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.

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.