Scott Chaseling, artist-in-residence at the Canberra Glassworks with his work called " TV Dinner". Photo: Melissa Adams
The government will aim to attract leading Australian and international artists to the ACT through a new artists-in-residence plan.
Grants of $5000 or $10,000 will be available from a pool of $50,000 for educational institutions, government agencies and other organisations to help support residencies.
The Canberra Glassworks, which already has a strong residency program, is one institution that could potentially benefit from the funding, allocated in the 2011-12 budget and available from today.
Canberra Glassworks artist-in-residence Scott Chaseling said residencies were crucial in fostering an artists' development, by exposing them to new ideas, concepts, and methods.
Chaseling, who is putting the finishing touches on a spectacular piece named TV Dinner, said the funds would help the territory's emerging artists while also exposing the community to art in a deeper and more meaningful way.
''It's easy to become very isolated [as an artist], in a mode of stasis, you end up becoming very introverted,'' Chaseling said.
''Hopefully, with this grant money, it will be introducing people to amazing institutions, like [the Canberra Glassworks] and Megalo.''
The new funding is part of a new artist-in-residence policy issued by the government after a review of the territory's arts sector last year.
Arts Minister Joy Burch said the policy aligned existing residency programs and would help to support new artists-in-residency programs in the ACT.
''What it does is attract national and international artists for them to work in a different environment, but it's also the ripple effect across to our own local and emerging artists as well,'' she said.
The grants were an ''immediate and tangible'' part of the new artists-in-residence policy.
Incorporated organisations, educational institutions and government agencies can apply for the grants until June 8.
