April 14 2025
By The Ian Potter Foundation
In March, the Foundation awarded $7.5 million across four major grants to:
Further details on these grants can be found below.
We are also pleased to now announce a $5 million major grant to the Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM) towards its capital fundraising campaign to create a permanent home at the former South Melbourne Town Hall. The reimagined home will be a welcoming space accessible to all, creating a place where young artists are supported personally and professionally. The facility will be renovated to meet ANAM’s specific operational and training needs, enabling it to continue providing a pipeline of talent to Australia’s orchestras and ensembles, securing the vibrancy of the Australian music sector for decades.
In the latest funding round, $302,022 was also allocated within the Arts program to The Ian Potter Cultural Trust for its latest round of Emerging Artist Grants.
Over the past 15 years, Bendigo Art Gallery has established relationships with leading global art institutions and cemented its reputation for presenting innovative international exhibitions alongside a dynamic and varied suite of public programs and events.
In 2022, the Gallery curated its most visited exhibition to date, Elvis: Direct from Graceland., attracting over 220,000 visitors and generating $20 million in economic stimulus to the local economy. Normally, the gallery averages 170,000 visitors a year including over 6,000 students from across regional Victoria.
This grant supports the redevelopment of the Gallery's current premises in the heart of Bendigo. The planned works will better equip the Gallery to host international exhibitions and provide improved arts access for audiences, setting it on par with its national and international contemporaries.
The facades of the historic buildings where the Gallery was originally founded will be retained, and these spaces will continue to display the Gallery's collection. A new first-floor gallery space will host large-scale ticketed exhibitions. The addition of a new Learning Centre, including an education studio, a children's gallery and a multi-purpose theatre space, will better accommodate schools and the community.
The Ian Potter Foundation has supported Tomorrow Today Foundation’s Education Benalla Program since 2010. The Education Benalla program now comprises over twenty distinct programs/activities that cover the lifespan of participants, from pre-birth to transition onto employment. Across its programs, Education Benalla now reaches over 80% of all families and children born in Benalla.
This multi-year grant will provide core funding to enable Education Benalla to sustain and improve the outcomes of the last fifteen years. This funding will contribute to building the organisation's financial sustainability and increase national awareness of the Education Benalla approach and the lessons it has learned as one of the most successful place-based programs in Australia.
A recognised leader in community-led place-based change, the Education Benalla team will provide a vibrant learning environment to attract visiting experts, researchers, and community leaders to come and exchange understandings about excellence in practice – facilitating elements of the successful Education Benalla program to be applied in other communities.
Learn more about Education Benalla
The Karrkad Kanjdji Trust (KKT) acts as a bridge between philanthropy and First Nations community-controlled partners in the Northern Territory. KKT currently work with 8 partner organisations in Arnhem Land to support the revitalisation of culture and the conservation of over 50,000 square kilometres of land and sea Country.
In 2018, the Foundation awarded $1.77 million over five years to KKT for the Warddeken Indigenous Rangers program to survey rock art (Bim in the local language) sites and record the Bim in a database. The program captured photographs, measurements, associated stories, and cultural knowledge on more than 4,300 Bim to preserve and enable the sharing of knowledge and culture. The project also generated over 9,000 hours of employment for over 100 rangers each year.
The Foundation has awarded a further $1.5 million to continue and expand this successful project over the next five years. This funding will enable the completion of planned Bim surveys, expand the Bim project to new Indigenous Protected Areas (outside of Warddeken IPA), and increase training and employment opportunities for Indigenous rangers. This expansion will also increase collaboration and knowledge-sharing of the Bim project methodology with other ranger groups and research and conservation partners.
Learn more about the Warddeken Indigenous Rangers program
Logan Together is a transformative, whole-of-community place-based initiative that uses a collective impact approach to improve the lives of Logan’s children aged 0 to 8. The City of Logan, situated between Brisbane and the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia, comprises 72 suburbs and is divided into 12 local council divisions. Like the Education Benalla program (see above), Logan Together is a mature-stage place-based initiative that has been operating for 10 years and has produced measurable impact for the region.
The First 2000 (F2000) Days initiative is a partnership between Logan Together and the Brisbane South Primary Health Network that seeks to establish an equitable, accessible and culturally relevant early childhood system in Logan communities for families and children aged 0-5 years. The model has been developed following two years of community consultation and is is informed by the Restacking the Odds framework (developed by Murdoch Children’s Research Institute).
Many families reported that their early childhood journey in Logan was complex, confusing, and at times, invisible to the very families and children it was designed to support. Policy gaps, recruitment challenges, skill shortages, and resourcing flows had contributed to a fragmented system, often making services unknown to or unsuitable for community members. The F2000 Days model brings together a set of five initiatives:
These initiatives, alongside enablers such as workforce development, community and school hubs, community connectors, collective impact and cultural development, are designed to ensure Logan’s children develop well and thrive in life.
F2000 Days was initially implemented in Eagleby, Queensland. Logan Together is now scaling the model into four additional communities: Logan Central, Yarrabilba, Berrinba, and the Logan Pasifika community.
Learn more about Logan Together
All grants awarded can be viewed in the Grants Database.
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We acknowledge the Traditional Custodians of the land on which we work. We pay our respects to their Elders past and present.
