback about my application if it is not successful?

Feedback on your application is provided at Creative Victoria’s discretion and may not be available when you receive notification of your funding outcome.

How will successful applicants be paid their grant?

If your application is successful you will be asked to submit a tax invoice for the amount of the grant. You will also be sent a Funding Agreement to read and sign. Once the invoice has been received and the Funding Agreement signed the payment will be processed.

Program funding payments are conditional on you meeting your obligations under your Funding Agreement with the Department of Jobs, Skills, Industry and Regions (DJSIR), including fulfilling any payment milestone outcomes or deliverables set out in the Funding Agreement.

When can we expect to be told the outcome of our application, and who will be advised?

The school representative who registered the application will be notified by email of the outcome approximately 16 weeks after the published closing date.  The school representative must liaise with creative partner/s to inform of any updates and the outcome of your application.

I haven’t received any communication from Creative Victoria about the outcome of my grant. What happened?

Please note, school email security settings may redirect correspondence to email spam folders. Applicants are advised to check spam folders regularly for confirmation of receipt, and notification about the outcome of your application.