2024 recipients
Apollo Bay P12 College, APOLLO BAY, $10,000
Barracouta and The Sea
Creative partner Peter Day will work with students on a project to explore the threats to marine life in local waters, using spoken word, sculpture making, visual documentation and land art.
Armadale Primary School, ARMADALE, $10,000
The Sound Factory
Working with composer Ciaran Frame, students will co-design and build an interactive musical installation for all ages and abilities. Using cutting-edge technologies, students will be challenged to imagine what future music-making might look like and to explore innovative ways of creating sound.
Braybrook College, BRAYBROOK, $10,000
At the Intersection
Through a mix of storytelling and different kinds of theatre, students will be guided by theatre-makers and performers Myfanwy Hocking and Rod Lara to devise a performance exploring themes of adolescence, identity, real and online worlds.
Clunes Primary School, CLUNES, $35,000
Uncharted
Students will embark on a circus adventure into the unknown in this collaboration with circus and physical theatre performers Asking for Trouble. Students will devise a live performance inspired by personal stories of young adventurers who overcame challenges and explored new horizons, empowering them to share personal tales of adventure, discovery, and bravery.
Dandenong South Primary School, DANDENONG SOUTH, $10,000
The Soul of DSPS
A collaboration with music producer Jason Holmes will see students exploring digital technology, linguistics, mathematics, and music to write, compose and record original hip hop songs for each of the school's four sports houses.
Doncaster Secondary College, DONCASTER, $10,000
Self-discovery Through Culture
Creative partner Vivian Qui aims to challenge students’ ways of seeing and working throughout this collaboration exploring culture as a means of self-discovery. Returning to her former school, Vivian will encourage students to challenge their perceptions of everyday objects as they create multi-media sculpture and installations to express their personal stories.
Fawkner Primary School, FAWKNER, $10,000
Colours of Our Community
Students will collaborate with local artists Ruth Hitchens and Hira Salman to celebrate their diverse local community. Using mixed media such as ceramics and collage, the group will design and create an artwork, culminating in a presentation of the installation at school and for the community event ‘Fawkner Festa’.
Fish Creek & District Primary School, FISH CREEK, $10,000
A Village Of Converging Paths - UV Detective Hunt
Creative partner Lucy Parkinson will lead students on a playful adventure, creating a detective hunt for visitors to the local ‘Fishy Stories’ Children’s Literature Festival. Students will explore semiotic systems and multilingual literacy through creative art and play, to create an alphabet of symbols that will form the clues to be decoded on the hunt.
Jeparit Primary School, JEPARIT, $35,000
Augmenting Jeparit
Students will join forces with Pink Lake Creative to augment the reality of life in their small rural community of Jeparit in new, exciting ways as they explore the concept of belonging. Students will use augmented reality, screen and print media to engage with and showcase intangible values and dimensions of place.
Keilor Downs Secondary College, KEILOR DOWNS, $10,000
Our Voices
Published author Dee White will guide students through the creative process of a professional writer to create an anthology of works that reflect their unique voices and situations. Students will tell their stories in their own way utilising historical fiction, memoir, prose, poetry, narrative, or visual/graphic storytelling.
Keysborough Primary School, KEYSBOROUGH, $10,000
Immersive Cultural Stories
Using virtual reality (VR) and multi-media, students will work with creative partner Jeremy Kalbstein to design three dimensional worlds to tell traditional Vietnamese and Cambodian stories. Students will trial different ways of storytelling in VR to design their own works that will be shared with the wider school community.
Narrawong District Primary School, NARRAWONG, $35,000
Exploration of Ecology in Clay
Through the use of clay and 3D printing students will explore local ecology and biodiversity within the Narrawong and Glenelg Shire areas, particularly endangered habitats of local species, Red and Yellow Tailed Black Cockatoos and the Southern Bent Wing Bat. This project with creative partners from The Clay Collective will empower students to use creative processes whilst exploring biodiversity issues.
Numurkah Secondary College, NUMURKAH, $35,000
Dunguludja-Dana Partnership with NSC
This partnership with Dunguludja-Dana Aboriginal Youth Group aims to guide First Nations students in cultural explorations that will forge deeper connections to place, Country and community. Exploring culturally significant Indigenous art-making practices and the role they continue to play in their culture, the project culminates with students sharing their works with the whole school community.
