September 24 2025
By The Ian Potter Foundation
This month, the Foundation awarded $7.2 million in grants across its Arts, Early Childhood Development and Medical Research program areas.
In Early Childhood Development, $3,959,000 across five grants, and nine Medical Research grants totalling $1.368.863 were also awarded.
In the Arts, $1,910,365 was awarded to seven arts organisations, including funding to The Ian Potter Cultural Trust to support 45 emerging artists’ grants.
Read more about some of these grants below.
The State Library of Queensland (SLQ) has a trusted and enduring partnership with all 77 local governments across Queensland, encompassing 325 public libraries and Indigenous Knowledge Centres. Through this extensive network, SLQ has delivered the Queensland Government First 5 Forever (FFF) initiative over the past decade, providing free, universal early literacy support for children aged 0–5 and their families through activities that promote talking, reading, singing, and playing together.
This grant supports the implementation of Serve-Return-Rally-Learn (SRRL), a large-scale, evidence-informed early childhood development initiative led by the SLQ in partnership with the Thriving Queensland Kids Partnership (TQKP) and the Queensland Brain Institute (QBI), among other local and national partners. SRRL is designed to empower families and communities as language champions by embedding neuroscience-based messages into everyday interactions with children.
‘Serve and return’ is a foundational principle in early childhood development where a child ‘serves’ through babbling, facial expressions, or gestures, and an adult ‘returns’ by responding in a supportive and engaging way. This back-and-forth interaction is critical for brain development and language acquisition.
SRRL builds on and connects with other oral language, brain-building, and place-based initiatives being developed across Queensland, and aligns with international best practice, such as the Clinton Talking is Teaching initiative. It also complements The Ian Potter Foundation’s current support for QBI’s Thriving Kids, Active Brains program, which focused on training the early years workforce.
The deeply local project model is designed for broad uptake and sustainability and will extend the reach of Queensland’s well-supported and trusted FFF program into broader community settings. It will give parents and carers the tools and confidence to have more positive, responsive, and enriching interactions with their children.
Dadfit Community Ltd (Dadfit) is a Victorian-based charity supporting dads to be healthy, hands-on fathers who enable positive health, learning and development outcomes for children aged 0-8.
This grant builds on the Foundation's previous seed funding ($55,000) provided to Dadfit in its startup phase in 2023. Since then, Dadfit has demonstrated impressive growth in reach, governance, and partnerships. They have improved and expanded their program model, strengthened their ongoing peer support programs, expanded from 6 to 12 locations across Melbourne, and developed new partnerships with community and philanthropic partners. An independent evaluation conducted by Drummond Street Services Centre for Family Research and Evaluation (CFRE) showed the program to have positive impacts on fathers' mental health, father-child relationships, and partner relationships.
Dadfit’s unique appeal is combining physical fitness and ‘dad fitness’ in a fun, team environment. This light touch and accessible approach make Dadfit’s model innovative and appealing to diverse groups who may be hesitant to sign up for more traditional and or targeted parenting programs. Their community partnerships and train-the-trainer model are purposefully designed to embed the program at a local level.
A further four years of funding from the Foundation will strengthen Dadfit’s organisational capacity, enabling sustainable scale-up and the integration of father-inclusive practice across Australia's early years systems. This capacity-building funding will directly support the delivery of Dadfit's Strategic Plan, which aims to expand its innovative and preventative model to reach more fathers and communities over the next five years, improving early childhood development outcomes and fostering healthy, safe, and gender-equal families.
SEED Futures is an Australian advocacy organisation that works to relieve entrenched disadvantage by reforming and improving the delivery of services, particularly for families and children during the first 1000 days of life. The organisation brings together families, governments, philanthropy, service providers and communities to create primary, preventative solutions that address systemic failures and ensure all families can flourish.
The current service landscape is fragmented and difficult to navigate, creating barriers for those most at risk and reinforcing cycles of intergenerational disadvantage. There is a need for improved and better-integrated primary prevention supports. SEED Future's aim is to shift Australia's service system from a reactive to a proactive approach, meeting the needs of families early before disadvantage takes hold.
