Winners of the June 2025 Culture Bank funding round.

Celebrating the funding of creativity in the Illawarra !

Announcing the 5 successful grant applications from our recent July 7 2025 Decision Dinner –and a BIG congratulations to everyone!! Even to those who were unsuccessful we wish the very best . If we had more members – we could have funded them all. We think the following sounds like pretty good stuff.

LINDA by Sharon Lewis .Sharon Lewis will direct a short 30 minute film she has written that brings attention to the housing crisis & its effects on women over 50 .

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MISS TINKA by Angelina Maranasi This will be a children’s picture book which explores challenging emotions ,giving children a safe space to reflect on their feelings. We are local creatives whose core purpose is to inspire young people in our community to develop their imagination and experience first hand a project based on learning in the creative field of writing and art.

The Fig Tree by Raina Shelton A coming of age story .This short film is inspired by the Sylvia Plath poem the Fig Tree exploring choice, identity and connection.

Crescendo 2025 Artist Book Award and Exhibition The exhibition will showcase over 50 artists from across Wollongong, Australia, and the Asia Pacific region at Clifton School of Arts from 14 to 30 November 2025. Curated by recognised Wollongong-based book artists Liz Jeneid, Kathryn Orton, Judy Bourke and Lucia Parrella, Crescendo 2025 Artist Book Award will highlight the diversity of exciting ideas, formats and techniques encapsulated in this unique artform.

Spirals Film by Kari Hall Rooted in Kari Hill’s personal story of loss, Spirals film weaves grief, cultural identity, environmental memory, and the healing power of Country into a deeply poetic and grounded narrative. The story acknowledges the legacy of coal mining in the Illawarra, both as a source of identity and intergenerational trauma, and explores how the natural world holds wisdom that can help us reconnect with ourselves.

In 13 years we’ve given away over $100,000 to these and many more innovative projects, and we’re eager to do more! You can make that happen by joining us today or getting others to sign up! Some of the projects Culture Bank has made possible:

Northern Illawarra Residents Action, Aboriginal Tent Embassy Concert, Exposure Arts and Media,
Austinmer Dance Theatre, Night Eats Day, Wollongong Writers Festival, Solidarity Illawarra Aboriginal, Illawarra Folk Festival, Jobs for Women, South Coast Writers Centre Inc., Jam n Bread, Rentell Anne-Louise, Warrawong Residents Forum Inc, Jennifer Macey Podcast Producer Journal, Queer & Now, N.R, Ozolins & A.J Pike, Love: Art, Ideas, M & P, The Story Line Pty Ltd, Short + Sweet Illawarra, Exuberant Elders, Vaudevillawarra Illawarra, Screen Illawarra for a Festival of Film, Magic Mountains, “Where Did You Sleep Last Night?”, Iso-Liloquize, The Purple Turtle, The Sketchy Sisters, Tasmin Witkamp, Enough Said Poetry Slam, Dumadjirii Arts Mogo, Pecha Kucha/MAP, Tender Cloth Project, Lexicon Innovations, Notes From Home Podcast, Welcome to the A to Z of Wollongong Podcast, Fault/Lines
HONK! Oz Festival of Street Music (twice), A Mile in My Shoes, The OmniBus Poetry Project, Ali Jane Smith
Pride Tide, We Are Conjola, Where Lies Beauty Project, Fabled Feasts, Woman of Steel, All-Female Shakespeare, Misty Escarpment, Urban Biodiversity Illawarra, Elsie and the Bird, Parallel Lives, Never Heard of Them Anthology, A Practical Guide to Self-Defence,Jacuzzi Workshop, Cortex Journal, Le Femme Fatales, Strawberry Boogie, Stella Prize, Wombarra Sculpture Workshop, Studio 19, SPATE 13, Village Variety Revue, Wollongong Writers Festival (WWF), Film-based street installations/Joshua Wiffen, Mel Wishart attending HONK! (activist street music) festivals in Somerville, Boston,Yours and Owls Music, and Arts Festival & Local record label launch,Beyond Empathy: Gammin at the Knockout ,Oh My Goddess :Ali Jane Smith ,Dire Theatre Company: Radio Variety Hour , Circus WOW,True Story Festival ,Malika Reese “A Gentle Talk about Death for Little Ones” ,Pootopia ,Inspire Music Australia ,Susan Kennedy ,Real Made-Up Stories :Phillip Crawford ,Beats for the Blues .Rad Dad,Gia Web series,Sarah Nicholson Revolutionary Minds manuscript ,SAHSSI ,Breaking The Map, Spirals the Film , Linda ,The Fig Tree,Happy Birthday Miss Tinka.

What are the kinds of projects that Culture Bank members choose to support?

There have been many projects funded by Culture Bank, but we started with our first round in August 2013. After much lively discussion and debate, members opted to support art tours offered by Studio 19, SPATE 13, and a unique project curated by the Austinmer Dance Theatre.

Culture Bank is not a large entity. We have the resources and funds to support small grants, often supporting “seedling” projects – which grow and develop into bigger things. Most of the projects funded sit around the $2000 – $3000 mark (and obviously $$ $’s below). We like to spread our limited resources as far and wide as possible.