Pakenham Secondary College, PAKENHAM, $10,000
Collaborative Critters
Creative partner Tara Kingston will mentor students through a studio-based process of exploration, development and design of Claymation ‘critters’ in the creation of stop motion film. The project aims to ignite discussion between year 7 and year 9/10 students as they collaborate to create characters, storyboards, set designs, animatations and then promote a community film screening.
Portland Primary School, PORTLAND, $10,000
Creating an Upwelling
Francis van der Mark will guide students to create artworks inspired by the Bonney Upwelling, a natural phenomenon occurring in the Southern Ocean and local marine park. Exploring design and construction practices, students will create three-dimensional works depicting ocean movement and creatures, culminating in a community presentation and installation at ‘The Upwelling Festival’.
Port Phillip Specialist School, PORT MELBOURNE, $35,000
The Expedition
An inclusive art project that uses sound, visuals and storytelling to map the lives of young people at Port Phillip Specialist School. Working with professional theatre makers from Rawcus Theatre Company, students will capture and create real and imagined journeys, paying close attention to their senses and the world around them, culminating in a mixed-media live performance.
Preston North East Primary School, PRESTON, $10,000
My Journey
Published author Nova Wheatman will work with students on a creative writing project to craft and publish a personal narrative about a significant journey to explore personal growth and identity. A community book launch will celebrate the writing process, student voice and creativity.
Templestowe College, TEMPLESTOWE LOWER, $10,000
Self and Symbols
Working with painter and mixed media artist Nusra Qureshi students will examine representations of self through personal stories of place and belonging, celebrations of neurodiversity, and pro-active mental health. Through creative practices of South Asian miniature painting and collage, students will create personal works expressing their sense of self.
Thomastown Meadows Primary School, THOMASTOWN, $10,000
Celebrating Our Place
Creative partner Hayden Dewar will work with students to create a large-scale street art mural highlighting flora and fauna of the local area, creating a sense of pride and community. Students will consider professional practices in research and design, aesthetic choices, manipulating materials and techniques and expressing of ideas through this collaborative project.
Winters Flat Primary School, CASTLEMAINE, $10,000
Creature Ways
Creative partner Lz Dunn will collaborate with students on a dance and experimental performance project around ‘movement ecology’, the study of how organisms move within ecosystems. Students will explore why movement matters by activating their senses, bodies and imaginations and traversing their school habitat with creaturely perspectives.
2023 recipients
Carraragarmungee Primary School, LONDRIGAN, $10,000
Wild Gold
Students will explore their connection to the natural world and local environments, Mt Pilot National Park and neighbouring town, Eldorado (meaning City of Gold). Students and staff will work with creative Craig Dent, to consider the birth of gold in the cosmos, research its story in our history and its natural place in waterways and wilderness, sharing their findings and impressions through written expression and digital art.
Castlemaine Secondary College, CASTLEMAINE, $10,000
Nature Morte: Life, Time and Mortality in Photography
Students will work with creative Tara Gilbee to examine extinction, time and change through still life photography. Utilising analogue photography and handmade pinhole cameras, personal, meaningful possessions will become the subject of works that convey students’ own ideas about precarity, being human or even immortal.
Coburg Special Developmental School, COBURG, $35,000
Bloom
Polyglot Theatre and students will create a project celebrating belonging and growing. Bloom will involve co-creating and activating an installation-style takeover of the school, which is moving campus in 2024. The project will see students, teachers, support staff and parents celebrate and say farewell.
Collingwood College, COLLINGWOOD, $35,000
Collingwood Threads
This project with the Centre for Projection Art will also invite participation from First Peoples photographer James Henry, as students learn about the history of their local area. The project aims to increase students’ literacy in photographic, projection art and animation mediums to tell a visual story, culminating in a projection piece to be presented at the Gertrude Street Projection Festival.
Flying Fruit Fly Circus School, WEST WODONGA, $10,000
Little Fruit
Singer/Songwriter Sarah Ward will work with Years 3-5 students to learn about the art of song writing. Students will write and arrange their own songs before rehearsing to perform in a special concert performance for the school and community.