This capacity-building grant will support SEED Futures to build national momentum for improving how policies and services support families, especially during the critical first 1000 days of a child's life.
Founded by CEO Bernadette Black, SEED Futures was born out of the work of the Brave Foundation and marks a strategic shift from direct support to young parents and families to systemic reform anchored in prevention, collaboration, and community leadership. In the short time it has been operating, SEED Futures has already attracted strong support and buy-in from multiple stakeholders across sectors and governments, including over 2,465 hours of in-kind contributions from 126 stakeholders.
Over the next three years, SEED will gather real stories and data from families and communities across three pilot sites starting in Kingborough, Tasmania. Through workshops, consultations, and partnerships, SEED will share these insights widely and translate them into practical policy recommendations, creating a National Primary Preventive Framework and an Incremental Reform Catalogue. The goal is to connect community voices with decision-makers, influence reform, and position Australia as a global leader in primary prevention.
Research shows that when people who use services are involved in shaping policies and programs, the results are more effective and have a greater impact. Change doesn't always need to be disruptive—it starts with listening, learning, and acting on what families and communities already know works (and what doesn't).
SEED Futures' work aligns well with the Foundation's funding principles and the objectives of this particular grant round, which sought to improve systems and social services for Australia's most marginalised parents so that they can better support their children's learning and well-being.
SEED Futures is jointly funded by the Tasmanian State Government, Paul Ramsay Foundation and Equity Trustees.
Tjanpi Desert Weavers - the social enterprise of the Ngaanyatjarra Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara Women's Council Aboriginal Corporation - stands at a timely juncture as it celebrates 30 years in 2025. Tjanpi Desert Weavers (Tjanpi) is the sole provider of support to fibre artists across the central and western deserts of Australia.
Tjanpi create artworks that respond to big ideas through the lens of Anangu/Yarnangu culture and country. This is achieved through remote-based creative and technical skills development workshops, commissions from public institutions and collaborative partnerships with other arts organisations. Increasingly, the organisation is exhibiting overseas, such as the Seven Sisters international touring exhibition. Unfortunately, senior artists are passing away or have become too unwell to practice their craft, generate artworks at a higher level or travel to participate in public programs.
To address this, Tjanpi proposed a three-year program (2026-2028) to develop a new generation of artists under 40 years old through creative and skills development in the community. Senior women who can no longer practice will be enlisted to support this process in the workshop context. New, younger women will be encouraged to create retail works, and new artists who demonstrate proficiency in retail work will be encouraged to further their skills and move into emerging artist categories, and emerging artists will be encouraged to take on more senior leadership roles in their arts practice. With this grant, Tjanpi will ensure the preservation of indigenous artistic skills and cultural heritage through a form of succession planning, creating new employment where there are limited opportunities and building the capacity to keep producing highly regarded art through both commissions and sales
Tjanpi is an award-winning social enterprise with a long track record of artistic excellence and innovation in fibre art practice within the Australian and international arts landscape. Tjanpi artworks are held in public collections around Australia and increasingly overseas, including the National Museum of Australia, the National Gallery of Australia, the National Portrait Gallery, the Art Gallery of South Australia, the Museum of Contemporary Art, the Parliament House Collection, and the Foundation Pierre Arnaud in Switzerland.
Tjanpi has true international impact. Their work is acknowledged as luminous, imaginative, and an example of excellence. The importance of cultural activity in remote indigenous communities was also discussed for both cultural and economic benefits.
The Tech Connect Queensland (TCQ) program is an industry-led, hands-on vocational training initiative addressing a critical shortage of skills in performing arts production and technical fields across Australia. TCQ is a collaboration between QPAC, Stage Queensland (the peak body for performing arts centres in Queensland), and Arts Centre Melbourne (the Registered Training Organisation).
