ASPIRING TO EXCELLENCE

Ten years before establishing his own philanthropic foundation, Sir Ian Potter became involved with the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust (AETT), an independent, not-for-profit organisation created to direct funds into the arts to provide support for individual artists. The AETT played a critical role in developing the Australian arts sector through the 1960s and 1970s, and was instrumental in establishing Australia’s leading arts companies such as The Australian Ballet and the Australian Opera, and orchestras to support these companies.

This interest in and philanthropic support for the arts sector and individual artists have also been hallmarks of The Ian Potter Foundation since its inception in 1964. Since then, the Foundation has awarded more than $100 million to over 350 arts organisations, large and small. For its first 25 years, grants awarded by the Foundation were small, averaging just over $8000 and were directed mainly to art galleries and building funds for venues. However, in 1990, the Foundation made a significant grant of $100,000 towards the establishment of Bell Shakespeare. This new theatre company aimed to reinvigorate the staging of Shakespeare’s works to engage students, young people, and regional audiences as well as traditional audiences. At the time, The Australian Ballet was the only performing arts company to have received a grant ($5000) from the Foundation, an early contribution to building new premises. The 1990 grant to Bell Shakespeare marked the beginning of The Ian Potter Foundation supporting leading artistic companies across theatre, dance, opera and music around Australia.

Today, the Foundation’s Governors remain committed to supporting Australia’s artistic institutions and organisations aspiring to excellence, whether metropolitan, regional, or remote. The aim is to strengthen the arts sector, fostering artistic achievement, innovation and sustainability for arts companies, individual artists and arts workers.

To this end, since 2016, the Board has sharpened its focus on professional development and leadership opportunities. Consequently, more recent grants support outstanding organisations in diverse fields, including design, performing arts, music, dance and visual arts and crafts. Funded projects all have in common excellent strategies for developing the next cohort of professional artists or arts workers, and contributing to their respective sectors beyond their own organisations. It is rewarding to see the level of collaboration and resource-sharing that these exemplar projects embody.

The Foundation’s arts grants have most recently supported professional development and leadership programs for dancers, theatre performers, directors, production staff, visual artists and craftspeople, critics and podcasters and contemporary and classical musicians.

Dancenorth Australia, based in Townsville, and Lucy Guerin Inc in Melbourne received grants towards programs to foster mentoring of dancers, choreographers and dance producers. The grants ranged between $100,000 and $250,000, providing a timely investment in the development of both companies, which seek to offer tangible development opportunities for Australian dancers.

Similarly, grants have been awarded to organisations in the visual arts sector, including Guildhouse, South Australia's hub for visual artists and craftspeople. In 2018, the Foundation awarded a $150,000 multi-year grant to support Catapult, its proven artist mentorship program, to ensure ongoing professional development mentorships for visual artists, craftspeople and designers.

Likewise, the Ballarat International Foto Biennale is capitalising on the many international photographers it attracts by creating a professional development program for curators, funded by a three-year, $125,000 grant from the Foundation. Finally, in the design space, Design Tasmania received $390,000 over three years towards an ambitious capacity-building project to nurture an innovative design ecosystem across Tasmania, a state which is rapidly gaining an international reputation as an arts destination.

Other creative areas such as literary criticism, podcasting and playwriting have also been supported with grants ranging from $100,000 to $400,000 to foster new writing talent and provide opportunities for new works to be fully developed. For example, a $400,000 grant over five years was awarded to Melbourne Theatre Company’s Playwright Development Initiative. The grant will help increase the quality and number of Australian plays produced, ensuring those works are of the highest quality and are ‘production-ready’ for opening night.

This initiative provides a much greater chance of new works going on to enjoy future productions and joining the Australian literary canon.

University of Western Sydney’s JUNCTURE program provides professional development for mid-career and established literary critics in Australia. The program is being supported with a $108,000 grant enabling The Sydney Review of Books to offer three year-long paid house critic positions for the duration of the grant.

The Wheeler Centre’s Signal Boost program is providing mentorships for up to 10 podcasters annually over three years and producing three series pilots. This intensive training program for individuals and community groups to help under-represented stories find and develop an audience received a grant of $324,000. The program will also provide further employment opportunities for established audio producers.

The Australian Art Orchestra music leadership mentoring and development program was granted $175,000 over five years to develop the next generation of arts leaders in music. The program offers five 12-month fellowships to emerging musicians to develop leadership skills and foster international networks and exchanges.

Training and skills development is also essential behind the scenes. In response to a chronic shortage of suitably qualified production crews, Arts Centre Melbourne provides technical traineeships to invest in the next generation of production leaders. A recent $300,000 grant from the Foundation is assisting the organisation to increase its capacity as a Registered Training Organisation for production staff.

It is not only through grants to organisations that the Foundation supports the development of individual artists. In 1993, the Foundation set up The Ian Potter Cultural Trust to directly award funds to individual artists, as its tax status meant that it could only distribute funds to organisations.

From its earliest days supporting the Australian Elizabethan Theatre Trust to the formation of The Ian Potter Cultural Trust, the Foundation has shown steadfast commitment to supporting Australian artists to develop, grow and attain excellence. The Foundation aims to continue this legacy of support for artists, performers, producers and arts companies, ensuring a vibrant culture for all Australians to enjoy and share.