Kensington Primary School, KENSINGTON, $10,000
School Values Mural
Creative Angharad Neal-Williams will work in collaboration with Year 5 and 6 students on a project that unpacks communication through visual imagery and the journey from concept to creation. The project aims to encourage student voice and school pride as students design, plan and implement the painting of a mural that celebrates the school values of Respect, Responsibility, Resilience, Learning and Creativity.
Lorne P-12 College, LORNE, $10,000
Barracouta Sea Country
Creative Peter Day will work with students and community on an 'arts meets ecology' project that investigates the story of the declining Great Ocean Road Barracouta species and the local fishing culture and history. Spoken word, sculpture making, visual documentation and land art will be utilised in this project-based learning experience.
Merri River School, WARRNAMBOOL, $10,000
Memory Place – About Us
Creative Michelle Shearer will work with students to explore their social and emotional connections to their school and celebrate the shared experiences of the school community. A permanent outdoor sculptural installation will form a living time capsule, dotted with programmable QR codes linking the physical space in the school grounds to the virtual memories of the school.
Monterey Secondary College, FRANKSTON NORTH, $10,000
REMIX Tech
REMIX stands for Record, Engage, Make, Ignite, XhibiT. In this STEAM based project, students will work with lead creative Susannah Langley and supporting artist Warren Armstrong, to design and create projects using technology such as film and video, VR, Minecraft and coding, electronic music production and design technology, culminating in a virtual and physical space exhibition showcase.
Mount Clear Primary School, MOUNT CLEAR. $10,000
Be the Change You Want to See
Anzara Clark will work with students to interpret the theme ‘Be the Change You Want to See’. Students working collectively in groups will create a full garment, including headwear and footwear, out of reclaimed and re-purposed materials to be presented in a fashion parade and a curated exhibition of the creative process.
Nepean School, SEAFORD, $10,000
Accessible Music Technology
Alon Ilsar (of Monash University's SensiLab) will work closely with students and staff from Nepean School to create accessible and innovative music technology experiences. Students will be involved as co-creators of the project and will get to choose their own outcomes, such as a performance or video recordings.
Ringwood Heights Primary School, RINGWOOD, $10,000
Metamorphosis
An exploration of self-identity, belonging, transition and change as the students prepare for adolescence and life beyond primary school. Nancy Black of Black Hole Theatre will guide students through their journey of discovery.
St Mary's Parish School, COLAC, $35,000
Old Light, New Lens
Barking Spider Creative will collaborate with Year 5 students and staff of St Mary's Colac on an exploration of 19th-century 'magic lanterns'. Marrying scientific and artistic experimentation, they will deep-dive into the origins of contemporary animation and film, to create a climate-centric, hybrid theatre and moving image work.
Shepparton English Language Centre, SHEPPARTON, $10,000
Storytelling through Animation
This project sees the school's students, who are all newly arrived in Australia and bringing with them many languages, exploring communication when we don't yet have the words. Cath Murphy from Pollyanna Films will utilise diagram-based graphics and editing programs to assist with literacy learning and support students to make short, animated films of universal expression.
Sunshine Heights Primary School, SUNSHINE, $35,000
Be YOU
A multidisciplinary hip hop project exploring the themes of belonging, identity and diversity through the creation of original songs, recordings, video and live performance. The project is a collaboration between students, ‘Inkrewsive’, a Melbourne-based hip-hop crew of artists who experience disability, and Wild at Heart Community Arts.
Tawonga Primary School, TAWONGA, $10,000
Ceramic Totem Poles
Mixed media artist Pinky Wittingslow will work with students to explore sustainability and foster an appreciation of the importance of working together as a community to create a sustainable future. Ceramic works installed on poles in the school grounds will represent a significant place of gathering and belonging to the students.
Thornbury Primary School, THORNBURY, $35,000
Teach Blak History
Teachers and students will work alongside Adjadura Art, with lead creatives Daen Sansbury-Smith, a Narungga, Kaurna and Trawoolwaway multimedia arts producer, and animator Isobell Knowles, to explore visual and digital art practices to represent local historical evidence and stories of the impact of first contact on the local community.
