The Northern Tasmania Arts Organisations Initiative 2020-21

The peers commended organisations in Northern Tasmania for developing strong and interesting project proposals despite the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, particularly in the North West of Tasmania. They noted that applications were overall of a high quality and well written. The peers commended applicants for their resilience and their commitment to being adaptive in challenging times.

The peers provided the following feedback for current and future applicants:

• All applicants (whether new or experienced) were strongly encouraged to contact Arts Tasmania to make sure applications were in line with program guidelines.
• The peers encouraged applicants to read application forms and eligibility guidelines carefully, as a number of applications to this round included ineligible expenses in the budget such as the purchase of equipment.
• Applications that were written in plain English and avoided unnecessary art form specific language or jargon were more likely to be supported by the peers.
• The peers expressed support for applications with clear and detailed budgets.
• The peers encouraged applicants to make sure that applications included the voice of participants and demonstrated a need or demand from local artists, audiences or the broader community.
• Applicants were encouraged to make sure that the application was consistent with the information included in the supporting documents.
• The peers strongly encouraged applicants to consider including support material that demonstrated how they would work with vulnerable communities or evidence of consultation with the Tasmanian Aboriginal community if relevant to the activity.
• The peers reminded applicants that applications were assessed by a multi-art form panel of both local and interstate peers, and encouraged them to include information about the organisation’s role in the arts ecology and the relevance of the activity to the local area.
• Stronger applications showed deep engagement or wide reach, and included clear evidence of who would benefit from the activity.
• The peers recommended that support material be recent and relevant to the proposed project.

Arts Tasmania carefully manages actual and perceived conflicts of interest for both staff members and peers involved in the assessment process.

More information on the management of conflicts of interest.