Operating through a ‘hub and spoke’ model, QPAC is the central training and support hub for regional venues. The program plays a vital role in addressing the national skills shortage in performing arts technical fields, especially as Queensland prepares for the 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Phase One of TCQ was a successful three-year pilot (2022–24) that graduated 24 trainees and upskilled 31 supervisors and seven assessors from QPAC and 15 regional Queensland venues. This grant supports Phase Two of the program, in which QPAC aims to diversify and reinforce support for regional participants, adding supplementary programs to boost applications from First Nations and diverse trainees (particularly neurodiverse applicants). The goal over three years is to train 49 young people as trainees and upskill 25 supervisors and 6 assessors.
By the end of Phase Two, QPAC aims to establish a fully qualified cohort of Senior Program Assessors based in Queensland. This will allow the entire training and assessment process to be delivered within Queensland, creating a sustainable, locally led model so trainers and assessors from Arts Centre Melbourne no longer need to travel to Queensland for program delivery or assessment.
Benalla Rural City Council, in collaboration with Benalla Art Gallery Foundation, is undertaking a two-stage project to upgrade and extend the Benalla Art Gallery. The new and improved gallery is due to be completed by late 2026. With double the footprint, the Gallery will be able to present blockbuster exhibitions, provide new community spaces, and increase its revenue stream from retail sales and venue hire.
This grant supports the appointment of an experienced Philanthropy Manager to drive community awareness, philanthropic giving and fundraising support.
The Gallery has been strongly supported by members of the local community, many of whom have been involved since it began 50 years ago.
The Australian Institute of Tropical Health and Medicine (AITHM)–a flagship research institution at James Cook University (JCU)–is Australia's only dedicated tropical health and medicine research institute. It aims to address critical challenges in the tropics, leading to improved health systems and healthcare delivery, enhanced biosecurity, and better health outcomes for Australians and neighbouring tropical nations.
The Cytek Aurora will significantly enhance JCU’s research capabilities and provide substantially improved functionality compared to the end-of-life equipment it is replacing. This advancement will improve the quality and accuracy of research across multiple disciplines.
The Cytek Aurora will also address a critical gap in the region. Currently, no equipment in Northern Australia offers the same functionality as the Cytek Aurora. To access equipment with this capability, researchers must travel to Brisbane, Sydney, Melbourne, or Perth. This travel excludes the analysis of live cells due to cell death during transport time, strongly limiting the applicability of data acquisition and analysis.
This is the first Medical Research grant the Foundation has awarded JCU.
Western Sydney University (WSU) operates as a single multi-campus university, including Bankstown, Blacktown, Campbelltown, Hawkesbury, Parramatta, and Penrith. The School of Medicine is located at the Campbelltown Campus, which is home to the University's medical students, academics, and researchers.
This grant supports the purchase of the TSE Systems PhenoMaster, a comprehensive, modular platform designed for the automated phenotyping of laboratory mice. It integrates metabolic, physiological, and behavioural assessments within a home cage environment, enabling continuous, high-definition data collection with minimal human intervention.
The PhenoMaster cage system will enable behavioural studies that require measuring food and fluid intake, which are currently hampered by inaccurate and labour-intensive experimental protocols. The instrument will increase research capacity and data quality while also improving animal welfare for a range of animal models of disease at WSU.
This is the second Medical Research grant the Foundation has awarded WSU.
The University of the Sunshine Coast (USC) is an emerging regional University with an emphasis on conducting research to address the health challenges facing regional and global communities.
The Andor BC43 CF confocal microscope and Echo Revolve brightfield and widefield fluorescence microscope equipment purchased with the aid of this grant will have cross-cutting applications, providing microscopy infrastructure to the School of Health, the Sunshine Coast Health Institute, the Thompson Institute, and the Centre for Bioinnovation. This will allow the researchers in these organisational units to conduct health and medical research that delivers real-world impact. Currently, researchers travel to Brisbane to use facilities that can generate publication-quality images.
Identified as a gap in USC's infrastructure, these two instruments complement each other, fulfilling different functions. The acquisition of both will have a big impact on this regional university and its research capacity.
This is the first Medical Research grant the Foundation has awarded USC.
All grants awarded can be viewed in the Grants Database.
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