Woodline Primary School, CERES, $10,000
Our First Scientists
Wadawurrung woman Nikki McKenzie and Kurnai and Wotjobaluk man Norm Stanley, will work with students to deepen their understanding of First Nation people as our first scientists. They will engage in storytelling and art making inspired by traditional knowledge of seasons, astronomy, native flora and fauna and caring for the land.
Yarra Hills Secondary College, MOUNT EVELYN, $10,000
Indigenous Garden / Meeting Place
Wurundjeri and Yorta-Yorta creative, Simone Thomson, will work with students to design and create an inclusive indigenous garden and meeting place using artwork and native planting. The project aims to create a place of connection in the heart of the school.
2022 recipients
Belmont High School, BELMONT, $10,000
Country
Students will work with local Wadawurrung artist Billy Jay O’Toole and Wadawurrung First Peoples to learn about the meaning of Country, through studying Djilang's (Geelong) history, landscapes and heritage. Students will create murals and an illustrated book, and the local community will be invited to an event.
Abbotsford Primary School, ABBOTSFORD, $10,000
The Abbotsford DNA through Time
Creative professional, independent director and producer Ching Ching Ho works with students to explore storytelling using writing, acting, voice work, movement and puppetry. Integrated images, objects, sound, singing and music will form part of the bilingual (Mandarin and English) performance. This project aims to cultivate positive intercultural curiosity, awareness and understanding of students’ living and school environments.
Loreto College, BALLARAT, $10,000
Metamorphosis
Year 8 students work with actor and television producer Marko Jovanovic on a social and performance confidence project. The project aims to support students’ transition from home learning ‘cocoons’ into social creatives by reflecting on what they have learned about themselves during a time of isolation and drawing upon it to deepen their collective understanding. Students will develop interpersonal skills and creative risk taking through collaborative brainstorming and improvisation, culminating in a performance that showcases their journey.
Coburg Primary School, COBURG, $10,000
Compost Kids
Students work with creative producers Mala and Glenn to explore the cycle of life, death, decay and re-birth through compost. Mala and Glenn will expand the students’ knowledge of the school garden through interactive visual art, design, building and costume making, with the project culminating in a compost costume parade and dance party for the school community.
Bellbrae Primary School, BELLBRAE, $10,000
An Exploration of Ecological Identity
Students and teachers will be guided by artist Geoffrey Carran to observe and explore local bushland, fauna and art, and to respond through drawing, painting, collage and photography. Students will exhibit their artworks at the Bellbrae student expo. The project forms part of a deeper school conversation about re-connection to community through stories of place.
Melton Secondary College (CaLM Campus), MELTON, $35,000
Circus PLUS!
Students work with creative organisation Dream Big Circus Inc. to explore belonging, celebration and identity by combining circus, music, dance, video, projection, photography and street art. The project aims to encourage students to find their own niche and develop a love of creative self-expression while improving their literacy skills. The project finale will be an exhibition, screening and performance event.
Little Bendigo Primary School, NERRINA, $10,000
Song writing and Recording
Students from Prep to Grade 6 collaborate with professional musician, songwriter and educator Dr Amie Sexton to write and record songs. Students will develop musical and literacy knowledge as musical storytellers, while learning skills in creating, editing, recording and performing. Recordings will be published on the school website.
Newhaven Primary School, NEWHAVEN, $35,000
We are Home
Years 5 and 6 students undertake ‘deep mapping’ of the local community with creative organisation Kids Thrive and its creative team of photographers and visual, sound and performance artists. Students will explore their emotional, physical and cultural relationship to place and environment, rekindling their sense of connection, belonging and emotional wellbeing. Using senses, memory and imagination, students will develop visual, aural and performative ‘maps’ of belonging.
Niddrie Autistic School, NIDDRIE, $10,000
“I Feel”
Students work alongside professional actor, theatre maker and teaching artist, Briony Farrell. Through collaborative drawing, storytelling tasks, drama games and sensory play experiences, students will discover various ways of transforming the internal world of their emotions into colour, shape, movement, sound, language and character. The project culminates in a performance for family and caregivers.
Tambo Upper Primary School, TAMBO UPPER, $10,000
Wall of Hope
Tambo Upper Primary School is located in an area subjected to both the Black Summer bushfires and floods. For their project, students will work with artist Simon White to explore art and creativity with a focus on hope and overcoming adversity. Students will be asked to reflect on what their school community has meant to them during difficult times, and their ideas will be represented in a mural. The school will host a community event to celebrate the artwork.
Bendigo South East Secondary College, FLORA HILL $35,000
Discovering Germany in Bendigo
Students and teachers work with creative organisation The Story Players to explore the history of German immigrants in Bendigo. German residents connected to the region will be invited to share their stories which will inform the development of a German language theatre performance. The project aims to boost confidence and skills of students learning German by integrating drama and storytelling with language.
Belvoir Wodonga Special Developmental School, WODONGA, $35,000
A Land of Snow and Ice
Students work with creative organisation Hothouse Theatre to explore wildlife of the Arctic, the Svalbard Global Seed Bank program and the impacts of climate change through immersive and sensory theatre. Students will learn about effective action for sustainability as they collect and use recycled materials throughout the project, to create an immersive theatre set for a performance for school peers.
Wodonga Senior Secondary College – Shepparton Flexible Learning Centre, SHEPPARTON, $10,000
Dare to Animate
Students work with creative Annette Walton-Guerin to explore ways that animation and film can be used to share stories about identity and belonging. The project aims to give students a sense of agency, while improving their oral, visual, text-based and ICT literacy. Student animations will be showcased at a celebratory event at the school.
Horsham College, HORSHAM, $10,000
Sculpture with Donel Molloy-Drum
Year 7 to 10 students work with artist Donel Molloy-Drum to create sculptures, drawing inspiration from the local landscape as well as their local gallery and Donel Molloy-Drum’s workshop. Students will be challenged to explore how cardboard and paper can be manipulated into sculptural forms before co-designing works for an exhibition themed around “permanence and impermanence”. A group of students will progress to collectively consider a permanent work of wood and metal.
St Peters School, LONG GULLY, $10,000
Digital Storytelling
Students explore aspects of their own identity, backgrounds and cultural values, and how they are connected as a school and wider community. Under the guidance of creative partner, Vern Hardie of The Connected Circus, students will investigate how light, movement, sound and colour express emotions and tell meaningful narratives to create a digital artefact using a range of technologies, including film making, photography and podcasting to be presented as audio-visual exhibition for the school community.
Hampton Park Secondary College, HAMPTON PARK, $10,000
Heartbeat Rhythms
Students work with ensemble and recording musician Djulz Jade Chambers on a music and wellbeing project. This project draws together deep listening practices, immersion in nature, movement and drumming practices to explore the unity we share with the natural world and each other. Learnings will be showcased through a performance for the wider school community.
Broadmeadows Special Developmental School, BROADMEADOWS, $10,000
Home
Students work with creative professional, Natalie Estay Valenzuela to explore culture, identity, place, home and tradition, with the aim of celebrating the school community and its diversity. The project will question the concept of ‘home’ and its meaning to students, through textile design, painting and screen printing and culminates in an exhibition of their discoveries.
Warrnambool College (WAVE Campus), WARRNAMBOOL, $35,000
Ride the Creative WAVE
Students partner with local creative organisation One Day Studios to explore storytelling. Students will focus on traditional and digital literacy through writing and communicating their ideas using technology. Students will also develop skills in game design and digital platforms. The project aims to provide career pathway skills and learning in creative technologies.
Cairnlea Park Primary School, CAIRNLEA, $10,000
Big Words
Students work with multi-media environmental artist Joanne Mott to investigate the power of words. Utilising a range of sculpture techniques and mediums, students will make site-based artworks across the school grounds to test whether the meanings and materiality of sculpted words can inspire positive thoughts, help us feel, or change someone’s mindset. Through a collaborative process of delving into the power of words, students will become agents of positive change for both themselves and others.
2021 recipients
Gowrie Street Primary School, Shepparton, $35,000
A dual-residency exchange will see students become 'artists in residence' at the Australian Centre for Contemporary Art (ACCA), and ACCA educators and artists setting up camp at the school. Students will consider the question, “What is public space and what role can they, as artists, play in it?” ACCA’s exhibition Who’s Afraid of Public Space? will kickstart a series of artist-led workshops, city-adventure excursions and exhibitions of the students’ artworks at both at ACCA and within their local community.
Glenroy Secondary College, Glenroy, $31,885
Students will join forces with Western Edge Youth Arts to transform a short story into a short film. They will explore creative practices, including performance, acting, cinematography, movement and production design, and use these to enhance ideas and stories told through text. They will establish student-led production teams to produce their short films.
Seymour Flexible Learning Centre, Seymour, $35,000
Students will be mentored in a visual arts project by street art organisation 90 Degrees Creative to explore ways that public art can communicate a sense of place and enable pride of place. Students will work with the creative crew on the creation of street art collaborations.
Sacred Heart Primary School, Fitzroy, $35,000
Students will work with creative organisation Storyscape to explore identity, asking “How do culture, family and experiences all shape identity?” Together they will use creative writing, song writing, narrative therapy processes, digital storytelling, participatory video, photography and theatre making to build skills and present a community performance.
Wonthaggi North Primary School, Wonthaggi, $10,000
Students will join with creative duo Lucy Parkinson and Gonzalo Varela to explore ancient ecosystems as well as changes in their local ecology and in their own lives. Using fieldwork and fossils as inspiration, students will create interactive, moving theatrical scenery and a large-scale puppet based on the Cape Patterson Claw to tell their stories.
Beeac Primary School, Beeac, $10,000
Students will team up with creative professional Penelope Bartlau to tell digital stories of their environment in a geography-based research and performance project. Geo-location technology will be utilised by students to learn about the land and develop tales of their country. Students will learn performance and production skills, including live storytelling and puppetry, to share their discoveries in a performance for their local community.
Mount Pleasant Primary School, Mount Pleasant, $10,000
A partnership between students and creative professional Mairin Briody will explore the question “what is my impact?” as they contribute to a wishing well installation. Students will learn about composition, form and colour theory while examining themes of self-esteem and respect. The project will culminate in a collaborative mural.
Ararat Secondary College, Ararat, $10,000
Ararat Schools Resilient Art program sees Ararat Secondary College take the lead in a community partnership between a cluster of small, local schools in the Ararat region and visual artist Alyshia McInnes. Together they will explore themes of gratitude and happiness, developing resilience, community connections and wellbeing. The project will culminate in an interconnected art installation for the local region.
East Preston Islamic College, East Preston, $10,000
Taking inspiration from both Islamic and Australian art, students will explore their understanding of self through text and visual art. Working with writer Alice Pung, they will learn creative writing techniques and generate their own writings and artworks. Their project will culminate in the publication of the students’ work.
Tempy Primary School, Tempy, $10,000
Directing and composing a documentary set in the Mallee region, students will be guided by theatre-maker, playwright, director, composer Anthony Crowley. Students will use the metaphor of a wheat harvest to explore the theme of ‘emergence’ utilising their new skills in music, soundscape, art, video, story and poetry.
Yea Primary School, Yea, $10,000
Students will work with creative professional Jens Altheimer to explore the theme of ‘connectedness’ by examining relationships with family, friends, society, place, nature and the world. They will experiment with different artistic disciplines, including video, theatre, movement, shadow puppetry, painting and sound. The project will culminate with an event that brings together video projection and live performance, presented to their local community.
Fitzroy Primary School, Fitzroy, $10,000
Students will work with professional podcaster Oscar Jolly to develop the skills required to create their own podcasts. The project will explore the student’s understanding of the world around them, their place in it and how to express their thoughts and feelings to an audience.
Outdoor School - Bogong Campus, Bogong, $10,000
Working with author Craig Dent, students will imagine and create their visions of the future wilderness in the Bogong High Plains and Village areas in the year 2040. Inspired by global research, students will be engaged through creative writing and visual arts. The students’ writing will be brought to life through 3D virtual rendering of their imaginings of the future.
Nullawarre and District Primary School, Nullawarre, $10,000
Working with visual artists Taree Mackenzie and Danielle O'Brien, students will research ways of communicating identity through text and representational forms. Students will learn ways to articulate themselves and make connections through colour, light and shape.